Introduction to Stopping Cyber-bullying

As the information age continues to grow and thrive, people are finding more and more ways to communicate with others in their community. There are tools like instant messaging and online chat rooms; even blogs are used as ways to communicate with the people who are close by or those who are not. These tools are extremely helpful. They help you communicate with people who live far away, and they can help create and expand relationships with those whom you are unable to get together with. There are also many serious downsides to these means of communication. Because computers and cell phones create a barrier between two people, they allow for many possibilities of abuse. People are allowed to create anonymous e-mail accounts or even false identities to go on a chat room or an IM account and mentally and emotionally abuse and bully someone. This lack of reality within these means of communication allows people to hide their honest personalities, and allow them to act differently than they would in person. The increase of ways to create these false identities and personalities increases the amount of cyber bullying throughout communities and networks. Cyber bullying has many motives, each of them create serious problems for not only the victim but also for other bystanders and the bullies themselves. The bully could have major insecurities with themselves, and could use the internet to make themselves feel better, by being able to hide behind a computer screen and not stand up to their victim face to face. The bully could also choose to threaten their victims online instead of in person because it allows them to create more violent and terrifying threats. In chat rooms and instant messaging services, you are capable of editing what you say, instead of in person where you are forced to improvise and adapt to the people and things around you. Another motive for cyber-bullying could be that because of the vast opportunities that the internet provides in terms of tools and resources, the bully could prefer to use the computer because it allows them to send and receive suggestions and material to other people to allow a form of campaign against the victim. There are many other reasons for cyber-bullying to occur, most of them unknown, and almost all of them to do with an emotional or mental problem. There are many different risks and perils to this, as well as ways to prevent it, and ways to safeguard the community. Cyber-bullying is a problem that needs to be fixed, and fast.