text-based research paper

Enhancing law penalty to prevent cyberbullying among adolescents

Ling 200

SDSU

Bullying, “the repeated use of aggression against someone who cannot easily defend themselves” (Olweus, 1997), has always been a big issue in education area. Various ways were used to prevent bullying in school; however, in spite of continuous efforts to stop bullying, bullying started to take place not only at classrooms, but also at outside of classrooms as technology developed. As bullying takes place online, it is called “cyberbullying” and is defined as “an aggressive intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself” (Smith et al., 2008). Every harmful action towards people who are incapable of defending themselves via online would be considered as cyberbullying. According to Cyberbullying Research Center (2014), the rate of cyberbullying victimization in middle and high schools across the United States has grown to 34.6%, and near 25-30% of teenagers reported experiencing cyberbullying (Beran & Li, 2005; Li, 2007; Patchin & Hinduja, 2006). As the number of victims is growing and cyberbullying is becoming more severe, it is very important for people to acknowledge effects of cyberbullying that can lead to tragic consequences. Furthermore, not only should the negative effects of cyberbullying be discussed, but also problems of current preventive programs should be known and thus solutions to prevent cyberbullying should be discussed.

In terms of effects of cyberbullying, it is important to discern what the possible impacts that cyberbullying can have on teenagers are, because teenagers tend to respond more sensitively on in bullying situations (Beran & Li, 2005; Kowalski & Limber, 2007; Li, 2007). Cyber bullied victims reported experiencing emotional and psychological affronts. Cyberbullying experience can lower one’s self-esteem, bring great level of depression, bring academic failure, and social anxiety (Williford et al,. 2013). A 15 year-old girl from LA was a victim of cyber bullying. She tried to avoid going to school, her self-confidence fell, and she also started to fail her classes. Not only does it bring great level of depression, but it can lead to much more crucial consequences: suicide. There was a 14 year-old girl from Minnesota, who was bullied and started to get an idea of committing a suicide due to the pain. She commented that "Cyber Bullying is a serious topic! I was bullied and began to cut myself...They told people to walk up to me and ask me if I was a hoe, lesbian, dyke, slut, pregnant.. etc. I couldn't take it anymore I was on the verge of suicide…” This comment clearly shows that cyber bullying had negative effect on her. Experiencing cyberbullying can cause teenagers to feel depression as well as fear. Another case, a 22 year-old girl also wrote about her high school story on “Cyber Bullying Us,” saying that “They would instant message me and tell me I was going to die. They were going to kill me. I was afraid to leave the house, to have friends, to pick up the phone. I lived in fear for so long.” This shows how cyberbullying can have effect on a person for long time. Cyberbullying does not just make the victim fearful for the moment, but it could make them fear for their whole life; it can traumatize victim. Unlike traditional bullying, which is done in actual situation, cyberbullying may not directly cause physical wound; however, it can eventually lead to physical harm to the victims of cyberbullying. For example, the girl stated above started to hurt herself because she could not bear the psychological pain of being bullied. As cyberbullying can lead to severe consequences in a psychological, emotional as well as physical way, it is very important to find measures to reduce the number of cyber victimization.

As the number of cyberbullying victimization is increasing, several programs were suggested to reduce cyberbullying such as “the KIVA program” and “the VISC Social Competence Program” (Williford et al, 2013; Gradinger et al., 2015). Both of the programs were suggested to prevent cyberbullying and cyber victimization. The KIVA program puts importance on “the behaviors of bystanders” so that their behavior in classes can weaken the atmosphere of bullying. Another suggested idea, VISC social Competence Program is a program which teaches both teachers and students to prevent bullying through practices and projects. It is very structured program which can apply to general anti-bullying program. Both programs were designed concisely; however, it was not effective enough to show distinctive results. Both of the programs have failed to prevent cyberbullying because they overlooked the difference between traditional bullying and cyberbullying.

Bullying in general and cyberbullying differ in several ways; anonymity and constraint on time and space (Williford et al, 2013). Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying has higher anonymity; it is unlikely to find out who the bullies are. Victims of cyberbullying suffer more because identity is not revealed online. They may assume who assailants are; however, it is more fearsome when they are in a defenseless state due to an uncertain attacker. Not only does it make victims more suffer, but also it makes those programs such as “the KIVA program” less likely to prevent cyberbullying. As the main focus of the KIVA program is “bystanders,” it is hard to find bystanders because of anonymity. Another feature of cyberbullying is that there are no constraints in regards to time and space. Cyberbullying can occur whenever and wherever as long as victims and bullies have electric devices since it takes place online. Thus, cyberbullying needs a specified solution apart from general bullying to be prevented.

As a solution to prevent cyberbullying, strengthening the law related to cyberbullying could be the most effective idea for several reasons; current laws in U.S are weak to prevent cyberbullying and by strengthening the law it will awaken assailants to be more aware of consequences of their behaviors. Current laws in the United States are not weak to cover cyberbullying. According to State Cyber Bullying Laws (2014), there are 31 states in U.S that does not consider cyberbullying in their laws although cyberbullying has been occurring severely. The law should be strengthened and cover not only traditional bullying, but also cyberbullying which is frequently happening around the world. The law should be specifically established for cyberbullying. Another reason that reinforcing law could be a way to stop cyberbullying is that teenagers are less responsible with their behaviors because the penalty is more generous compared to adults. There was an actual case in Korea; a boy who bullied his classmate very severely and made the victim to attempt a suicide was asked whether he was not afraid of the punishment. The boy answered that he was not afraid because the law is not severe. Assailants would be more considerate with their actions if they acknowledge the consequences. By strengthening the law, assailants would reflect on their behaviors. Some people may insist that it could cause negative sequence rather than positive effect by saying “Once passed, a law is not easily revoked, and must be obeyed even if it causes more harm than good” (Israel C. Kalman); however, if the law is concisely established, it will do more good than harm.

To conclude, cyberbullying is occurring more times and severely. As cyberbullying have distinctive features such as anonymity and unrestrained physical environment, it is important to consider cyberbullying apart from general, traditional bullying. To prevent cyberbullying, law should be strengthened so that assailants can be more aware of their behaviors and so that cyberbullying can be considered as much important as general bullying. If the law is strengthened, the number of cyberbullying would reduce gradually.

References

Beran, T., & Li, Q. (2005). Cyber-harassment: A study of a new method for an old behavior. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 32, 265–277.

Cyber bullying research center (2014). Retrieved Dec.13. 2014 from http://cyberbullying.us/

Gradinger, P., Yanagida, T., Strohmeier, D., & Spiel, C. (2015). Prevention of Cyberbullying and Cyber Victimization: Evaluation of the ViSC Social Competence Program. Journal Of School Violence,14(1), 87-110. doi:10.1080/15388220.2014.963231

Kowalski, R. M., & Limber, S.P. (2007). Electronic bullying among middle school students. journal of Adolescent Health, 41, S22–S30.

Li, Q. (2007). New bottle but old wine: A research of cyberbullying in schools. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 1777–1791.

Olweus , D. ( 1994 ). Bullying at school: Long-term outcomes for the victims and an effective school-based intervention program . In L. R. Huesmann (Ed.), Aggressive behavior: Current perspectives (pp. 97 – 130 ). New York , NY : Plenum

Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2006). Bullies move beyond the schoolyard: A preliminary look at cyberbullying. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 4, 148–169.

Roberto, A. J., Eden, J., Savage, M. W., Ramos-Salazar, L., & Deiss, D. M. (2014). Outcome Evaluation Results of School-Based Cybersafety Promotion and Cyberbullying Prevention Intervention for Middle School Students. Health Communication, 29(10), 1029-1042. doi:10.1080/10410236.2013.831684

Smith, P.K. Mahdavi, J. Carvalho, M. Fisher, S. Russell, S. Tippett N. (2008) Cyberbullying: Its nature and impact in secondary school pupils Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, pp. 376–385