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Negative Impacts of
Cyber-bullying

Zhou YuanYuan (Gloria)

PRE-SESSIONAL COURSE
July 2014

Class B1/7

The Language Centre

EFL Unit
University of Glasgow

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Negative Impacts of Cyber-bullying

The Internet has become an integral part of people's daily communication. Social
networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are the most popular
Internet-based communities. The Guardian shows that the number of active
users of Facebook has boosted to 1.23 billion by the end of 2013 (Sedghi, 2014).
In the US, 94% of teenagers from 12 to 17 used the Internet, 71% of them had
social network site profiles in 2010 (Li, 2012). On these social networking sites,
they rudely spread negative emotions, even teasing, bullying, defaming
humiliating others, although at most times, normal or polite expressions are used
Hinduja and Patchin, 2009. This has caused the serious social problem of
cyber bullying which is directed against in teenages and children. They are
immature and lack coping or cognitive skills; therefore they can be easily
influenced by willful bullies. Cyber-bullying is the deliberate, malicious and
repeated harm. Teens use various electronics devices to harass, threaten or hurt
peers by instant messages, emails and social networking sites, this definition is
held by Myers, Mccaw and Hemphill (2011, cited in the national crime
prevention council). This essay aims to discuss the consequences of the problem
and the current proper solutions. The essay briefly describes the definition of
cyber-bullying, the reasons for the problem and their impact on society, and their
serious consequences. Finally, there is an evaluation of these approaches,
followed by the conclusion.

Cyber-bullying is a significant problem in society. There are three reasons. Firstly

there is a considerable number of victims of cyber-bullying (Li, 2012, cited in
Willard, et al, 2006). The Guardian (Topping, 2014) demonstrates that the cases
of online bullying have doubled to 4507 in 2012-2013. Seven in ten young people
experienced cyber bullying, with 54% of adolescents being bullied on Facebook
in the UK in 2013 (Hackett, 2013). Secondly, statistics show there is a high
prevalence of cyber-bullying. From the survey of Hinduja and Patchin (2009,

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cited in Juvonen and Gross, 2008), in a sample of 1454, 72% of twelve to

seventeen-year-old Americans had experienced cyber-bullying at least once, 41%
of them reported being subjected to between one and three incidents and 19% of
them had experienced seven or more incidents. Thirdly, cyber-bullying is an
extension of traditional bullying, which is an old problem, which has a deeply
adverse impact on society, and has been studied at great length in education,
sociology, psychology, psychiatry and criminology. Accordingly the term of
traditional bullying tends to become violence rather than harassment
(Hinduja and Patchin, 2009, cited in Johnson 1991). These findings are
supported in research by Hinduja and Patchin (2009), who note that
cyber-bullying harasses others psychologically beyond physical aggressions.

Psychological consequence of cyber-bullying can be very damaging to

adolescents and teens. It causes a detrimental effect on juvenile well-being: it
results in anxiety, depression, and even suicide. Topping (2014) reports that, in
2012-2013 the case of online bullying soared by 87%, a 41% rising in contacts
about self-harm and a 33% increase in those tempted to commit suicide. The
suicide of a 14 year-old girl Amy caused a protest in Italy, which aroused the
attention of the general public (Padova, 2013). On the other hand, online bullying
is a vicious circle, some of these victims probably either are perpetrators or
cyber-bullies, because of their abnormal or revengful mindset and they might
find relief in upsetting. Hinduja and Patchin (2009) mention that some of them
are more easily subject to bullying, associated with intellectual disability or in
loneliness with high frequency using of the Internet or mobile phones.

Owing to the characteristics of the Internet, the consequences of cyber-bullying

are uncontrollable. Hinduja and Patchin (2009) point out first of all victims
experience bullying online may be harmed deeply. Cyber-bullying spreads
without space and time limitation. Rumour, gossips and malicious behaviors can
be repeated, and be diffused rapidly. Also, anonymity challenges the supervision.

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The perpetrators can escape and hide themselves without any punishment.
Anonymity and pseudonymity are common phenomenon. Cellan (2012) reports
that Facebook has more than 83 million illegitimate accounts in 2012. Whereas,
Hinduja and Patchin (2009) notice that it is easy to set up a fictitious account on
a social networking site and it requires few skills. Additionally, as a point of
reference, the various methods of attack-though the medium of email, instant
texts, networking sites can be implemented at the same time, which leads to the
bullying go deeper. Furthermore, cyber-bullying is difficult to prevent. Most of
children cover the truth of being bullied, because they are concerned with the
access to the Internet. For example chatting, playing games, and posting their life
online would be limited by their parents once this problem is known (Hinduja
and Patchin, 2009).

The above difficulties have led governments, educational institutions and

parents to address this issue. The solutions provided by different countries are
divided in offline intervention and online prevention. Li (2012) finds that, from
the government perspective, offline Strategies contribute to legislations in the
USA, which can deter aggressors form bullying victims, such as fines and jail
sentences of up to two years. With respect to the importance of long-term effects,
Dinakar, et al, (2012) are in agreement. They mentioned that the law outlines
obligations of Internet providers, media websites, and public education
institutions in terms of educators, therefore they would take responsibility to
monitor childrens online and offline behavior and they will be punished once
cyber-bullying happens. In contrast to the USA, Germany and Britain are devoted
to educate. Educational institutions educate and train students and their parents
to stop their children from bullying each other through professional guidance
material. Moreover, governments and public educational institutions develop
anti-cyber-bullying policies and organize anti-cyber-bullying activities, in order
to raise public awareness. The UK has successfully set a series of
anti-cyber-bullying events (Hinduja and Patchin, 2009).

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Online prevention strategies involve supervision and censorship systems,

through setting online filters to effectively block a black list and install automatic
detection software to monitor contents such as profane words, inappropriate
expressions. While Ryde (2013) points out why the defection system works
effectively, which aims to maintain a clean and safe virtual world. Initially, prior
to the establishment of some detection software, the application of conventional
statistical machine was explored, afterwards collection and analysis of profane
words. In other words, set sensitive words library, which can directly inhibited
bullying words when they match the words from that library. Another online
strategy is to set a limitation of age for accessing to social networking sites,
which can filter a number of children. For example, the minimum age set for a
Facebook account is thirteen years old (Li, 2012), it means under that age
students can have less chance of facing the risk of online bullying.

From the above offline and online solutions the essay mentioned, the better
solution is online strategies. The reasons are shown below. To begin with,
compared with offline laws and policies, establishing and developing censorship
and supervision is an effective way to prevent cyber-bullying (Ryde, 2013),
because along with precisely new information updated quickly, which can avoid
catching some irregularly normal expressions, result in decreasing the amount of
cases. Also, online intervention system can catch bullies directly using the
detection software. They monitor IP address and set the rule for computer user
in public with required identification. Furthermore, they maintain the safe
cyberspace through the above detection techniques. On the other hand, the laws
and policies are useful when bullies can be caught offline (Ryde, 2013). Moreover,
it needs to take long time to educate or train teens and parents to avoid bullying
behavior in practice. However, online solutions also have some limitations, like
the shortage of capital, and updating new information immediately.

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To conclude, this essay interprets the reasons for cyber-bullying as a globally

significant problem amongst children and adolescents, with dire consequences.
Governments and educational systems offer solutions. However, there is room for
improvement. The recommendations are: to complete relevant laws and policies
in some unreached countries; widely use the accurate name system on social
websites; finally, online strategies can be improved and developed in some
countries despite the limitations in finance and resources.

Word Count: 1361

Reference:
Cellan, R. (2012), Facebook has more than 83 million illegitimate accounts, Available:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19093078 (accessed 12th July, 2014)
Dinakar, K., Jones, B., Havasi, C., Lieberman, H., and Picard, R. (2012), Common
sense reasoning for detection, prevention, and mitigation of cyberbullying. ACM
Trans, Article 18, P30
Li, Q., Cross, D. and Smith, P. (2012) Cyberbullying in the Global Playground,
Wiley-Blackwell, P4, P9, P42, P121
Myers, J., Mccaw, S. and Hemphill, J. (2011), Responding to Cyberbullying: An
Action Tool for School Leaders, Corwin Press, P3, P5,
Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. (2009) Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and
Responding to Cyberbullying, Corwin Press, P5, P75, P7, P60-63, P69-70, P88, P141
Padova, M. (2012), Cyberbullying suicide: Italy shocked by Amnesia Ask.fm case,
BBC, 12 February 2014
Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26151425 (accessed 6th July,
2014)
Ryde, N. (2013), Managing Cyber-bullying in Online Educational Virtual, ACM
Press

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Sedghi, A. (2014), Facebook: 10 years of social networking, numbers, The Guardian,

Tuesday 4 February
Available:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/feb/04/facebook-in-numbers-statisti
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Topping, A. (2014), Cyberbullying: increasing number of children suffering, says
ChildLine, The Guardian, Wednesday 8 January 2014
Available:
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