Bullying Gone Cyber

By: Alaina Gizzo
Posted In: Opinion

From the first years of our lives, we’ve witnessed it, fallen victim to it or participated in it. As we got older, we thought it would remedy itself; it didn’t always. Bullying has always been an issue among school-age children, only now it transcends beyond the boundaries of playgrounds and school corridors. Cyber bullying or online harassment has been on the rise for years.

According to the National Crime Prevention Center, more than 40 percent of teenagers who have Internet access have reported cases of cyber bullying during the past year. Even worse, this type of behavior commences onward into the college realm.

Many individuals who might not fully understand the technology involved in networking sites or instant messengers immediately blame the technology itself. Arguably, the technology enables Internet users to easily and quickly harass others. However, people still possess the ability to make choices about how they wish to use the Internet. The sad truth is that cyber bullying doesn’t occur due to the technology, but rather the individual usage of it.

Perhaps the most dangerous aspect about this type of victimization is that parents and school administrators don’t always understand the technology involved in cyber bullying. Therefore, they don’t always know how to prevent it in primary and secondary schools.

It just seems strange that this type of behavior could go on to occur in colleges across the nation. Frequently thriving in the collegiate atmosphere are stories of exes who cyber stalk with a vengeance, profiles created for fake identities or private information that resurfaces in the public realm of the Internet. This juvenile behavior is absolutely sickening and uncalled for. These forms of bullying have gone far beyond name-calling, and lawmakers have noticed.

Throughout recent years, states coast to coast have been passing laws to suppress Internet harassment. According to the First Amendment Center, in Rhode Island cyber stalking or computer harassment is considered a crime once an individual repeatedly sends online messages to another for the sole purpose of annoyance.

Hopefully laws like these will better help define boundaries for cyber bullies everywhere, and eventually aid in the prevention of Internet harassment. Possibly the best mode of prevention is simply educating people of all ages about this type of bullying.