Consequences of Cyberbullying and the Importance of Awareness

Cyber Bullying
Thesis statement- Cyber Bullying is a known problem all across the world. It goes unnoticed as actual bullying most of the time, but cyber bullying can be very harmful, and sometimes even fatal. More and more people are standing up against it, but there are still a lot of cyber bullies in the world. I. My name is Mishaela Elizabeth Schwan and I am doing my report on Cyber Bullying because I believe it is a very important problem that more people need to know about, so they understand just how bad it is. A. In October 2006, a young girl named Megan Meier took her own life after frantic, cyber bullying. A friend’s mother, Lori Drew, joined MySpace under the false identity of Josh Evans. She began talking to Megan, building a bond between them, Then she began sending hateful and rude messages directed toward Megan. This resulted in a fatal end. B. Cyber Bullying is using Internet and other digital devices to try to harm someone. Insults, threats, and any other mean remarks are considered Cyber Bullying. One in ten children worldwide experiences cyber bullying.
II. Since technology has been introduced to the world, it seems a new kind of bully has emerged. The cyber bully. A. Cyber bullying happens when some posts, writes, and messages about somebody. 1. Cyber bullying can hurt and damage people in a lot of ways. People just as well suffer from cyber bullying than they would from regular bullying. They both leave harmful affects, and while saying things in front of someone’s face is bad, it’s worse when the person is using a false identity to hide. In some states cyber bullying is illegal. 2. Children can experience and witness cyber bullying events. More than one in three children in America have expirenced cyber bullying online. Half of the children who are cyber bullied, never tell an adult or guardian who can help them. 3. People can also participate in cyber bullying via text message. Text messages can be sent to one direct person or group messages, contacting several people. These text messages can be sent to anyone. Using hateful or violent words in a text message is considered cyber bullying, even if some people don’t realize it. 4. Social networking gives a simple way of targeting someone. It is simple to create an account of Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace using false pictures and information. Cyberbullies can use this to their advantage, and post rude messages through photos, private messaging, and posts on walls, under a profile that no one may recognize. B. Cyber bullying awareness by parents and teachers 1.Teachers and parents can help protect their children and teach them how to protect themselves by teaching them about internet safety and the harmful things that can come from the internet. Then should monitor their children and make sure they don’t go on innapropriate sites, and protect them from anyone that would want to harm them. 2. Friends can help cyber bullying by fighting back. They can confront the bully and address the problem, then ask the bully to stop. If this doesn’t help, the bully can be blocked or reported to the cyber police. C. Seeing or expiriencing cyber bullying may make want someone to jump in and help, but most of the time, nobody knows what to do about it. 1. Friends and acquaintances should go against cyberbullying by taking positive action. Stand up towards the bullying and help protect the victim. Help them overcome cyber bullying and teach them how to protect themselves. 2. Using the internet safely and protecting someone’s reputation and identity is very important, a cyber bully could easily embarrass, and or damage a person by posting pictures, messages, or posts that could set a bad reputation for them, and cause people to think badly about them. D. Cyber bullying has harmful affects. It can lead to low self-esteem issues, it can cause someone to be anti social, and it can cause depression, and it can be fatal. Sometimes cyber bullying can cause such a deep affect that it stays with a victim, all the way through life and into adulthood.