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Zoah

@xbeyondwordsx

IF-Veteran Member

+ 5

Posted: 9 years ago

"I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody."

-Abraham Lincoln

Assaulting one's dignity and bringing about the grief of psychological pain, sometimes resulting in disastrous finales is what Bullying can be summed up into.

Bullying has evolved as a matter of discussion, since a few decades. Now, the bullies have got a whole new platform to continue their act of violence and harassment; technology. Cyber Bullying', a humiliating, deliberate and tormenting act usually targeted at a particular person, is done using communication technologies and networking sites.

It's usually done intentionally to spoil someone's reputation and embarrass him/her. Cyber bullying is mostly faced by teenagers and young people. But, the number of adults suffering from cyber abuse is also increasing rapidly.

What Is Cyber Bullying?

Cyber bullies are likely to send messages and emails meant to harass or threaten their victim. They may also divulge the victims' personal information at public forums and social networking sites. Victims can be bullied online by stalking and hacking their profiles and by anonymity.

Publishing materials, posting rumors and false accusations to severely ridicule and defame the victim have been seen commonly in the history of online bullying. The cyber bullying victims are highly anticipated to be blackmailed and asked for ransom by the cyber bullies.

Victims may be demoralized by online pages used to condone illegal and anti-social activities along with that arrives rude and judgmental comments and photos.

What Invites The Bullies?

Jealousy and frustration towards the victim could be the major cause of cyber bullying. Thirst for revenge from the person and belief that cyber bullying is not a big matter could also be a cause. Cyber bullying is often the consequence of real life bullying victims. They seek for power and attention which often leads them to this path. They are unafraid of getting caught and are often control freaks.

Their hunger to fit in the environment, peer pressure and lack of socialization makes them commit this heinous crime. People who don't get proper attention and supervision from parents and friends will resort to cyber bullying often.

How Damaging Is It?

Cyber bullying is often mistaken as entertainment and spicy drama in one's life.

But is it true? Of course, not! Cyber bullying is a serious matter that should be handled with proper care and attention. Cyber bullying is regarded to create an unsafe environment and is responsible for physical and mental breakdown of the victims.

It impacts more on the mental health of a person than physical. It leads to mental trauma and unhealthy stress. This causes a victim to behave in a unstable condition and creates a home for the severe fear from the outside world. Cyber bullying increases the risk of suicide, mainly in teens. It also violates human rights. Cyber bullying severely damages and affects the life of the bully, the victim and the people close to them. Therefore, this problem needs to identified and addressed properly.

CREDITS -

blessing-beauty - .HookandHybrid. -

..Athena.. - Temptations.

18shabbo - Angel-Jot.

Edited by xbeyondwordsx - 9 years ago

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Frequent Posters

Harjot.

@Angel-Jot

IF-Veteran Member

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

Over the years, the world has seen a number of cyber bullying victims. Some of whom let themselves be sucked into the web, while others who managed to defeat it all to overcome the trap. We present to you an example of each respectively.

Amanda Todd at the young age of 15 committed suicide in her home. Todd was a grade 10 student at the time of her death. When she was in grade 7, she had just moved in with her father. To meet new people, she used video chat and was often complimented an admired for her good looks. After a year of attempts, a man she met online convinced her to bare her breasts. She was later blackmailed by her bully to give him a 'show' or her topless picture would be provided to her friends.

On the day of Christmas 2010, she was informed by the police that her topless picture was viral on the Internet. She suffered through anxiety, panic attacks and depression. She was being cyber bullied and sexually exploited online. When she later moved on to her new home with her family, Todd made a confession that she was using drugs and alcohol.

A year later, the bully appeared again with a Facebook profile using her topless photo as its profile picture. She was hence humiliated and made fun of by her peers. Todd drank bleach, attempting suicide but survived. She further received abusive messages and her failed attempt to commit suicide was posted on Facebook. She was mentally broken and engaged in activities like physically harming herself.

She received counseling and was prescribed to anti-depressants but one day she overdosed herself and was admitted in the hospital for two days. Some kids started taunting her and called her a psycho. Todd could no longer handle the abuse and was found dead in her home on October 10, 2012.

Todd had posted a 9-minute video using a series of cards entitled My Story: 'Struggling, bullying, suicide and self-harm' before her death. The video captures her experience of being cyber-bullied and physically assaulted. The video went viral after her death and received around 1,600,000 views by 13 October, 2012. Her suicide received a wide range of media coverage and a minute of silence was observed by a quarter of million students by Toronto District School Board in remembrance of Todd and other cyber bullying victims.

While there is always a blame game going on regarding this particular case, we say, no one deserves the abuse and torture that Amanda Todd went through. It goes on to show just how severely the social networking sites can impact on one's life and teaches us to always be careful.

Rest In Peace, Amanda Todd.

In 2008, fourteen year old Carney Bonner began self harming due to the excessive abuse received through cyber bullying. The cyber bullying began when Bonner started receiving hateful and abusive messages on social networking site, Facebook, from an account under a false name. The bullying began with messages such as "you're nothing" and "no-one cares about you". Bonner, known for his loud and always outgoing attitude, didn't pay much attention to the messages in the beginning and shrugged them off as a typical teenager would do.

However, slowly, the abusive messages turned severe and it started to break the unfazed spirit of the 14 year old. He took it all in until he could take it no more. And then began the self harming. The 14 year old started to cut his wrist and tortured himself thinking he had no right to live in this world. This continued for a year, until one of his friends saw the state of his wrist and took him to the school counselor. The school counselor looked in to the matter and helped Bonner overcome the bullying and out of the self-harming state. It took time but like they say, time heals it all.

Carney Bonner is now qualified as a "Cyber Mentor" for a charity called 'Beatbullying' and helps the other victims of cyber bullying. Bonner, is also a Youth MP of Swindon.

In one of his interview with BBC, Bonner described the counseling sessions as, "learning to walk again." Truly, it was. With the of social media and the press, Bonner eventually exposed the bully and he turned out to be someone Bonner has regarded as a friend.

This is yet another lesson to be learnt. Don't trust easily. In this time and day, it's very easy to be friends with someone and even easier to be an object of envy from that very friend. Make friends of course, but let them earn your trust instead of you giving it to them on a silver platter.

We commend the spirit of Carney Bonner.

Kudos to you, buddy!

Edited by Angel-Jot. - 9 years ago

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.HookandHybrid.

@.HookandHybrid.

IF-Rockerz

+ 3

Posted: 9 years ago

Prevention Measures In Role

To prevent Cyber Bullying, which has been plaguing the whole world with its viral effect, steps must be taken on the ground level.
Being confident and valiant helps in ignoring the dirt of bullying. Also bringing any such content which disturbs a person into the notice of elders should be the first step. It has been strictly instructed to make use of the block/report button on the website to report such behavior.

Further more, "The Cybersmile Foundation" has been created to tackle all kinds of cyber crimes. They also run an event knows as "Stop Cyber bullying Day" so that it can draw the attention of the people. It takes place on the third Friday of June every year.

Public Service Advertisement has been launched in the USA to educate teens and pre-teens about the roles they can play to prevent cyber bullying.
"Anti Bullying Day" is followed in Canada annually to spread awareness against Cyber Bullying. Many non profit organizations have come up to make people aware about the cyber crimes and prevent it before it can take place.

Articles, journals, case studies have been written about cyber bullying so that it helps to create the awareness amongst the people. Some of the schools have started to give lectures about cyber bullying so that they can make the students know about the crime, as school going kids mostly suffer from this weaved sin.

Prevention Measures In Need

But in spite of spreading awareness and letting people know what effects cyber bullying can cause, how anyone can become a victim and how disrespectful it is to the manner of humanity, this crime is still taking place. The actions taken to prevent this crime are not enough as it is still continuing. The number of incidents has not decreased, rather it has seen a huge increment. It is still here.

More effective measure needs to be taken so that it stops completely as the awareness programs and teachings about the cyber bullying is still not helping much.

This crime is taking away the lives of innocent children. Young lives are being forced to commit suicide due to mental pressure of "fitting in the crowd" and low self esteem. To ensure that cyber bullying stops completely, some effective measures needs to be taken.

All the schools and colleges needs start giving cyber bullying awareness classes. This will help the students to know about the crime better and what actions should be taken when victimized. They can also help those people who are subjected to bullying. One to one individual sessions with the victims (anonymously of course) will help them regain the lost self confidence.

Newspapers and magazines should create more awareness in regards to this subject as it directly affects their targeted audience.

Parents should keep check on their teenager's work on the net.

If anyone is victimized due to cyber bullying, they should try and avoid responding (no matter how difficult that is) to it. As responding to such advances will only encourage the bullies further more.

Parents should be let known by their children if they are facing cyber bullying.

Police should be informed and cases have to be filed.

Evidence of the cyber bullying needs to be saved so that it help as proof against the cyber bullies.

Government should come up with strict laws against cyber bullying.

Severe punishment should be enforced on those who bully others to the extent that the victim is forced to take their own lives.

A Step Ahead

Cyber bullying will stop if the all the preventive measures are taken properly. If all the cases of cyber bullying are taken to court and strict actions and punishments are enforced against the people who bully, it will create fear in mind of other cyber bullies. Victims should not get scared of the bullying and should reach further to get help from local authorities. Fearing, no matter how frightening the situation is, will only put the victim in further trouble.

People who have some kind of negative feelings about others or do not like or even faced cyber bully at some point of life tend to bully others online. This kind of mentality can change. The person who bullies needs to be kept in positive environment where others can influence them positively. The bully can be made to understand about the bad effects of cyber bullying. Encourage them to focus on good things, help them have an optimistic way of life and provide them with positive vibes. If the bully is strong and determined to change, psychology of cyber bullying others will change gradually and one day be eradicated to the fullest. And hopefully never come back.

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Angela Grokes

@Angela_Grokes

IF-Rockerz

+ 2

Posted: 9 years ago

Thank you to the makers of this thread! People need to be informed about things like these. Great thread. Edited by Angela_Grokes - 9 years ago

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Kalyani Nitin Bujone

@Kore-Soteira

IF-Dazzler

+ 2

Posted: 9 years ago

Commendable job CC'S.. Claps for all those who have put so much effort in making this informative thread.
And as like you folks said crimes like these are increasing but a handful of people register complaint about it due to societal pressures and they're worried about their image getting tarnished if they come forward and that's what leads to increase in such crimes.
So first of all people should forget about the society and care about their self respect

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@krystel21

IF-Veteran Member

+ 5

Posted: 9 years ago

FANTASTIC thread CCs! One of your best! Cyber bullying is a CRIME, and yet it baffles me when I see so many cases of bullying and bashing everywhere, even on IF! It is NOT cool to sit behind a laptop screen and abuse someone just because you don't agree with them or you think you're far more superior than them for whatsoever be the reason! My heart goes out to those who've ever been a victim of cyber abuse, and I hope and pray that God grants you the strength to accept yourself, love yourself, and never pay attention to your detractors.

As for the cyber bullies, a word of advice. How about you shut your laptops/computers/phones down and go get some fresh air and spend time with real friends?