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The Cyberbullying Epidemic Essay

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Bullying has always affected teens and children in some form or another, but in modern times, with the advent of the internet and social networking, we have the first generations of young people facing a much more insidious assailment: cyberbullying. It is one much stronger than what traditional bullying once was, and poses problems of greater magnitude. For victims, this fairly new entity of social aggression has them facing substantially greater intimidation and emotional harm. Several issues even arise in protecting these victims. First, the inherent element of cyberbullying is that it’s everywhere. It’s so widespread, it is present to the victim in a completely different way than physical or verbal abuse. The heavy reliance …show more content…

If adults are not aware of basically anything going on they obviously can’t be there to intervene. It’s a completely different situation from the typical school-scene confrontation where adults can hear and see the mistreatment, intervene, parents are notified, and discipline occurs. In the grand scheme, cyberbullying is what comes to be in a way a silent plague of long-lasting harm
From the bully’s standpoint, the internet’s nature also comes into play to make things worse. It’s so much easier for them to pick up a smart phone or access a computer to be mean and hostile to other kids because they can hide behind a screen. Before this advantage, bullies really had to have some sort of social or physical dominance over another, but now most anyone can be the bully because of the anonymity. Sometimes people don’t even have to be necessarily anonymous. Just the security of being behind a screen makes a false sense of dominance and control, and makes the bully even less afraid to say what he or she wants. The spectrum of who can become the bully broadens tremendously because of this advantage of the internet, and now their harmful actions and their impacts extend far beyond what limits bullies were previously confined prior to modern technology (Todd). When things are online, adults are less likely to notice anything because these social media are so youth-oriented. Adults are seldom aware of basically anything going on, so they obviously can’t be there to

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