﻿In this video, we’re going to be talking about an important topic- cyberbullying.
Before we get into the specifics, I really think it would be helpful
to define what bullying on its own is. Bullying is a form of abuse that takes many forms,
whether it be physical abuse, harassment
or rumour spreading, but there are always two
commonalities to it, which are, that 1 the abuse is repetitive,
and 2 the bully intends to cause harm to the person they are bullying.
So a person isn’t getting bullied if they get teased once by a sibling,
or if every now and again they end up at the butt of a joke.
A person is getting bullied if they are constantly called nasty names on the way home
from school, for example. Now that we know what bullying is,
we can jump into finding out about cyberbullying, why it can be so bad for people,
and what we can do to mitigate it. But before we start, why don’t you like this
video and subscribe to the channel, so that I can keep making educational videos like this one?
Cyberbullying is simply bullying that occurs online,
usually this is on social media sites like facebook, or instagram,
but it can also occur on games forums like twitch or networks like Xbox live.
The two most common forms of cyberbullying are denigration, sometimes known as slander,
and harassment. Harassment and denigration tend to
differ in that harassment is more direct, it happens when people are directly sent rude
or threatening messages online or in comments on posts.
Harassment can also include sharing pictures of somebody that they didn’t want shared.
Denigration is more indirect, it happens when things are said about a person that are untrue,
like spreading rumours, or outing people. Impersonation, or fraping, which involves bullies
hacking somebody’s social media and spreading hateful or false information,
is also a form of denigration, because it spreads false information about somebody.
The fact that denigration is more indirect, does not make it any easier on the bullied party,
in fact at times it can make life much harder.
This is because denigration is about rumours and public opinion,
thinking everybody hates you can be much worse than 1 person messaging you something cruel.
Cyberbullying can be really harmful for victims’ mental health, it can cause low self esteem,
depression, and even suicidal thoughts. The advent of social media has made the risks
to young people in particular more acute. Young people are more likely to be on social media
sites like youtube and snapchat, and are thus more likely to be the victims of abuse.
The internet is also open 24/7 and free to access,
so whereas School bullying stops at the school gates,
cyber bullying does not. Bullies can also be anonymous on social media
which makes them harder to detect, they can hide behind screens and made up profiles,
but not only are the bullies often hidden, but the victims are too, which makes it harder for
teachers and parents to help them. A teacher or parent can see somebody being
picked on in the playground, but not necessarily a child that is
experiencing abuse through a screen, behind their bedroom door.
One of the best things we can do is educate children on it so they know when it's going on,
and know that they’ve got somebody to talk to.
I think as well, that spreading rumours and gossip is possibly innate to social media,
because of the universality and anonymity it offers people.
In other words, teaching people how to deal with bullying can only go so far,
I think children’s social media use should be limited by their parents,
and adults as well should take regular breaks from social media.
That’s cyber bullying- thanks for watching, please like, share and subscribe.