Perception of Cyber Bullying - Research Paper Example

Introduction. The world has been undergoing persistent transformation. Some of these transformations have been attributed to the trending developments in science and technology. Hereunder, among many areas encompassing science and technology that have impacted on human lives, information technology has stood out. Indeed, information technology has changed the lives of people across the globe. Information technology has reduced the world to a global village through fostering of advanced forms of communication. However, with the advancements in information technology have arisen insecurity issues. Insecurity issues have in turn sparked far reaching implications to the users. In particularly, insecurity issues in information technology have been closely associated with internet usability. This comes when the usefulness of internet cannot be presently overemphasized. It is for this reason that information technology and security issues become critical. Important, though, have been the concerns on how to address these forms of insecurity. The aspect on information technology that is paramount to this discussion is cyber bullying. Cyberbullying has been known to affect mostly the youth especially of school going age and partly adults who often use internet and mobile phones for communication purposes. As research would have it, cyberbullying has been said to vary with age. However, one thing that remains unclear is whether gender affects cyberbullying. This paper seeks to find out if actually gender is a factor as far as cyberbulling is concerns. The paper approaches this topic sing different points of views as pointed out by a number of researchers. It involves controversy and issues opposing viewpoints of different researchers to this topic. Background information Cyber bullying has emerged to be the newest platform on which the youths are increasingly abusing each other According to (Hopeline 73). The more concerning issue is that there are currently no appropriate techniques that intervene for cyber bullying despite large numbers of kids who access the information technologies. Internet and cell phone communications have been cited as tools for Cyber bullying. According to Hopline, what appalls even more is that Cyber bullying occurs during kids’ class time. Hopline cites that cyber bullying has far reaching implications on kids, so that the victims (kids) of cyber bullying only feel safe when in their bedrooms. According to Hopline, it does not under all circumstances hold that cyber bullying causes physical harm. However, cyber bullying is mostly associated with causation of harmful emotional fallout which may cumulate to other gar reaching consequences. Hopeline cites an example of Megan Meier; the girl aged 13 who committed suicide after belittlement by a hacker (her mother’s friend) that posed on MySpace as a boy aged 16 years. Hopline acknowledges that peer to peer cyber bullying is the most rampant, but its implications are not so severe. Effective curbing of cyber bullying would entail instilling of ethical morals among the youth, which will help them suit to information technologies. Hopline argues that there can be no an over-reactive approach as parents barring their kids from accessing technology in attempt to curb cyber bullying. Hopline suggests that an appropriate ramification procedure would entail the parents convening to open meetings, where then the parents can share and appropriately advice their kids on cyber bullying. Parents should be tactical so to dispel rebellion from their kids. Parents should not ignore the fact that all have under high risks of cyber bullying; terms such as ‘some kids are immune’ should not exist since all are sensitive to belittlement. Other intervention techniques should encompass teaching the kids on the importance of respect. In the case where kids are cyber-bullied, appropriate intervention procedures should be followed before the situation gets out of hand. It is factual that kids are major victims of cyber bullying. It is also true that cyber bullying is so rampant that it has extended into kids’ classroom. The proposed techniques are also appropriate, but to limited extend. However, Hopline misses out a point in assuming that moral deviance among kids is to blame for rampant cyber bullying. Hopline forgets that adults (such as the Megan Meier’s hacker) are part of cyber-bullies. Due to this, Hopline also misses out a point in laying emphasis on the need for parents to be outgoing in advising their kids. How could this connected with addressing adult-to-kid cyber bullying? Hopline should have gone extra mile to address adult-to-kid cyber bullying, if only cyber-bullying is to be curbed. The use of Network Intrusion and Detection System (NIDS) in curbing cyber crimes (Mell 68). NIDS refers to a system designed to detect suspect or malicious activities. This is achieved via Network Security Monitoring (NSM). Scarfone and Mell insist that the importance of NIDS to security sensitive organization cannot be overemphasized. They cite that organizations should prefer the use of NIDS to other Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS). This is because it does not only impact greatly on the network security, but it is cheaper and takes short time to deploy. Taking of short time to deploy averts maximum damage of the intrusion. Furthermore, it has a potential of effectively monitoring all internet traffic, immediately relaying feedback on internet security nature and can detect attacks that other ID cannot. NIDS is suited to Demilitarized zones, the epicenter of computer attacks. In addition, NIDS channels reports of both successful and unsuccessful attacks. The reports are important as they foster better understanding on the criticality of the network, the effectiveness of the detection systems subject to security enhancement. NIDS can be used a tool for forensic evidence for it cannot be easily tampered with. Counter-argument Cyberbullying is the “utility of information and technologies of communication in supporting deliberate, hostile and repeated behavior by a person intended to be harmful to others” (Bigsby 12). It may take various forms, ranging from constantly harassing the victim, sending rude, harmful and embarrassing information to the victim or to other people who could or could not know the victim. Cyber bullying also includes stalking the victim through the Internet and impersonating the victim. Bloom has determined the main avenues through which ‘cyber bullies’ harass their victims (Bloom 28). According to the researchers, cyber bullying is usually done through the help of mobile phones, emails, chat rooms online, instant messenger programs, blogs, websites and recently, with the advent of social networking websites, cyber bullies have a whole new avenue to help them in their bullying. There are also online forums such as Form spring, which enable bullies to send messages to their victim(s) anonymously, as often as they like. Due to the improvements in the technology, it is now possible to post links of websites on another website, thereby leading the way for gossip or other damaging information to spread among a larger audience. Compared to traditional bullying, as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, cyber bullying is less prevalent. However, the cyber bullying that does take place is usually done through the Internet, particularly through instant messaging tools, with mobile phones being used at a less frequent basis. There are also some individuals who resort to cyber bullying by posting video clips online with harmful messages or photos, but again, like mobile phones, such an avenue for cyber bullying is not resorted to on a large scale. Bloom shows that there is a direct relation between bullying and gender (Bloom 24). According to Bandura, males are the ones who are usually found to bully or be bullied either physically or verbally (Bandura 9). Bandura literates that male are, by nature, usually aggressive and are the ones more likely to feel the need to dominate their peers. They also seem to feel less empathy for those who they bully, as compared to the females (Bandura 64). Females, on the other hand, are the ones who usually engage in indirect forms of bullying, or are likely to be bullied indirectly. In fact, in an earlier study by Defloor, it was shown that only 0.4 percent female respondents engaged in aggressive forms of bullying, while 15.6 percent of the respondents who engaged in aggressive forms of bullying were males (Defloor 19). Further, 17.4 percent of the respondents who had engaged in “relational aggression” were females, while only 2 percent of the respondents who exhibited the same type of aggression were males. This is supported by a more recent study conducted by Defloor, who has stressed that males are, by nature, more aggressive in a physical manner, when bullying their victim, as compared to females (Defloor 27). Females tend to engage in verbal aggression, and tend to also engage in relation aggression. A research study conducted in Australia that sought to find out the influence of gender on the rate of bullying concluded that there is really no significance played by gender when it comes to the ones inflicting the bullying and the ones being bullied (Defloor 45). With regards to cyber bullying, Flanagan has determined that males are more likely to engage in cyber bullying practices in comparison to other female individuals (Flanagan 16). In fact, in the study conducted by Flanagan, 1.4 percent of the respondents admitted to engage in cyber bullying, this percentage referring to the male respondents and only 0.4 percent of the respondents who engaged in the same practice were female (Flanagan 6). However, with regards to the victims, differences between the male and female respondents were not significant. 2.2 percent of the respondents who had been victims to cyber bullying were males, while 2.2 percent of the respondents who claimed to have experienced the same form of bullying were females. Flanagan had also noted in his study that the male respondents tended to engage in cyber bullying more than the females (Flanagan 26). In his study, Flanagan noted that 62 percent of the respondents had been harassed online or through the use of some device (mobile phones for instance), at least once to thrice as an average (Flanagan 27). 37.8 respondents claimed to have been bullied through the internet more than three times. Nevertheless, cyber bullying where the cyber bullies are female, tend to be more distressing or damaging as compared to the males. This is because females are more likely to inflict verbal aggression in a manner that is more hurtful to the victim. Males are not at par with females when it comes to this. Rebuttal: The information provided in the preceding paragraphs have pinpointed to bullying being more prevalent among males (especially cyber bullying) (Campel 5). It was stated that gender differences with regards to the victims were not significant. However, Flanagan, thinks otherwise (Flanagan 23.) He states that the usual targets of cyber bullying are females especially when it comes to instances of “sexual harassment.” Researchers Flanagan has stated in their study that both bullying and sexual harassment are experiences that are related (Flanagan 17). This is because the results of both are practically the same and sexual harassment behaviors are in the form of bullying. Campel has listed sexual statements, jokes and gossip as among sexual harassment behaviors that can be considered as bullying (Campel 27). Included in this list are the posting and/or sending of rude photographs, illustrations, the sending of inappropriate messages or letters, posting public messages, commenting on one’s sexual orientation, being touched in a manner that can be considered as sexual, being stalked or spied on. Conclusion It can be concluded from this discussion that the reason why there is a gender difference in bullying behaviors is because of “evolutionary influences.” According to them, males tend to give more importance towards achieving a certain “physical status” and this is why they tend to exhibit violent forms of behaviors- specifically physical aggression. Additionally, females appear to give more importance to their relationships with others and tend to give importance to protecting their reputation, as compared to their male individuals. This means that, according to the researchers, achieving a certain level of social status may be behind the reason why there are differences in bullying among males and females. On the other hand, one of the reasons why girls tend to engage in verbal bullying is because they possess communication skills that are not equal to their male counterparts. Another study found that females are more vulnerable than their male in “holding a grudge” for a longer period of time than the males. Females generally avoid confrontation and use technology as a means of facing their victims without necessarily letting their identity be known (Lewis 30). Thus, the more serious the injury, the more likely the negative outcome(s). It was also noted by Lewis that girls are more likely to complain or relay to an adult their problems with bullying, as compared to the boys (Lewis 26). The study further stated that females were more likely to think of adults as individuals who could help solve the problem. Females were more likely to believe that an adult could help them and they also exhibited the willingness to inform an adult about their bullying dilemma, which was not the case for the boys. Work cited. Bigsby, John. Perception of cyber bullying. New York: Oxford publishers. 2994. Print. Bloom, Beker. Computer crimes. Homewood Ill: Dow Jones Irwin.2002.print. Bandura, Aron. Social fundamentals of cyber bullying. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice hall. Defloor, Schuijmar. Preventing pressure in computer use. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2000.print. Lewis, Benny. Cyber bullying. Boston: Thomson Course Technology. 2004.Print. Campel, Sue. Impacts of cyber bullying. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson. 2003.Print Flanagan, Mart. How to curb Cyber bullying. Wound Care Society, Huntington: Grous publishers. 2007. Print. Read More