Think of how many children and teens have access to computers and mobile phones in
today’s world. There’s a lot of them. Keep in mind the unlimited internet access that comes
along with all of these electronic devices. All the information they could ever need is right at
their fingertips. But, with the increasing use of texting, instant messaging, and social media,
there’s also a darker side to this internet world. Now, think of cyberbullying, and who all could
be affected by this type of bullying. Most individuals only think of kids or young adults, but
really, anyone can be a victim of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is very different from normal
bullying, and in the end can cause much more emotional damage in the end. With this type of
bullying, bullies are able to hide behind the screens and have a sense of security that they won’t
get caught. They can say whatever they want, and most of the time, it is completely anonymous.
So what problems are caused by cyberbullying? Well one of the major issues with cyberbullying
is that, most of the time, no one is aware that it is happening besides those involved. There is no
physical evidence that cyberbullying is occurring, so unless the children decide to talk about it,
or the parents are monitoring their children’s activity online, there is no way to know it is
occurring. Some other major issues include, depression and anxiety, changes in sleeping and
eating patterns, loss of interest in usually enjoyable activities, and increased health complaints.
These are some issues that can persist into adulthood if not resolved early. Children and teens
can also experience decreased academic achievement as well. GPAs drop, school participation
decreases, and this could eventually lead to an increase in absences and eventual drop outs as
well. Cyberbullying isn’t something that should be taken lightly, and these issues should be
handled early before they get too far out of control. In extreme situations, when cyberbullying is
left unresolved, some children end up committing suicide because they can’t handle the
harassment any longer. There are solutions to these problems. Parents need to talk to their
Exploratory Essay: Cyberbullying Spivey 2
children. Don’t just assume they’re okay. If something seems different, sit down and talk to
them. Communication is the best solution. Parents should also monitor their children’s activities
online. Check what games they’re playing, look into the frequently visited websites, and pay
attention to who they’re talking to and what is being said. Don’t just let them keep everything
bottled up until it gets too far out of control to handle. For this essay, I looked into a lot of
studies and journal articles focused mainly on cyberbullying with children, as well as a book
giving children and teens advice on how to stay safe online and ways they should behave when
Nicole L. Weber and William V. Pelfrey, Jr., data from middle and high school students was
collected to further explore the connections between the online and face-to-face environments. It
also discusses protocols, policies, and approaches to recognizing and dealing with cyberbullying.
With this generation, teenagers have unlimited access to internet and communication with others.
With calling, texting, and social networking, teenagers are given a constant communication with
their friends and peers. While social technology provides a space for friends to close the after
school physical difference, it can unfortunately become a space to spread rumors and socially
sabotage peers by inflicting fear, helplessness, and humiliation (Weber, Pelfrey Jr., 2014).
During the research period of this article, 11% of the students had reported being cyberbullied
over the past few months, and 72% reported an incident of cyberbullying at least once. Sending
demeaning things on someone else’s status or pictures are all forms of cyberbullying teens and
children are facing today. But it’s not just through social media or cellphones, it can happen
through video games as well. Another article written by Mhana Khatib looked into cyberbullying
Exploratory Essay: Cyberbullying Spivey 3
within digital gaming and the effects violent video games have on teenagers. Digital space
allows attackers to more easily evade the consequences of their actions because children and
adolescents avoid involving adults in their experiences for a variety of reasons (Kahtib, 2018).
Children fear that involving adults will result in them loosing access to the network they are
using, and they see this as punishment. They also fear that the attacker cannot be found or that
the bullying cannot be proven. Cyberbullying can happen anywhere to anyone. These article also
support the fact that cyberbullying can happen right under the parent’s nose, and unless they are
brought into the situation, they may never know about it at all. I honestly didn’t know that 72%
This brings me into my next source, Who is involved in Cyberbullying…, written by Anja
Schultze-Krumbholz, Markus Hess, Jan Pfetsch, and Herbert Scheithauer. A degrading comment
on a social networking site, mean insults in a classroom chat, spreading an embarrassing picture
of a person to all of their friends – many forms of cyberbullying take place in a social context
and aim to humiliate some in front of others (Schultze-Krumbholz, Hess, Pfetsch, & Scheithauer,
2018). This article also looked into gender and cyberbullying roles, as well as age roles. Most
studies on gender in connection with cyberbullying focus on both the victim and bully role. The
results show no specific patterns based on gender. Some studies show boys to be the
cyberassistants while girls were more likely to be the cyberdefenders, and other studies showed
no gender differences at all. When it comes to bystanders, studies show that it is more likely for
children to step in and intervene in cyberbullying when adolescents stay out of it. Comparing 10
to 14 year olds and 15 to 19 year olds, there were no differences when it came to age. Both age
groups were most likely to either report doing nothing or helping the victim and least likely to
report joining in the cyberbullying when asked to pick from a list of actions they had taken when
Exploratory Essay: Cyberbullying Spivey 4
someone they know was cyberbullied (Schultze-Krumbholz, Hess, Pfetsch, & Scheithauer,
2018). Besides gender and age, this article also looked into self-esteem roles when it comes to
cyberbullying roles. The research shown in this article mainly focuses on the relation between
self-esteem and cyberbullying in victims. The investigated results found no association between
self-esteem and prosocial bystander behavior, but it did indicate that those adolescents with
lower self-esteem were more willing to step in and help the victims of bullying. When comparing
gender roles in cyberbullying, I really believed before doing this research that girls would be
more involved in cyberbullying than boys would. That was surprising, and it made me want to
look more into ways to prevent cyberbullying and tips for coping.
In the book written by Vanessa Rogers, she walks us through ways to help children and
teenagers stay safe online, while also teaching them the proper ways to act and behave online.
She also gives tips to parents on how to keep their children safe. A few tips include, but are not
limited to, being alert to your child being upset after using their phone or the internet, use
parental controls on computers and keep the passwords safe, encourage children to resist the urge
to retaliate, don’t accept friend requests unless you personally know the person, and contact the
police when serious threats are made and use saved evidence. Keep communication open and
encourage your children to talk to you about anything and everything. Rogers also provides good
advice for getting children to talk about cyberbullying. Ask the questions, “has someone done
something to upset you? Is it online, through email, or text? How often does it happen? Have you
ever been physically threatened? How can I help make it stop, without embarrassing you?”
These are all very good ways to get your child to open up and trust in the parent to help. We all
know that cyberbullying is such a growing epidemic, and we also know that unless children
speak up, there’s really no way to be aware of it unless we are paying attention. Communicate. It
Exploratory Essay: Cyberbullying Spivey 5
is very important to know what your children are getting into, before they get too far into where
they can no longer be helped. Don’t let the bullies rule the internet.
Now that we’ve seen the facts and read the research, is it a little easier to understand how
anyone can be a victim at any time? This generation is all about cell phones and internet. We live
on it and use it for almost everything we do in our lives. It could be very easy for someone to
slide into our text messages, email, or social media and pick on us or send a nasty rumor around.
Bullying in general is a growing epidemic, but cyberbullying is getting worse. Bullies believe
they’re safe hiding behind the screen, and as stated earlier, children don’t always speak up for
fear of repercussions. There are no pros to cyberbullying but the lists of cons goes on and on. I
believe people cyberbully because they are insecure about themselves, so they take it out on
others trying to bring them down as well. Cyberbullying can lead to a number of health
achievement and involvement. Those bullied are also more likely to be driven to retaliate and
take extreme measures. Most of the school shooting involved kids who had been bullied as the
shooter. Bullying can also be linked to suicide, but this mainly occurs in very extreme cases
where the victims feel like there is no other option. Again, cyberbullying isn’t something that
should just be brushed under the table and forgot about. This is a real problem that needs a real
solution. Parents talk to your kids, and kids, don’t be afraid to speak up. We learned earlier that
children are afraid to speak up in fear that the adults won’t believe them or that their access to
the internet will be taken away as punishment. They also believe that the bully or attacker won’t
be caught because they hide behind the screen. But this isn’t always the case, speaking up could
help. If your child is acting differently after being online or being on their phone, talk to them
Exploratory Essay: Cyberbullying Spivey 6
and find out what’s wrong, don’t be a bystander and let this continue happening. Cyberbullying
causes many problems, but open communication could help solve a lot of them.
Works Cited
Barlett, C. P., & Fennel, M. (2018). Examining the relation between parental ignorance and
560. https://doi-org.login.library.coastal.edu:8443/10.1037/ppm0000139
Barlett, C. P., Heath, J. B., Madison, C. S., DeWitt, C. C., & Kirkpatrick, S. M. (2019). You’re
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Dennehy, R., Cronin, M., & Arensman, E. (2019). Involving young people in cyberbullying
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KHATIB, M. (2018). Digital Game, Cyberbullying and Risk for Teenagers. Social Research
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Patterson, V. C., Closson, L. M., & Patry, M. W. (2019). Legislation awareness, cyberbullying
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Rogers, V. (2010). Cyberbullying : activities to help children and teens to stay safe in a texting,
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ect=true&db=cat01539a&AN=ccuc.b1373286&site=eds-live
Schultze-Krumbholz, A., Hess, M., Pfetsch, J., & Scheithauer, H. (2018). Who is involved in
cyberbullying? Latent class analysis of cyberbullying roles and their associations with
org.login.library.coastal.edu:8443/10.5817/CP2018-4-2
Van Hee, C., Jacobs, G., Emmery, C., Desmet, B., Lefever, E., Verhoeven, B., … Hoste, V.
(2018). Automatic detection of cyberbullying in social media text. PLoS ONE, 13(10), 1–
22. https://doi-org.login.library.coastal.edu:8443/10.1371/journal.pone.0203794
Weber, N. L., & Pelfrey, W. V. (2014). Cyberbullying : causes, consequences, and coping
strategies. El Paso, Texas : LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2014. Retrieved from
http://login.library.coastal.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dir
ect=true&db=cat01539a&AN=ccuc.b1937812&site=eds-live