Reine Gabrielle B. Bantang July 8, 2014IV- Hebrews English IV

A New Way of BullyingGiven the power of the Internet and technology now, children, and even adults, have taken advantage of these and used them all for the purpose of bullying. This kind of bullying is called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has been going on for how many years now but has gotten worse as time passed. With the fast growth of technology, it has been easier to target people and attack them over the web with the power of keeping the identity of the attacker. Not only is it harder to trace the attacker, but that also not much can really be done once he/she is exposed and proven to have cyberbullied someone.

According to Connie Neal, posting on social networking sites or sending messages, photos, or videos to someone, all with the intention to hurt or to attack someone is counted as cyberbullying. Just a few clicks and someone can already be a victim of this offense just because of one post or a chat message that was sent to him/her (4).

With that being said, there really are differences between traditional bullying, the kind that every generation is aware of, and cyberbullying, the kind that mostly the newer generation is aware about. Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying never stops because technology is readily available anywhere at anytime. The major difference is that the bully and the victim are not physically together at all times, making it easier not to have any face-to-face conversations with him/her (7).

Another difference is that the bully can have the power to remain unknown or even be able to change his/her identity online making it harder for the victim to point fingers at anyone in specific. This also makes it worse because the attacker can use this anonymity to the fullest extent (8).

With all the power that someone has online, the attacks and the harassments just keep getting worse everyday. The fact that the harassment is happening online, controlling how much information will spread and monitoring who would see it is not easy. It is easier to limit the spread of the information within a certain group or institution compared to trying to limit what is seen on the Internet, which is accessible by almost everyone (10).

While students and other people who cyberbully continue to do this offense, schools, parents, and even the government is trying to find solutions on how to stop this phenomenon. But at this time now, it really is hard to completely stop this issue because if the school or the parents/guardians of the victim try to discipline whoever committed the offense, they may end up in court if they do not handle the situation carefully. The best solution now is to probably make the schools add into their policy that whether the student is on or off-campus and he/she shows inappropriate behavior towards another student, the school has the authority over the students and has the right to handle the situation alongside with the parents of the students (13).

Knowing what can be done with the issue of cyberbullying, students, parents, and teachers should just partner and be more careful and aware of what kind of activity is happening online. People must also be careful with their actions and attitude towards others so that if someone tries to start a rumor online, it would not be that hard to deny these rumors and show proof that these are not true.

Source: Neal, Connie. Cyberbullying: Perspectives for Schools, Parents, and Students. Christian School Education 13.3 (2009/2010):3