Tips to Prevent Cyberbullying

Assalamualaikum and good day to all.

My topic for today is Tips to Prevent Cyberbullying.

Members of the floor,

Internet plays an important role in student’s lives today making them vulnerable to
cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a bullying that takes place through digital devices
such as computers, mobile phones, and tablets. It can occur through SMS, apps,
Text, social media, gaming, forums where people can view, take part in or share
content worldwide. Cyberbullying contains sending, sharing negative, posting,
false, harmful or mean content about someone else. It can comprise sharing private
or personal information about someone else causing mortification or humiliation.
Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.

Members of the floor,

The topic of how to prevent cyberbullying is the hottest debate among parents
worldwide. If a child is stating anxiety or anger after going online, it may be a
chance that he/she is a victim of cyberbullying. A child may be engaged in
cyberbullying in many ways. A child can be bullied, bully others or witness
bullying. Teachers, parents, and others may not be aware of all latest tools and
technologies that a child is using. The more digital devices they use, the more
chances there are for being exposed to potential cyberbullying.

Ladies and gentlemen,

There are few things that children can do to reduce their chances of getting bullied
which are:
First, Educate Yourself

Getting full knowledge of tools or apps you use is the best way to prevent
cyberbullying. You must understand exactly what it is. Research about
cyberbullying, how and why it occurs and talks with your friends about what they
are experiencing. You should not use apps and website that seems doubtful.

Then, Safeguard Your Password

You should safeguard your password and all information and data from inquisitive
peers. You should not give an opportunity to bullies to post
private/embarrassing/false information or photographs on your social media
account. You should set a strong password with a combination of alphabetic,
numbers and characters. Do not share your password with anyone.

Next, Do not Respond

Occasionally a reply is just what cyber attackers are searching for because it
provides them power over you and you do not want to empower an intimidator. So,
you should not respond to a suspicious activity and talk with your parent and
teachers.

Members of the floor,

Other than that, Use Available Tech Tools

Most online services and apps permit you to block a person who disturbs you.
Whether the harassment is in an application, texting, photos, remarks then you
should do you a favor and block that person. You can also report to the service
regarding that problem. If you are receiving intimidations of physical harm, then
you should go to your local police with your parents or teacher’s help and consider
reporting to your school authority as well.

Subsequently, Discuss

If you find that your child is being a victim of cyberbullying, the best method to
support your child is to have a discussion first. Be persistent and ask your child
about the problem, in overall, like does he or she be acquainted with someone who
is being bullied and what children should do if he or she notices an act of bullying.
This way you may know how much your child is engaged or affected by bullying.

Parents Must Monitor Online Activity

As one of the advantages of cyberbullying is that you can notice the activity and
save the evidence. You can monitor child’s online activity by different tools. You
should check text messages, call activity, and browsing history to prevent
cyberbullying.

Despite that, bring awareness whether it through a club, a movement or an event

because knowledge is the power. Make a community for adults to send an
integrated message in contradiction of cyberbullying. Educators should form a
committee that will discuss and control the teething troubles of cyberbullying. You
can make policies and guidelines containing cyberbullying reporting structure. It is
very significant to make this topic known to teachers, parents, and students.

Make a Positive Climate can be practiced by the teachers.

Teachers can play an important role to stop cyberbullying. As a teacher, you can
organize parents and staff meeting and send them circulars. You can use a website
of your school to make a page and forum, where parents and teachers can talk over
the problem. You can also involve victims by giving them conjoint tasks, so they
can understand each other from a different view.
Ladies and gentleman,

Be Courteous

A person who is bullying you, if you don’t know that person, in this situation it is
the best idea to be courteous and not sink to other person’s level. Many types of
research show that talking about and trash talking about others upsurges your risk
of being bullied. Forwarding means empower bullies and hurt victims more. If you
can, tell them to stop and tell them harassment makes people mean and stupid. If
they can’t stop bullying, you should report the behavior.

Make it as a habit to log out your accounts on public computers

As you should not share your password with anyone, similarly you shouldn’t give
a little chance to access your social media account or email. Also, by staying
logged in, you are at the risk of being bullying. Whenever you use a public
computer, make sure you have logged out all your accounts.

Last but not least, Restore Self-respect

You should remember that the eventual objective is to safeguard and restore the
target’s self-respect. Act wisely; a decision made in hurry can lead you towards
problems. Talk to someone about the problem before replying. Assemble the
proper evidence and take help from your parents and teachers to discover the best
possible thing to prevent cyberbullying.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Online communication is increasing day by day because of the use of mobile and
computer.  Cyberbullying is a relatively new crime; many jurisdictions are
deliberating over cyberbullying laws. We need to take actions to prevent
cyberbullying and make a lasting solution. Also, we can work for social learning
into as many schools and colleges as possible by providing children the social and
technical skills that can reduce cyberbullying and increase their academic and
social success. The above-mentioned tips will surely help you to prevent
cyberbullying and live a stress-free student life.
Cyber-bullying Essay
Introduction:
Bullying refers to any kind of aggressive behavior, which is normally intentional
and entails an imbalance of strength or power. Cyber bullying also referred to as
social online cruelty, can be described as an intentional aggressive act which is
carried out by an individual or group of individuals against a victim done
repeatedly over a long period of time and sent through electronic contacts. Cyber
bullying is usually repeated over time unless it is a death threat. The definition of
cyber bullying is limited to children while in adults; it is referred to as cyber
harassment or cyber stalking. In this essay, we will look at the prevalence of cyber
bullying, its psychological effects on teenagers and steps that can be taken to
prevent it.
what is cyber bullying?
Cyber bullying is very common among teenagers, children, and preteens and
occurs when one is threatened, harassed, embarrassed or humiliated with digital
and interactive technologies, the internet or with mobile phones. The methods used
in cyber bullying by children are only limited to one’s access to technology.
Children often change roles either as the bully or as the victim. At one time, a child
can be the bully and shortly after become the victim (Jacobs, 2010).
Cyber bullying can take different forms, which may include one or a number of the
following acts. It may involve sending threatening, vulgar and mean images or
messages, posting private and sensitive information about another person and
excluding someone deliberately from a social online group. Cyber bullying can
also be as simple as continuing an email sent by someone and sending it to
someone else with unfriendly information about someone else. It can also entail
making fun and teasing someone and defamation. It can as well be websites
created where kids can vote against other kids.
Cyber bullying has become so prevalent for several reasons, One of the reasons is
that the bully usually remains anonymous and it becomes easy to bully without the
risk of being caught. The other reason is that bullies are normally instigators in
nature and with the cyberspace, they are able to involve other students in bullying
whom in real world would not get involved in bullying. Cyber bullying therefore
provides a convenient way to bully others since the victim’s reactions remains
unseen (Shariff, 2010).
Effects of cyber bullying:
Cyber bullying has bad and serious effects on both the bully and the bullied. The
first and worst consequence of cyber bullying is the fatal outcome of such
instances. The failure by children to report to adults and the relevant authority
figure has led to many children committing suicide due to the depression, which
results from cyber bullying. Reports in the USA today, show that at least three
children of between 12-13 years of age committed suicide because of cyber
bullying (LLC, 2010).
The other consequence of cyber bullying is that the victims begin to fear
associating with other people. This is usually the main intention of cyber bullying.
Victims start avoiding their friends and activities as they start seeing them as
enemies especially in cases where the victims do not know who the bully is; this
leads to great emotional damage.

We are going to look at the instance of cyber bullying that led to the suicide of
Ryan Patrick Halligan. Patrick was 13 years old when he committed suicide, it is
reported that he received instant messages while online, from his schoolmates in
middle school, they referred to him as being gay. He was constantly insulted,
taunted and threatened due to his learning disorder. One of the bullies used the
information about an examination Patrick had had from a hospital and started to
spread a rumor about him being gay. After that, Patrick had shared some
information with a girl who pretended to like him but only did this to get some
private information about him. This information was spread to the rest of his
classmates. At one point, Patrick told the girl that its people like her who make him
want to commit suicide. These messages frustrated Patrick so much after the girl
called him a loser in school and prompted him to commit suicide. After his death,
the girl felt so guilty for Patrick’s death that she had to seek forgiveness from his
parents and sought permission to be taken to his house. The girl now moves around
the country with Patrick’s father talking against cyber bullying. The person who
started the gay rumor also apologised though it still affects him (Shariff, 2008).

A survey in high schools and middle school students revealed that students who
had been involved in cyber bullying by either being victims or bullies portrayed the
highest levels of depression, school absence and anxiety compared to other
students who had not been involved in cyber bullying (Kowalski, Limber &
Agaston, 2008). Children delinquency has been on the increase because of cyber
bullying (Limber, 2008).

The bullies, on the other hand experience emotional disturbance in cases where
their victims have gone beyond what they had expected. For instance, in the case
where Patrick was pushed to commit suicide, the girl who had pretended to be a
friend was traumatised and blamed herself for the death of Patrick. Also the other
boy who had initiated the gay rumor about Patrick burst into tears when he was
confronted and apologised for what he had done. These examples, clearly shows
that even the bullies go through some emotional distress after bullying their
victims.

How to stop cyber bullying:

Cyber bullying can be stopped through different measures. Given the availability
and accessibility to technology today, it may be hard to stop cyber bullying
completely. Children have access to the internet, computers, mobile phones and
other means of digital communications both at home and in schools. However, it
would be very important to take measures to reduce it. First, Children should talk
to an adult whom they trust about the bullying. They should persist to tell them
until an action against the bully is taken. Children should not keep quiet in the face
of cyber bullying, as this would affect them both psychologically and emotionally
(Hinduja & Patchin, 2008).
Secondly, children should not open messages from the bullies. In addition, they
should not read them or respond to them, as this would encourage the bully to
continue with his or her threats. Moreover, reading the messages may prompt the
victim to counter attack the bully by sending more threatening messages than what
was sent to them and this would lead to an increase in cyber bullying instead of
stopping it. In addition, if the messages are from instant messages or through chat,
the victim can block the bully instantly so that the messages do not go through
(Breguet, 2007).

Lastly, in the event that a child is threatened with death or harm, it is very
important to inform the police so that action would be taken early enough before it
becomes too late. Children’s security should be first priority and, therefore, death
and harm threats should not be taken for granted (McQuade, Colt & Meyer, 2009).

The parents should also take up the role of protecting their children from cyber
bullying by taking a number of precautions; one, they need to centralise the laptops
and computers and keep online accessibility where the parents have frequent
access and the screen kept in a way that is viewable. Secondly, parents should
establish communications with their children so that children can open up to them
when faced with such bullying. Parents also need to familiarise themselves with
online facilities, social networking, and chat rooms. The more knowledge a parent
has about these, the higher the chances of being able to secure their children from
cyber bulling.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, cyber bullying has very damaging consequences to individuals. It
disrupts school life, has great emotional damage and may have fatal consequences.
Though technology has brought new opportunities for students and teenagers, it is
important that everyone learn to use it responsibly. Policies should also be put in
place to ensure that technology is used responsibly. School management should put
in place ways of identifying, preventing and responding to cyber crimes in schools.
Parents should also take up the responsibilities of protecting their children.
Teenagers, on the other hand, should take the first measures necessary to prevent
cyber crimes and bullying.