Cyberbullying. How is social media changing the nature of cyberbully? How can we respond to cyberbullying? How can we make laws to govern it?

Control of Cyberbullying
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Control of Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying lacks a universal definition owing to the missing conceptual clarity. However, of all the definitions devised, a common element as demonstrated by Wong-Lo and Bullock (2011) “it is the bullying that takes place in the digital medium or realm of the electronic texts.” These are the current methods of cyberbullying also known as the online bullying or the electronic bullying and all other types of bullying and harassment by use of technological means and social media sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Emails, picture messages, etc. The bullying takes many forms including denigration, cyberstalking, impersonation, flaming, falsified identity among others. The influx of technology has aided cyberbullying a great deal due to the anonymity associated with it. Teens engage in cyberbullying for various reasons, and the most common ones include prejudice and intolerance to disability, shame, envy, guilt, anger, justification of violence, pride, proactive aggression and anger (Jones et al., 2011). Bullying has changed with technology and has evolved to make use of the social media platforms to target vulnerable teens affecting them negatively.
Offenders enjoy anonymity on the social media platforms by use of pseudonyms in user accounts which in turn gives the offender the freedom and morale to bully. This has drastically changed from the past where the teens were safe from abuse and pressures of peer judgment at their homes.

Bullying just ended at schools or in the playing zones since the bully would never really follow them to their houses (Stanbrock, 2014). However, in sharp contrast, cyberbullying knows no boundaries and the teens can be easily reached anywhere anytime. They can thus be threatened, harassed and teased even in their bedrooms! Social media has thus increased the rates of bullying as the teens are immoderately using the platforms. It has changed cyberbullying for the worst due to its extensive reach. It has turned cyberbullying into a pervasive threat to all online and social media participants and most especially the vulnerable teens (Hamm et al., 2015). Bullying has affected many teens mentally to the point of contemplating suicide. The fact that the offenders act behind a screen and cannot confront the victims face to face has increased the rates at which victims are bullied. Social media alone has a multitude of followers, and with these followers, the bullies have increased bullying-network and their audacity.
Traditional bullying used to take place in school while cyberbullying is reported to more outside the classroom than inside. Hoff & Mitchell et al., (2009) concluded that most cyberbullying were then occurring using phone calls and messages. However, the social media has evolved immensely since then, and new studies now paint a different picture. Cyberbullying has shifted to the social networks and more to the chat rooms. Online attacks provide the bully with an advantage since they may anonymously attack and harass a cyber victim thereby inflicting psychological torture without any follow-ups (Stanbrock, 2014). It is not possible for the authority to trace and stop the bullies from carrying out their attacks.
The best response to cyberbullying is by avoiding and or blocking the messages from bullies. Once a sign of bullying is identified, mostly through humiliating or threatening messages through pseudo accounts, the victim should avoid answering the message (Jones et al., 2011). The bullies will try to be provocative towards their victims, and the answers to their allegations are their victory. Threatening the bully does not work as they are aware that finding them is not an easy task. A threat to them serves only as an aggravation. A necessary step to avoid bullies is to block them further, and in this way, one will not be able to see their messages. It is also prudent to keep the messages as proof of bullying (Hoff & Mitchell, 2009). This evidence, the time a bullying message is received and other facts about the message provides information about the bully, and that may be used to learn about their patterns o stop them. The hooligans should also be removed from the list of contacts and permanently deleted and blocked. They should be denied any access to the victim’s social page.
Additionally, some personal steps are necessary to ensure that the victims prevent themselves from falling prey into the offender’s hands. First, they should have a system overhaul of their profiles privacy settings. It is wise to choose only certain close friends to have access to their bio. These are the close family members and friends whom they may share contacts (Wong-LO & Bullock, 2011). Second, after a bullying attack, the victim should consider changing their nickname or name on the platform. A phone number could also be modified to get rid of this problem. If the bully persists, the victim should seek outside assistance from either adults or educators. On pressing matters, a victim should contact the law enforcement agencies if the act qualifies as a crime. A crime in cyberbullying constitutes of where an expression is made of hatred, where videos are taken without the victims knowing, child pornography, threats, and harassments or violence (Hamm et al., 2015). Such acts which amount to criminal elements should be forwarded to the authorities for actions.
Cyberbullying can, however, be prevented in a myriad of ways by people of goodwill and by the other students and teens being each other’s brother’s keeper. Awareness should be made to all teens not to spread any messages that may be used to dishonor those (Jones et al., 2011). The messages in the social media sites should be fit for public and personal information should be left out. Discreditable phots of the youths should be avoided and should never be sent online. Personal data should be contained and discussing should not be allowed lest it gets into the wrong hands. Awareness should also be created for the teens not to converse when they are emotionally upset. Emotional images or texts are most likely to be misunderstood. The teens should become ambassadors against cyberbullying even if everyone is practicing it. They should make it clear that they are against it by being morally upright, not taking or distributing photos without the express permission from the owners.
The laws as currently constituted are inadequate to cover cyberbullying since the crimes only part of it in stalking, harassment, and threatening. The shortcoming can be addressed by balancing between the freedom of speech and parody. The prevalence of cyberbullying calls for new legislation to tackle this menace. Research indicates that over 40% of the adolescents have been subjected to cyberbullying ((Stanbrook, 2014). Most suicides have also been committed and can be linked to the bullying. Cyberbullying can be addressed under either the criminal law or the civil law depending on the context. Under the civil law, cyberbullying should fall under the defamation, slander and or libel. Civil law deals with freedom from injury, personal dignity, and property rights. In this regard, laws should be instituted to tackle bullies who attack victims with the aim of denting their personalities. This law cannot be practiced to the teenagers in school as schools are expected to provide a safe learning environment. The school laws should then integrate the online behavior of their students to address bullying. The legislation should include a Safe Schools Act to monitor online behavior of the teens and prescribe the necessary punitive actions involving but not limited to suspension and expulsion.
Another form of legislation would take the form of a criminal proceeding when a crime is committed against the state. Criminal law would cover defamatory libel, harassment and publishing and circulating pornographic content. The administration of such legislation should be enforced carefully to ensure that it does not contravene the rights and the freedoms enshrined the constitution. It is noteworthy to state that the rights and the freedoms are subject to reasonable limits in such a manner that they do not infringe on other people’s rights. Lastly, to combat cyberbullying, learning institutions should develop policies and implement programs which will address the social values of the students and cyberbully.
In conclusion, the evolution in bullying into the social media has increased the reach of bullying and requires drastic measures to address it. The vulnerable teens must be imparted with skills on how to appropriately respond to cyberbullying and also enlighten the wannabe bullies on the consequences of such behavior which could result to litigation, suspension and expulsion, and criminal prosecutions. The research is still inconclusive of the most effective and efficient methods of tackling cyberbullying, but solace can be found on the various legislations. Awareness should be stressed using preventing and avoiding cyberbullying. Some techniques include not replying, blocking and deleting bullies, not sharing sensitive data on social media posts, etc. the legislation should either take the form of criminal or civil suits based on a situation.
References
Hamm, M. P., Newton, A. S., Chisholm, A., Shulhan, J., Milne, A., Sundar, P., … & Hartling, L. (2015). Prevalence and effect of cyberbullying on children and young people: a scoping review of social media studies. JAMA pediatrics, 169(8), 770-777.
Hoff, D. L., & Mitchell, S. N. (2009). Cyberbullying: Causes, effects, and remedies. Journal of Educational Administration, 47(5), 652-665.
Jones, S. E., Manstead, A. S. R., & Livingstone, A. G. (2011). Ganging up or sticking together? Group processes and children’s responses to text-message bullying. British Journal of Psychology, 102(1), 71-96.
Stanbrook, M. B. (2014). Stopping cyberbullying requires a combined societal effort. CMAJ, 186(7), 483-483.
Wong-Lo, M., Bullock, L. M. (2011). Digital aggression: Cyberworld meets school bullies. Part of a special issue: Cyberbullying By Preventing School Failure, 55(2), 64-70. DOI: 10.1080/1045988X.2011.539429