Cyber Bullying
CYBER BULLYING
- Shivika Agrawal, GNLU, Gandhinagar
INTRODUCTION:
While bullying is a pressing issue today, cyber bullying is often side lined from the discussion in this regard due to the established notion that for an act to qualify as bullying, it must have a physical impact on the victim. The psychological, emotional, economic, and social effects are often undermined. Why does one resort to bullying? And if one does, why doesn’t the victim report it? If the victim does, indeed report it, why are we still unable to stop bullying?
Cyber bullying is defined as intentional, aggressive behaviour toward another person that is performed through electronic means. Like traditional bullying, minor forms of cyberbullying include being ignored, disrespected, picked on, or otherwise hassled, however, the more debasing forms involve the spreading of rumours about someone, stalking, or physically threatening another person through some medium or method of electronic communications. Every type of school bullying, from status wars to slut-bashing and gay-bashing, extends beyond face-to-face encounters and into the 24/7 world of cyberspace. The major aspect of cyber bullying is that most of the times, the identity of the bully is hidden. The victim lives in the fear of being watched all the time. The worst hits are the women and the members of the LGBTQ community. Rape threats or threats to reveal the sexual orientation of a person cause unique stress. Teens choose not to involve or seek the assistance of elders due to the fear of being called a coward and in turn facing the chance of being bullied even more.
When people point out that a certain film star or lifestyle influencer posted a photo shopped picture, it ought to affect the mental health of the said film star or the influencer. Why then is it not considered bullying? For the simple reason that people are just pointing out the truth. The hypocrisy reaches its maximum when models and actors who promote positive body image and stand against body shaming, become the flag-bearers of negative self-image, giving birth to bullying when a person doesn’t fit the set standards of beauty.
EFFECTS OF CYBERBULLYING:
In a study, it was found that 30% of respondents under the age of 18 reported being a victim of cyber bullying and 11% confessed to perpetrating cyber bullying. What the bully might think is done in ‘mere fun’ or ‘just as a joke’, might scar a person for life.
In one survey, 42 percent of students in grade 4 to 8 said they had been bullied online, and 35 percent said they had been threatened. Fewer than half of these children had told their parents or another adult about the abuse. Stigma in households when it comes to bullying, suggesting that their child fits the ideal gender and societal roles; and denial that one’s child can’t be bullied or be a bully, help in creating unhealthy atmospheres, leaving no way for children to find someone at home who might be able to assuage the pain.
Yasmeen belongs to a traditional Muslim family. She says she is bullied at school and slut-shamed. “I don’t report them because I come from a household that is dogmatic. If I were to complain and these bullies, instead of coming to a realisation and leaving me alone, were to reveal my sexual identity, I’d be done for. My parents just can’t find out that I’m bisexual, so yeah, I stay put.”
Some researchers have hypothesised that many bullies previously have been victims and therefore suffer psychological and psychosomatic problems that usher in suicidal risks.
Aarav has often been the victim of bullying in school. Due to his skinny frame and “not manly” physique, he became the object of mockery for many. In order to deal with the insults that others threw at him, he started to insult them back. “At first it just started as a joke, but then I found myself being unreasonably mean. I caught myself leaving a really derogatory tweet on a singer’s Twitter, that’s when I realised that in an attempt to fight off bullies, I had become just like them.”
Nishant Shah, professor at the Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media at the Leuphana University in Germany says, “One of the biggest problems in reporting cyber bullying is that a large number of vulnerable victims don\'t even recognise that what is happening to them is bullying.”
Sapna has, numerous times, come across her fake accounts. There were derogatory comments under all the pictures that were posted, which she identified, were taken from her official account. She says it’s clear that the person who made such horrendous accounts impersonating her, is someone she knows. What comes as an even bigger shock is that a few people who she knew, followed the fake account, yet, never told her about its existence. When asked whether she reported the issue, she says, “so many times, I lost count! The police ask me to wait until they get a lead and just advise me to walk back home and start afresh. I have been disappointed so many times, that I don’t even bother reporting anymore. It has become routine now!”
Such cases just make one want to give up and accept their fate as victims of cyber bullying, trying to forget the virtual world, even though all lives are virtually linked today.
FORMS OF CYBERBULLYING:
Cyberbullying is multi-faceted where the plethora of insults that can be thrown at one is wide-ranging. It is often said that, in order for the behaviour to be considered cyber bullying the behaviour must occur over multiple instances. The truth is, the frequency doesn’t matter.
•Harassment is one of the most common forms of bullying which involves offensive messages by the perpetrator to the recipient. While direct messages to the victim do not degrade them in front of the world, the casualties caused due to emotional assault are countless, often ending in suicide.
•Flaming is the exchange of insults in a public setting, such as a bulletin board or chat room which can be seen by hundreds of online friends.
•The account of the victim may be hacked and hackers might try to impersonate the victim, circulating wrong information.
•Indulging in child pornography is also a form of bullying. Other harassment includes making threats and placing people’s personal information, phone numbers, compromising images and videos in areas that endanger the victim- for instance on sexual service sites.
•Cyber bullying takes many forms such as “outing” or posting personal information or threatening to reveal the gender identities of individuals.
HOW TO STOP BULLYING:
There are numerous ways in which the problem of bullying can be tackled.
•The organisation, Child Rights and You (CRY) suggested a campaign to create awareness about cyberbullying among children and adolescents and said that existing cyber laws should be revised for child safety issues, and portals, where cyber-crime can be reported, should be set up.
•Both the victim and the accused need to be counselled where the latter may have a history of being bullied, said Yatan Balhara, a psychiatrist with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
•Basic techniques like keeping social media accounts private, interacting only with known people and not opening mails from strangers can go a long way in protecting an individual from being bullied.
•It is equally necessary to keep the evidence safe and keep the instances of bullying with screenshots as proof.
CONCLUSION:
While the laws offer protection from cyber-bullying, it is necessary to come forward and report instances of bullying. Involve adults, see a psychiatrist if necessary but do not toy with emotions which may push you or others to do the irreversible. The major change that can be brought to the society is through proper education where values like positive self-image and respecting others should be taught at a young, impressionable age.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:-
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