Cyber bullying or social media bullying - Essay Example

e in harassing, demeaning and bullying others using the information technology and electronic devices, a practice commonly referred to as cyber bullying (“Prevent Cyber bullying”). Bullying can cause frustrations on the victims, especially those who are bullied constantly, resulting in psychological trauma or even more fatal occurrences such as suicide. Thus, parents should team up with their children to explore and develop safe ways of using technology, while monitoring and controlling their children’s internet use, to protect their children against cyber bullying.

The practice of receiving mean messages, threatening texts, hurtful posts or even negative and damaging rumors is something that is happening with teens and adolescents every single day globally. It is no longer unusual for teens to find sexually explicit and obscene photographs of them or their friends on the internet, even without knowing how pictures ended up there. According to bullyingstatistics.org, 50% of adolescents and teens have experienced cyber bullying, and equally 50% of the teens and adolescents have been involved in cyber bullying (bullyingstatistics.org). Additionally, one in every three adolescents has received threatening messages either through the Internet or over the phone, while 25% of teens have experienced repetitive cyber bullying (bullyingstatistics.org). Consequently, according to statistics from the meganmeierfoundation.org, 2.2 million school children reported having experienced cyber bullying in the USA in 2011 (“Bullying, Cyber bullying & Suicide Statistics”).

Most worrying though, is the fact that 38% of frequent bullied-victims in 2013 reported having suicidal thoughts, which sends a shock down the spine, considering that suicide has been identified as the third major cause of death for young people aged between 15 and 24 years (“Bullying, Cyber bullying & Suicide Statistics”). While the connection between cyber bullying and suicidal thoughts for 38% of