Cyberbulling

Lyceum Student Scientific Society

English Language Section

Balashova Victoria, 6G

Municipal State- Financed

Educational Establishment

“Lyceum №6 “

Guided by : Popova K.S.

Gorno-Altaisk,

2019

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………….....3

2.        What Is Cyberbullying?..............................................................................4

3. Types of Cyberbullying…………………………………………………...5

4. Signs of Cyberbullying…………………………………………………...6

5.        Ways to fight cyberbullying.…………………………………………......7

6.        Ways to help the victim…………………………………………………..9

7. The survey among the pupils………………………………………........10

8.        Conclusion……………………………………………………………….11

9.        Literature………………………………………………………………...12

10. Supplement……………………………………………………………..13

Introduction.

  Bullies and mean girls have been around forever, but technology now gives them a whole new platform for their actions.

The currency of our work is caused by the fact that our life is full of various high-tech appliances and devices. Nowadays, bullying takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers and tablets.

The main goal of our work is to attract attention to this phenomena and to find out possible ways to stop it.  

To reach the goal we were:

•        to find out what is cyberbullying,

•        to find out the student’s attitude to this phenomena,

•        to analyze what can be done to stop it.

Such methods of researching as analysis, comparison and opinion poll were used.

What Is Cyberbullying?

Cyberbullying is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person. It can happen through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. The main idea is to find a victim, a target in a group or a community and to humiliate him or her in cooperation. In any group there is always someone who wants to be in the centre of attention, whatever it takes. They choose cyberbullying as a means to feel their importance as a leader.

Unfortunately, this unpleasant thing happens very often. Every fourth teenager out of ten suffers humiliation on the Internet. In some studies, more than half of the teens surveyed said that they've experienced abuse through social and digital media. Users are impersonal in the Net, we can’t see their faces expressions, feel their emotions or hear their intonation. Sometimes, a person, practicing cyberbullying, doesn’t realize the whole effect of his actions. The impersonal nature of text messages and emails make it very hard to detect the sender's tone — one person's joke could be another's hurtful insult.

What is cyberbullying? It can be interpreted as humiliation, dark sense of humour, wicked way of socializing or silly jokes. Teenagers draw funny cartoons or make rude comments to demonstrate their sense of humour or power to hurt others. The Internet is a special environment with its own rules. It is parallel reality, where we can hide our real selves and be what we never be in real life. We can be brave and discuss and critisize actions of politicians, bosses, famous people or anyone else. In this way, such freedom develops aggression. It becomes uncontrollable when is done in cooperation as it\s difficult to trace who has started it.

10 Types of Cyberbullying

1. Exclusion

Exclusion is the act of leaving someone out deliberately. Exclusion is used online to target and bully a victim. For example, a child might be excluded/uninvited to groups or parties while the or she sees other friends being included.

2. Harassment

Harassment is a broad category under which many types of cyberbullying fall into, but it generally refers to hurtful or threatening online messages sent with the intention of doing harm to someone.

3. Outing/Doxing

Outing, also known as doxing, is sharing sensitive or personal information about someone. This can be spreading of personal photos or documents or saved personal messages in an online private group.

4. Trickery

Trickery is similar to outing. In these situations, the bully will befriend their target and make him trust him. Once the bully has get their target’s trust, they share the victim’s secrets and private information to others.

5. Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is a very serious form of cyberbullying that can extend to threats of physical harm to the child. It can include monitoring, false accusations, threats, and is often accompanied by offline stalking. It is a criminal offense and can result in a restraining order or probation.

6. Fraping

Fraping is when a bully uses the child’s social networking accounts to post inappropriate content with their name. It can be harmless when friends write funny posts on each other’s profiles, but has potential to be incredibly harmful or  to ruin their reputation.

7.Catfishing.

Catfishing happens when a bully creates a made up profile or identity online to bully someone. This could involve creating a fake email account, fake social media profile, and selecting a new identity and photos to fool the victim.

8. Dissing

Dissing happens when a bully spreads cruel information about  the victim through public posts or private messages to  ruin the reputation or relationships with other people.

9. Trolling

Trolling is when a bully makes others upset by posting unpleasant and provoking comments online.

10. Flaming

This type of online bullying means posting or sending insults to their target. Flaming is similar to trolling, but will usually be a more direct attack on a victim to incite them into online fights.

Signs of Cyberbullying

Many kids and teens who are cyberbullied don't want to tell a teacher or parent, often because they feel ashamed of the social stigma or fear that their computer privileges will be taken away at home.

Signs of cyberbullying vary, but may include:

•         being emotionally upset during or after using the Internet or the phone
•         being very secretive or protective of one's digital life
•         withdrawal from family members, friends, and activities
• avoiding school or group gatherings
• slipping grades and "acting out" in anger at home
•         changes in mood, behavior, sleep, or appetite
•         wanting to stop using the computer or cellphone
•         being nervous or jumpy when getting an instant message, text, or email
•         avoiding discussions about computer or cellphone activities

Ways to fight cyberbulling.

Nowadays, children start using the Internet too early. There are certain safety rules they should follow to avoid the danger of being bulled.

1. Privacy. Sometimes we are ready to tell everybody everything about ourselves, without caring who watches our video, or reads the private news, or stares at our photos. Everybody should be very careful about posting their private photos or any information as anybody can download this photo and create some humiliating collage, cartoon or meme. It’s better to use privacy setting to choose who can see, read or comment your data of any kind.
2. Neutrality. Try to keep neutral attitude towards people trying to hurt you. Be polite and do not be aggressive as they expect you to be. Bullies enjoy being arguing with. Stay calm not to be charged with humiliation.
3. Ask for help. Teenagers do not like to tell such thing to their parents or any other grown-ups. They keep it in secret, feeling great stress that is just mounting up as humiliation starts when the victim is online and it involves more and more people. Parents should explain to their children that bulling is unlawful and they have to be protected from it.
4. Technical support. Any website or forum has got an administrator and technical support service. They can ban impolite and aggressive users if you tell them.
5. Friendzone.  Do not sign in your group any person that wants to be your friend.
6. Sympathy. If you see someone bulling anybody for fun, do not stay indifferent, try to help and support the victim in a polite way.
7. Technical security. Bullies or fraudsters can hack your account to ask your friends for money or hurt you. Change your password regularly.

Teenage age is a very important period of personal development, that’s why humiliation may harm their mind. The affects are numerous: depression, distrust, anxiety, low self-esteem, digestive disorders, impulsivity, loss of self confidence and powerlessness. That’s why it’s very important to stop any humiliation as soon as possible. Screenshots of unpleasant comments, memes, collage can prove the incident, as well as meetings with parents, school councilor or headteacher may help to find the way out.

Ways to help the victim.

If you discover that someone is being cyberbullied, offer comfort and support. Talking about any bullying experiences you had in your childhood might help the child feel less alone.

Let the child know that it's not his or her fault, and that bullying says more about the bully than the victim. Remind the child that he or she isn't alone — a lot of people get bullied at some point. Reassure the child that you will figure out what to do about it together.

Let someone at school (the principal, or a counselor or teacher) know about the situation.

Encourage the child not to respond to cyberbullying, because doing so just fuels the fire and makes the situation worse. But do keep the threatening messages, pictures, and texts, as these can be used as evidence with the bully's parents, school, employer, or even the police. You may want to take, save, and print screenshots of these to have for the future.

Block the bully. Most devices have settings that allow you to electronically block emails, IMs, or texts from specific people.

Limit access to technology. Although it's hurtful, many kids who are bullied can't resist the temptation to check websites or phones to see if there are new messages. Some companies allow you to turn off text messaging services during certain hours. And most websites and smartphones include parental control options that give parents access to their kids' messages and online life.

The survey among the pupils.

We conducted an opinion poll among the pupils of 6-11 forms in our lyceum. Seventy four schoolchildren took part in it. The results of the poll show the attitude to the problem. Let’s see what we have found out.

56 pupils do not know what the word cyberbulling means. But  50 teenagers faced this phenomena: 42 as victims and 12 as bullies.

All teenagers know what to do with the bullies: 27 of them ignore such people, 23 are ready to ask for help parents or teachers, 18 are sure to ban them and only six act aggressively back.

Children spend too much time on the Internet. Online communication plays a very important role in their life and there are different ways to communicate there. Teens use social nets, chat in forums, post photos, and upload their video blogs. There is a special code of behavior, there are active users, who comment and post a lot. Any content may provoke negative comments; any active user may become the victim of the cyberbulling. The only way not to become a victim is never use the Internet, but for many teenagers it’s impossible. It’s very important for teenagers to understand, that cyberbulling is a very dangerous thing: people are cheated, become the victims of fraudsters, or even involve in crimes. Besides, they should be aware of rules of behavior and safety rules. Let’s stop cyberbulling!

Literature.

1. www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html
2. https://blog.securly.com/2018/10/04/the-10-types-of-cyberbullying/
3. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/cyberbullying.html?view=ptr&WT.ac=p-ptr
4. https://rosuchebnik.ru/material/kak-kiberbulling-vliyaet-na-podrostkov/
5. https://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Cyber-Bullying
6. https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it
7. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki
8. http://www.ellegirl.ru/articles/kiberbulling-chto-eto-takoe-i-kak-s-nim-borotsya/

Supplement.