Cyber-Bullying Prevention by Garrett Cross

As more people join the fray of online interaction, the weight of influence the internet impresses upon our daily lives increases. While the internet has streamlined and benefited many aspects of our livelihood, cyber-bullying continues to hold a dark presence over social networking. As our internet dependence grows, cyber-bullying threats loom larger. Thankfully, preventative measures set up by numerous awareness campaigns, public service announcements, and support groups have begun to take fold. In addition, government officials have enacted legislation to deter the cyber-bullying menace. In this post we will examine the different tactics employed against cyber-bullying and their sociological effects.


Anti-cyber bullying approaches often must adopt different strategies than typical bullying prevention programs. The biggest cause for this is the anonymity cyber-bullies can maintain. Using a variety of aliases, pseudonyms, and covers, the cyber-bully becomes freed of the tangible real-life identity. Without a visible personhood to maintain, the cyber-bully remains unhindered from normative and social constraints on their behavior. Corresponding with this is the low surveillance level of online social mediums. A users’ Facebook profile and message inbox, for example, lack an overseeing authority that polices interaction. Also, online forums cannot monitor private messages (pm’s) that users send to each other. Users can avoid these dangers by abstaining internet use, however, the fact remains that it is very difficult to stop someone from uploading defamatory material. Once the material is posted, potentially millions of people can download it before it is removed. Victims of cyber-bullying are left with feelings of loneliness and low self-esteem. They begin avoiding their friends and family, as they believe they have no one to confide with. No longer integrated with society, the powerlessness seeps through, leading to potentially tragic outcomes such as suicide. Anti-cyber-bullying programs attempt to prevent this by offering a network of support.


Because internet harassment is a rather recent phenomenon, information on handling it is in short supply. To combat this, the Advertising Council in the United States, cooperating with the National Crime Prevention Council, U.S. Department of Justice, and Crime Prevention Coalition of America, joined to announce the launch of a new public service advertising campaign designed to educate preteens and teens about how they can play a role in ending cyber-bullying. Also, on June 2, 2008 parents, teens, teachers, and Internet executives came together at Wired Safety's International Stop Cyber-Bullying Conference to educate many on the dangers of cyber-bullying. To fight the helplessness victims feel, firms like CyberPatrol and LookBothWays have provided programs to help internet users. One such tool allows a user, when harassed online, to alert selected helpers. The program takes a screenshot of the offending material, and documents it. These services also block websites and downloads, manage time spent online, restrict chat and instant messages to prevent inappropriate language, curb revelations of personal information online, monitor internet activity, and protect against predators and identity thieves


Overall, these programs contest cyber-bullying by offering a network of valuable information and support. By informing internet users and showing them they are not alone, they allow for victims to remain integrated into society and prevent tragic outcomes like suicide. By providing the victim with a clear cut solution, these programs return power to victims and allow them to overcome any threats from cyber-bullies.


Here are some videos detailing some of the awareness campaigns that help prevent cyber-bullying:

"Cyber Bullying Definition." Cyber Bullying Laws. 23 July 2007. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.cyberbullyinglaws.net/cyber_bullying_definition.html>.

Jones, K.C. "Tools Help Families Combat Cyber Bullying With Alerts, Tips."InformationWeek. 1 Oct. 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. <http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/cybercrime/210605120?subSection=Vulnerabilities+and+threats>.

Internet and the Media by Randy Santibanez

With trending social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, cyber-bullying has become much easier for the general public. As soon as a person adds you to their friends list, they have to ability to find out what that certain friend enjoys, while also keeping up with their daily life and emotions.

Facebook, one of the more well-known social networking sites, has been known to have many fake profiles made in order to mock or bully other Facebook users but the users being bullied believe it is actually the person in the picture doing it, not someone else. Facebook has an entire help center dedicated to the safety of its users, letting them know what is and what is not considered abuse on their networking site which includes a section about reporting abuse and fake pages in case of harassment.

Although Myspace has gone downhill since Facebook’s quick rise, it also had its fair share of cyber-bullying and fake profiles, but even worse was the suicide of Megan Meier. Megan Meier was a teenage girl who believed she was talking to a boy named Josh Evans on Myspace but it was actually one of her friends from her old school, the girl’s mother, her sister, and one of her mother’s employees. The girl felt like she could share everything with the boy but their conversations took a turn for the worse. “He” began to tell Megan disturbing things and spreading false rumors about her to everyone and one day she could no longer take the abuse. Megan Meier committed suicide because of cyber-bullying. Because of the cyber-bullying that led to Megan Meier’s death, many states have now passed laws that will not allow any type of abuse online without having to deal with it.

As stated in the picture above, although social networking sites have a high amount of cyber-bullying tied to their name, IM, or instant messaging services like AIM or MSN Messenger are known for having the highest amount of cyber-bullying happening on them. This may be because there is an immediate response instead of having to wait on a message from the person on the other side of the screen and it is happening one-on-one so that others cannot defend the person being bullied.

ABC Family released a film titled Cyberbully this past summer dealing with a girl played by actress Emily Osment, who begins to talk online to a boy with a fake profile which was actually made by one of her so-called best friends. The movie follows a lot of the Megan Meier story except Emily Osment’s character does not commit suicide although she does try to. In the movie, one of Osment’s close friends creates a fake social networking profile and disguises herself as a boy who acts to enjoy everything Osment enjoys and acts like he is there for the girl at first, but quickly begins to bash her and spread rumors around the school about her. This goes on until she tries to kill herself by overdosing on pills and is rushed to the hospital. After the attempted suicide, her mother tries to talk to a state representative in order to pass laws that will make it cyber-bullying and harassment illegal in their state and others. This movie shows that the media is attempting to make the topic of cyber-bullying known to everyone so that no one has to go through the bullying without knowing what to do or who to go to.

For both the Megan Meier suicide and the girl in the Cyberbully movie, egoistic suicide was one of the biggest roles in Meier committing suicide and Osment's character trying to kill herself. Both girls were bullied to the point where they were tired of everything around them and felt that they could not stop people from talking bad about them or judging them out loud which made them both feel insignificant to everyone around them.

Without state laws being passed, the media shining the light on the situation, and networking sites informing people of what to do in case of cyber-bullying then people, especially teenagers would continue to be harassed. Technology has come a long way and can be seen as both good and bad, but as long as it isn’t not abused, it can only become better and helpful.


Works Cited:
Where Electronic Aggression Happens: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Youth_and_Electronic_aggression.gif

A Closer Look at Motives

Suicides caused by cyber-bullying are not a result of someone being too sensitive to detrimental words.  Rather, these suicides expand deeper into the mind and cause torment to the victim who is experiencing a lack of social integration according to Durkheim; which, leads the victim into a deviant act.

            To someone who hasn’t experience cyber-bullying, it is initially difficult to comprehend the circumstances that would cause someone to take their own life. From an outsider’s perspective, questions arise like why didn’t they tell someone they were bullied? Why didn’t they seek help? These questions cannot be easily answered, but predictions can be made using Durkheim’s normative theory of suicide. Durkheim’s theory is composed of four types of suicide defined by the level of social integration and social regulation the person experiences. Social regulation is “the number of rules guiding your daily life and, more specifically, what you can reasonably expect from the world on a day-to-day basis” (Conley 188). Social regulation levels define two types of suicide called anomic suicide and fatalistic suicide. In contrast, social integration is “how well you are integrated into your social group or community” (Conley 187). Social integration level explain two types of suicide called altruistic suicide, which is very high integration in one’s community, and egotistic suicide, which is a lack of social integration in one’s surroundings.

Cyber-bullying suicides can mainly be related to Durkheim’s theory of egoistic suicide. Teens that are bullied are typically exiled from their social group because others feel they have superiority and basically want to boost their own self-esteem by depleting someone else’s. Those that suffer from cyber-bullying face a constant battle and fight for acceptance amongst their peers. At school these victims are teased, taunted and laughed at and the nightmare only continues when they return home and log on to popular social networking sites such as instant messaging, Facebook, and many more. Teens lack the maturity to understand how destructive their words can be when someone is battling self-esteem issues. Low self-esteem comes from allowing others opinions to give your life meaning, thus creating a sense of hopelessness. Egotistic suicide goes hand-in-hand with deep depression and very low self-concept. The effects of cyber-bullying can be much more powerful than abusive words said to someone’s face because online the message can be repeatedly read and only cause someone to sink deeper into negative thoughts. Escape from cyber-bullying is nearly impossibly unless you simply don’t partake in the online social scene. The option of abstaining for social networking sites is not reasonable considering the initial purpose of the networking sites is to integrate your self into a community of people. Here, the paradox is recognizable; social networking sites were created to give people a social scene that promoted social integration, yet now the websites are being abused and through cyber-bullying these social networking sites are inflicting more social segregation at homes that used to be havens from bullying.

Cyber-bullying from a sociological standpoint is a severe problem that is breaking the fluidity of society and causing damage to individuals in a multitude of ways.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=cyber-bullying

Sweeping the Nation

In the last decade, there has been an enormous rise in the use of networking websites that ultimately forms a gateway for cyberbullying. This raises the question, are teens mature enough to partake in online social sites like facebook, myspace, twitter and instant messaging? Nightly news broadcasts are full of reports about online harassment and also some cases of suicide due to the lack of respect for others in cyber space. Teens and even young adults are not taking into consideration the power of words, even if they are not explicitly said face to face. The effects of bullying online are much more potent than most predict. The ability of harmful words to be read repeatedly makes the dangers of cyberbullying more threatening than bullying taking place at schools or other social settings. Cyberbulling is a sociological problem that needs to be taken seriously.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=cyber-bullying&um=1&hl

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=cyber-bullying&um=1&hl