Cyber Bullying

Posted: 2012/03/19 in Uncategorized

ri12211’s post  has also inspired me to research cyber bullying in order to better understand the issue at hand.

The article discussed in ri12211’s blog post, talked about cyber bullying, and the problem that it has been causing in Japan.  The article stated, that according to a recent survey conducted by Japan’s Hyogo Prefectual Board of Education, an estimated 10% of  high school student’s have at one point been harassed by some form of cyber bullying.  The article also states, that in Japan some of the more severe cases of cyber bullying has led it’s victims to attempt/commit  suicide.

After reading the article/blog post on cyber bullies in Japan,  I became curious enough, and wanted to find out if there were similar results throughout the world.  I found a website with an article written on cyber bullying worldwide.  It was surprising to see the amount of information currently available on the internet.  There was a global survey conducted by  Ipsos (for Reuters News), that found that 12% of children around the world has experienced cyber bullying.  24% of the people surveyed said that they know a child in their community who has experienced cyber bullying, and 60% say that the harassing behavior was performed on social networking sites, such as Facebook.

The surveys also stated that children who have experienced cyber bullying were twice as likely to seek treatment from mental health care professionals, and are nearly 3 times more likely to have considered dropping out of school.   The fact of the matter is, cyber bullying is being conducted via internet/text messaging worldwide, and it’s a serious issue (sometimes life threatening).  The best way to prevent cyber bullying is to make the children aware of it’s existence, and (in my opinion) parents need to act like parents, and make an attempt to monitor their children’s cellphone/internet usage;  however,  I am not saying that a parent should attempt take away their child’s privacy in the process.

There are ways of properly reporting this to government officials (if necessary), however, most children are not properly educated on the seriousness of cyber bullying, and will allow it to continue until it becomes a major problem.  The internet may not be able to protect children against cyber bullies, however, parents have direct influence over the internet content that their children are viewing.  PARENTS….. it is your responsibility to ensure your children are not falling victim to cyber bullying.  Also, if your child is found causing any type of cyber bullying, you (as a parent) should be the first to know about it, and put an end to it.  There are internet programs used in order to block certain content from making it’s way to your child’s computer, USE IT.  Parents often use extreme precaution while trying to prevent children from becoming exposed to the internet’s  “adult material” (such as pornography),  why should cyber bullying be considered as being something different?  Education is key, knowledge is power, parents need to educate themselves on the severity of this issue, and then take action in order to protect their children.  I hope after reading this that you now have a better understanding of cyber bullying and how to prevent it.

  1. ri12211 says:

    I am happy to hear that my post has inspired you to research 🙂 thank you and your blog post is better than mine!!
    And, I agree with you because most of parents do not(can not) realize that their children have been bullied or bullying on the internet. I think parents should know it happens and protect children from those problems…

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