SOC-100
May 14, 2013
F. Smith
Cyber Bullying Cyber Bullying defines as the “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text” (Patchin and Hinduja 2006:152) has gained more attention from teachers, administrators and practitioners over the past few years. This new way of bullying has reached such epic proportions that psychologists are creating studies in order to study the physical and severe functional ramifications of this form of harassment. Although still in its infancy the studies seek to understand its substance and popularity among adolescence today. “Cyber Bullying” usually occurs by those who spend a lot of time online and are traditional bullies as well as substance abusers with assaultive behavior. The “Cyber Bully” can be found in almost any classroom in the country although this is not where the bullying takes place. The “Cyber Bully” can reach out from anywhere there is an internet connection to locate and bully their victims. This makes for a never ending supply of both bully and victim due to the availability of computers and internet in the developed world. “Cyber Bullying” usually occurs by and to teenaged adolescences but is not limited to this age group. The bullying does not discriminate against age, sex, or social class but teenage girls are the most likely targeted as well as being the abuser (http://cyberbullying.us). Although usually found among adolescence “Cyber Bullying” does not rest entirely on these demographics. Those involved in bullying (the victim as well as the offender) had more suicidal thoughts and were more likely to attempt suicide than those not involved with bullying whether cyber bullying was used or in person the rates were significantly higher among those involved. This has become so rampant in the last few years that research had to be stepped up in order to find out why “Cyber Bullying” is such a popular form of bullying. A few reasons this form of bullying has increased is due to the anonymity on-line, and the safety and security of hiding behind a computer screen. These two reasons alone are enough to get the bullying started. After the initial “attack” the abuser feels free of the traditionally constraining pressures of society of conscience, morality, and ethics to behave. Surprisingly 84% of abusers knew their victims personally whereas only 31% of the victims knew their harasser in person (Ybarra and Mitchell 2004). “This is