Bullying moves online

Drawing: Seo, InJi

A new term, cyberbullying, refers to a new trend in school bullying. School bullies post hurtful things and photos on Websites, in e-mails, and in cell phone text messages to torment their classmates.

 
Watch a video about cyberbullying made by a young teen:

 

An online article in USA Today discusses this troublesome trend:

Schoolyard bullies get nastier online


Photo taken of the USA Today print issue

Read what students who have suffered from cyberbullying have to say in this online ABC News article, School Bullies Take Teasing Online.

Send your opinion.

• What do you think about this high-tech way of bullying?
• Is this worse than physical or verbal bullying in school?
  Why or why not?

Comments

[Lee, Eun Hyun]

There are many ways of bullying. One way is by hitting victims. Another way is taunting or just ignoring them. One of the most terrible ways, however, is spreading rumors about them. I think spreading rumors is just as bad as harming people or killing them. Rumors can make a person miserable.

These days, the Internet has become very popular and many children use it to spread vicious rumors that spread like wildfire. Because of these rumors, many victims are tormented day and night. Some children even attempt suicide because they are so miserable about the untrue lies being told about them. They know that many other people are reading them.

[Sujeong Hong]

All bullying is bad. However, nowadays, using computers or cell phones for is necessary even children, and cyber bullying is a serious problem. The problem with cyber bullying is that it is harder to solve because it is spreading too fast and easily. Most people don't think cyber bullying is serious because it has become a problem only recently, but we have to be concerned about it before it becomes worse.

[Seo, InJi]

I think cyber bullying is worse than physical or verbal bullying because it is not done face to face, so bullies don't feel sorry for their victims. Also, bystanders can became bullies. Because they spread stories about the victims. The most serious problems in cyber bullying is that it is very hard to prevent and punish because it takes place through the Internet.

[Andy Tomko]

Cyber bullying has existed for quite a while, it is only coming to attention recently because the media is picking up on it. Cyber-bullying, in my opinion is just another form of terrorism ... it is done with malice intent and can cause someones reputation to be slandered beyond repair. In many ways cyber-bullying is worse than being bullied in person; when you are faced to face with a bully you know who they are. When the attack come anonymously, there is no face or name to put the blame on. In addition the reach of cyber-bullying is greater than the school yard, it is world wide.

[Eunjin Kim]

It is absolutely wrong to bully someone on the internet but recently this has become another way to bully. A lot of children are being cyberbullied, and it makes them sadder than when they aare bullied offline. Because no one knows who the bully is, it is easy to bully someone this way. The victim can't even relax at home because cyberbullies can attack them anywhere.

[Mi Hye Ahn]

Cyber bullying is an anonymous way of attacking somebody on-line. Therefore, It isn't clear who the bully is, so bullying can be done easily. Some examples of bullying are spreading and calling someone anonymously. These kinds of bullying hurt victims emotionally, so I think high tech bullying is the most serious kind.

[Lim Ju Hee]

There are many ways of bullying and among them cyberbullying is the most serious. If someone spreads cruel rumors anonymously, it is difficult to solve this problem because of anonymity.

People who have experienced cyberbullying suffer emotional injury. Other people read the rumors about them, and then they can be misunderstand. They are troubled by nightmares and in extreme cases decide to attempt suicide.

[Yong Jin Lee]

In my opinion, high tech bullying is bad, but not worse than physical or verbal bullying. Bullies harass victims by using photos or rumors. Maybe, it is painful, but if they just ignore it, I think everything will be fine. However, physical or verbal bullying is more painful than high tech bullying. The bullies hit, punch, and kick the victims without any reason, but victims can not tell anyone because if they do so, the bullies harass victims even more. The worst thing is verbal bullying. For example, if many people call a student stupid everyday, he begins to feel stupid. He will believe that he is stupid because everybody says he is. Verbal bullying is the worst because it demoralizes the victim.

[Sung Hwi Chung]

High tech bullying is a very serious problem these days because it harms so many people. This kind of bullying is worse than physical and verbal bullying because it is anonymous. You don't know who the bully is. One example of high tech bullying is internet bullying.

[Anne Davis]

Sujeong Hong,
What an insightful post! I agree that we need to be concerned about cyber-bullying before it gets worse. I think we should contact our legislators and request a more proactive approach on the part of Internet Service Providers to respond and deal with complaints they receive about instances of cyber-bullying. I believe they should cancel the accounts if they are able to track down the cyber-bully. Do you agree? What else would you ask our legislators to do to combat this problem?

[Sujeong Hong]

Anne Davis,
Thank you for your comment!
I don’t think so. Even if Internet Service Providers stopped service to bullies, they could easily find other ways such as just opening new accounts and using different names. So, I think that we need more powerful solutions. The solutions are what our legislators must do! They have to campaign against cyber-bullying and make rules to stop it. Most bullies on the Internet harass someone for fun. By doing that, they can combat this problem.

[Demba]

Bullying online is different from bullying in school because anyone can read it but the bully is anonymous. They just harrass people with anonymous messages. However, it's really easy to escape from a bully online. Just ignore him and you'll be fine.

[Yan]

I understand this issue because I use the Internet everyday. In China, the people in my age group are the first ones who have touched the Internet in China.

Everyday on the Internet you might meet some mean guys who call you names, send virus emails to your mailbox, or bother you by by sending you annoying text messages.

If a stranger does this to you, it's OK, not a big problem. You can just block the strange bullies from your email contact list and MSN messenger. If you always receive annoying text messages on your cell phone, you can use that phone and call 911.

However, if a person who knows you and your friends and parents does that to you. It is not the same thing as what I am talking about above because the bully can send those terrible messages to everyone whom you know.

In one case, there is a very famous face of a young student in China. Someone put a very common and normal picture of him on the Internet.

Nobody could have anticipated that his picture would attract many hackers who would alter the picture for fun. Those pictures are funny, and everybody likes the protagonist and we call him "Little Fat Boy". I swear we are NOT calling him names. It is just like a nickname and it means we like the young boy.

If I were the young boy and watched the pictures on the Internet, I might also feel amused and not so miserable because nobody knows me and who I am. I might enjoy it because the hackers were not doing it to bully but only for fun. And the young boy is very cool in those pictures.

However, if everybody around me took these kind of pictures of me and said "Little Fat boy" to me, it would be terrible. Therefore, I think bullying by high-tech ways is the same as physical and verbal bullying. You can block the bullying by high-tech ways from you but you cannot get this out of your life completely from your life environment.

[Kristina Hurst]

I think they need to stop cyber bullying. It is harmful. I am 16 and I know that.

[Emma]

Students at the University of Westminster in London, UK, have recently produced a 'dummy' magazine about social networking which uses the photograph of US Today from this blog post.

The dummy magazine will be entered into student awards but will not be sold.

Please can you confirm whether you're happy for us to use the picture or if we need to contact US Today about this?

Sorry to contact you through comments - I couldn't see any other details.

Thanks,
Emma

[Alexis]

Physical bullying is bad for everybody. Just because you are a bully doesn't mean you are cool and everything. I think it's just plain out stupid.

[Lo]

I understand cyber bullying because I was [cyberbullied] over the internet in several cases. I think cyber bullying is just as harmful. Even though you're not physically or verbally abusing them in person, it does just as much damage. Bullying just needs to stop.

[New Balance]

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