CYBER BULLYING FACTS

It used to be that bullying was considered to be a normal part of the growing-up process. Times have changed and parents and educators agree that bullying is detrimental to a child's development and is not tolerable in our school system. Children no longer face bullying on the playground, however. Bullying has now gone hi-tech.

Historically, children used to only be subjected to physical bullying. The first way is through aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior includes using force such as hitting, spitting upon and kicking the victim. This physical bullying is repeated quite often, generally without the victim doing anything to provoke the offender.

The second way is through verbal abuse. Verbal bullying is abusing the victim by teasing, being sarcastic, and ridiculing the victim. Again, the victim is quite often abused without any provocation toward the offender.

Now there is a new and technological way of hurting someone through bullying. And unfortunately, kids of all ages are taking part. Here are a few ways cyber bullying is accomplished.

Text Messages
Bullying through text messaging occurs when one kid starts bullying another by sending very hurtful text messages to the intended victim's cell phone. That same message is then sent to more of the bully's contacts on the list.

E mail
Bullying through email occurs when a group of kids bombard the intended victim with very hurtful messages . The bullying is amplified when copies of the email are sent to friends as a "good laugh" at the target.

Websites and Weblogs
Bullying through a website is a website being established for the sole purpose of allowing other kids to write publicly- displayed and hurtful messages about the victim or target. The website is emailed to several people so they all get a chance at hurting the target.

Websites are also used as a voting tool. Voting for things such as the biggest loser in school, the fattest or ugliest girl. And once again, this website is published for others to add even more humiliation.

Camera Phones
Cell phone cameras are used to take pictures of people in school locker rooms so cyber bullies can post them on the net. The website is also published and the target is publicly humiliated.

Cyber bullying is said to be the worst kind of bullying. This is mainly because of the speed of the technology that is available today. The derogative remarks made to someone or about someone are more readily available for more people to see, therefore, causing even more psychological damage.

If you, your student or child is a victim of cyber bullying, report it to administrators in your school. When handled appropriately, the intended target will most likely not be further victimized. Also, PCAU has programs available to work with the kids in school about cyber bullying and the consequences. Also, be sure to follow up with administrators to make sure the issue is being resolved so that no other child in school will become a victim of Cyber Bullying