The Invisible Bully

The Invisible Bully

        4,400 lives are taken each year because bullying has yet to be stopped. Bullying affects the lives of teens and adults everyday. For the victim there is no escape; “closing your laptop” or “turning off your phone” doesn’t solve the problem. It’s an issue that sadly a lot of people think that it isn’t even a problem.

        Children ranging from the ages of 11 to 19 are primary victims of physical bullying and bullying via Internet. Being so young, it can be hard to understand why someone would be so mean and say things that if you have done nothing wrong. This is the 21st century and the fact that bullying is still a problem is hard to believe. Videos of children and teens are posted on social media to embarrass young boys and girls. “In Lakeland, Fla., a group of teenagers records the beating of another teen and threatens to show the video on the Internet. The local sheriff says the attack was in retaliation for online trash-talking by the victim.” Also, name calling may not seem like much but words are strong and can take lived away in a second. “In Essex Junction, Vt., 13-year-old Ryan Patrick Halligan kills himself after months of harassment, including instant messages calling him gay. “He just went into a deep spiral in eighth grade,” said his father, who advocates a state law forcing schools to develop anti-bullying policies. “He couldn’t shake this rumor” (“Are New Laws Needed….”). But does it really take someone losing a family member for people to realize that bullying is an issue? Well it shouldn’t. People have seen enough news about 14-year-olds committing suicide because their school doesn’t offer them help. The child felt they did not have anyone that they could talk to about the situation.

        The chief executive of Ask.fm, a popular site that teens use to leave anonymous comments for each other, Ilja Terebin,spoke about the importance of creating a safe environment for kids and teens on the World Wide Web. “Social networking sites have made cruelty and meanness public. Previously these acts were invisible, now they are on display to all. There are different views on what to do with this visibility. While we understand that some groups want to restrict social media, we believe that this visibility should be used to understand the behavior and issues of young people in order to elaborate meaningful responses for families, schools, communities and social media.” (Experts Offer Their….) To summarize, Terebin feels that we should use sites like this to find out what’s wrong with teens and why they act this way.

        But what happens to those that are being “experimented on” and don’t even know it. They are being cyber bullied so people can “understand” what makes the bully a bully. The real problem is that parents aren’t teaching their kids manners, respect, or the age-old proverb, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

        Cyber bullying is the real problem right now; and everyone should try to get involved to help even if it isn’t directly affecting their life. Children are getting harassed and emotionally abused day by day. It is unfair to tell the victim to just to stop using electronics because it’s a part of our culture and society. Cyber bully victims already feel isolated from their peers because they are being targeted and to tell them to further disconnect is equivalent of telling a kid being bullied at school to just stop going.

Sources Used:

Are new laws needed to curb online aggression?

By Thomas J. Billitteri

http://library.cqpress.xaaa.orc.scoolaid.net/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2008050200

Experts Offer Their Guidance for Dealing With Online Bullying

By Nick Bilton

http://nobullying.com/cyberbullying-bullying-statistics-2014-finally/