Ethics of Cyber Bullying By : Jessy Park

• When the majority of people think about ethical issues revolving around technologies, they think about things like hacking or misuse of personal data. However, despite all of those problems, cyber bullying is actually one of the biggest concern.

• Technology and the Internet has given everyone in the world the ability to access innumerable information, which most of them are informative and appropriate, but others contains inappropriate contents, such as hate speech or pornographic content.

• I would say technology has enabled teenagers to connect themselves with the outside world. Of course, this may be good if they send text, email, or communicate through the Internet, wanting to keep in touch with friends or family. However, it becomes a concern when someone tries to use technology as a way to spread hate and bully people. Do you think that is ethical? For me, I think cyber bullying or any other bullying is not ethical at all.

• Today, cyber bullying occurs at home, inside and outside of the classroom, and even in a wider community. The ethical issue is that the victims of cyber bullying are severely being humiliated, threatened, and harassed, which often leads to suicide.

Ethical perspective of Cyber bullying

What is Cyber bullying?• Cyber bulling is a form of bullying where one gets

perpetually harassed, tormented, threatened, or humiliated by another person or group through the use of Internet or any other technological device. It basically takes place utilizing electronic technology such as cell phones, computers, tablets, as well as social media communication tools.

• Sending offensive or harassing messages & using texts or social network sites to abuse and harass someone. Cyber

bullying is often done anonymously.

• Cyber bulling is still becoming an extremely common form of bullying throughout the world in which the victim’s lives have become distressing and filled with fear.

Cyber bullying: Direct Attacks• Direct attacks of cyber bullying includes text messaging

harassment, stealing passwords, impersonation, sending various pictures through emails & social networks, and using blogs & websites.

• Text messaging Harassment- Bullies may send offensive,

threatening, or hateful messages to others without knowing that it can seriously affect someone because certain words can be serious and hurtful.

• Passwords stealing- The bully may steal someone’s password, go into the account, and start to chat with other people, faking to be the real person of the account. The bully may even say hurtful or abusive things and cause anger and hatred to that person’s friends or strangers.

• Blogs & Websites- People sometimes use blogs as a way to damage others’ privacy and reputation. They create fake blogs or websites pretending to be the real person and plan to humiliate them.

Cyber bulling By Proxy:• When the cyber bully commands other person or

someone to abuse or do the dirty work, it’s called, “ Cyber bullying by proxy”. It is one of the most harmful cyber bullying because it gets a lot of people involved and it may be anonymous. The bully may sometimes try to get the friends of the victim or even complete strangers to be involved to become a part of the group and harass the victim.

• One serious example of cyber bullying by proxy is where the bullies take complete control of the victim’s account and send mean messages to all the friends on the list. The bully may also hack into the victim’s private account and steal their password so the victim can’t get into his/her account. After doing that, they can even set up a new account faking to be the victim. This would cause a lot of problems and will most likely bring anger to the friends of the victim. Most of the times, the friends would not know that it was the cyber bully doing it.

Forms of Cyber bullying • Since all interactions occurs online, it is very easy for the bullies

to harass or abuse someone whenever or wherever they wish. The text messages they send can also disseminate rapidly and spread to numerous people. • There are various ways in which cyber bullying can occur – offensive messages, spreading private information or rumors, impersonation, and many more.1. Harassment: I would say when the cyber bullying is persistent and personal, it is often referred as “ Harassment”. This form of cyber bullying is when the bully continuously “ pick on” someone and repeatedly send offensive and insulting messages to the victim.

2. Flaming: This is a common form of bullying where it is an “ online conflict”. The bully and the victim would use hurtful and vulgar language to one another through the internet or social networks.

3. Exclusion & outing: First of all, exclusion is another type of cyber bullying in which the bully purposely single out and leave a person out from an online groups on social networks or other sites. After excluding that person, the group would then consistently leave hurtful and abusive messages and harass the person that they “ singled out”. Outing is another form of cyber bullying where the bully would share private or personal information, pictures, or anything that would humiliate the victim publicly. When the information of the victim has been spread through the internet, the victim is considered as “ outed”.

Reasons for Cyber bullying• Boredom & Entertainment- Unfortunately, most bullies find bullying others

entertaining. They think harassing and humiliating someone is funny when it’s actually not. The bullies are usually in groups where they target one specific person and abuse them through the internet. They add excitement and drama in their lives through cyber bullying.

• Peer Pressure- Cyber bullies generally think that bullying others through social networks or any other site is normal and acceptable with their friends by their sides.

• Revenge / Frustration- In some cases, cyber bullies don’t see themselves as bullies, but they are just protecting their friends or someone or help in attempting to get back at someone who maltreated them.

• Power- Bullies tend to bully other people because they think it will show others that they are powerful and have absolute control of them. They basically want to gain power and want other people to be fearful of them. Hurting others makes them powerful is their thoughts.

• Anonymity-Since the bullies can easily avoid facing the victims , it provides them with the illusion that they won’t get caught. Cyber bullying can be anonymous, which makes it more dangerous.

• Ignorance of the consequences- Most of the cyber bullies do not realize the effects of it for themselves.

• You may wonder “ Why do people cyber bully others?” Below are several reasons why:

Effects of Cyber bullying

• Anxiety / Depression: The victims of cyber bullying often makes them doubt their worth and value. When they get bullied, they experience anxiety and extreme depression, which may also lead to other illnesses. Not only does the victim experience these effects, the bullied often face depression & anxiety too.

• Bullying others: Cyber bullying victims may sometimes receive too much pain that they would do the same thing that they received to harm others.

• Poor academic performance: Cyber bullying victims tend to avoid school because they don’t want to face the people bullying them or because they feel humiliated and embarrassed by the messages that were shared. Their grades will be poor too because they may experience stress and anxiety that they can’t concentrate on studying.

• Suicide: Cyber bullying increase the rates of suicide. When the victims are seriously threatened and tormented by the bullies through text messages, social media, and instant messaging, they often feel worthless and hopeless. As a result, they end their life by suiciding to stop the pain from the tormentors.

• Anyone can be the victims of cyber bullying – young children, teenagers, and even adults.

More Consequences of Cyber bullying

• Mood changes: Cyber bullying have to often face mood swings where they can’t control themselves. Their behavior may change instantly and they will most likely have a negative mood that lasts throughout the day and on other days. They can also experience insomnia, headaches, and extreme fatigue. The continuation of the changes in their moods can increase the risks of leading them to other severe illnesses.

• Stress-related disorders & other disorders: Due to the harsh messages and pain the victims get from the cyber bullies, cyber bullying causes intense stress for most of the victims.

• Isolation from friends and family: Cyber bulling mostly exclude the victims of the bullying from friends at school. Some people who were the victims’ best friends may start to avoid the victim and school. Also , the victim will most likely spend less time with his / her family at home .

How Cyber- bullied victims react?

Real Life Examples • Ryan Halligan is a 13 year old boy from Vermont who was a victim

of cyber bullying in 2013. At the time, he was harassed and humiliated by his friends online in which he received many messages questioning his sexual orientation. Due to the continuation of his peers cyber bullying on him, he decided to kill himself. He is not the only victim. There are countless teenagers being cyber bullied and 80 % of them chooses suicide as a way to escape.• Another depressing example was a 17 year old girl named, Rachael Neblett. She was a student at Bullitt East school who was less than 5 feet tall. Even though her height was an advantage for her in gymnastics and cheerleading, she was often a target for the bullies. Through her MySpace account, she began to continually receive threatening emails by an anonymous in 2006. Despite this happening, she kept it as secrets from her parents because she didn’t want to worry them. Extreme desperation and depression came to her and soon, she decided to take her life.

• Cyber bullying has caused numerous deaths by leading the victims to suffer and at the end, choose suicide as a way to end the bullying.

Statistics of Cyber bullying • More than half of the teenagers and young adolescents said

that they have been bullied online. 1 out of 4 has said it has occurred more than once for them.

• 81 % of people think that cyber bullying is an easier way to harass others than bullying in person because you can easily get away with it.

• 90% of people who experiences cyber bullying tends to not report the abuse but rather keep to themselves until it completely destroys them or they choose to suicide.

• Girls are twice the victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying compared to boys.

• Most cyber bullying victims experience low self esteem & other disorders and even considers suicide.

Graph on Cyber bullying

Ways to Alleviate Cyber bullying ( Prevention)

• Schools can take actions where they teach the children about the seriousness and awareness of cyber bullying.

• If you know anyone or someone who is being bullied, I recommend you to go tell an adult about the situation. If you are the victim, do not be afraid to inform any adult. You shouldn’t be keeping it to yourself and letting the pain cut you deep.

• Remember that it won’t get resolved if you just ignore the situation. Also, if you are being bullied, make sure you stay calm before you take any action and do anything wrong. You can also try to block the cyber bullying person or group of people .• You should never share personal information online to

anyone or to meet someone that you only know through the internet.

• Keep the records as evidences and always try to reach for help. Also, keep in mind that it is not your fault that the bullying situation is happening.

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