Cyber Bullying

      Young people today are using the internet more than ever. They view the internet and even more so the mobile phones as positive aspects of our society. The internet and mobile phones systems are the two biggest systems of communication which play a crucial role in our daily activities and development of identities. On the other hand, these same technologies are also often used negatively. Many children are the targets of bullying via the internet or mobile phones resulting in total confusion on the part of the "target". Very often, children are not able to understand that what they are going through is a form of bullying. As a result the previously safe environment of the internet is now becoming a source of confusion and anxiety.

    



The internet holds many dangers such as viruses and programming faults that could be dangerous for people but also two of the most menacing problems for young people today; child pornography and cyber-bullying. I decided to focus on the issue that tends to influence a large portion of teenagers and not solely, cyber-bullying. It seems that, now, in 2010 cyber-bullying is increasing dramatically as more and more children are becoming victims of this type of bullying, though not only children. I will research this problem in detail as it is saddening me that a system that makes information flow and communication easy, is turning into a dangerous "place" to be. I can't understand why such a useful system is used in so negative a way where one can cause psychological harm to others.Cyber-bullying has more than one definition, cyber-bullying can be defined as "when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person" or as "a situation when a child or teen is repeatedly 'tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted' by another child or teenager using text messaging, e-mail, instant messaging or any other type of digital technology. The last definition I gave refers only to teens or children because bullying through the internet or cell-phones from adults to adults can be referred to as cyber-stalking which due to word limitation I will not go into.