The Rise of Cyber Bullying

To start off, the two cases of suicide of the teenagers, respectively a 13-year-old boy Ryan Halligan and 15-year-old girl Gail Jones have showed everyone of the devastating effect of cyber bullying, though the extreme side of the effect.

The advancement and improvement of technology has nevertheless brought sizable benefits to many of us, be it in medical advancements, communication and even household appliances. However, it is distressing that many people, especially teenagers, misuse the advanced and easily accessible communication tool, the Internet.

From the initial purpose to serve as a communication tool or even a tool to provide people with readily information and knowledge, the Internet has actually became another ‘advanced playground’ where anonymous bullies are found and may cause an even grave impact to the victims of the bullies. Though the suicide of Halligan and Jones are the extreme cases of cyber bullying, it is possible that the number such cases would rise and become common if nothing is done to curb the problem of cyber bullying.

Numerous people have access to the Internet anytime and anywhere, and it is the ability to reach more people and the always-on culture of it that can have an even more detrimental effect on the victims of cyber bullies. Furthermore, the choice to be able to remain anonymous and the dispensable need to face the victim face by face gives cyber bullies better conditions and confidence to bully their victims much harsher than the conventional way.

In my opinion, cyber bullying is definitely a notorious act and should not have been present. Cyber bullying not only hurts the victim deeply but also leaves a permanent scar in them, together with all the negative memories. Serious cases may even result in suicides when victims could no longer take the stress or pressure of the bullies, for example Ryan Halligan and Gail Jones. It is miserable; especially for the parents of children like Halligan and Jones to lose their own child as a result of cyber bullies and I really do hope that all cyber bullies would stop their act upon knowing the result of their actions.

I believe that anyone of us here might have bullied someone before while in chat rooms, instant messaging or gaming, either purposely or unintentionally, or even not realizing that we ourselves had bullied someone. Similarly, some might have unintentionally bullied someone and turns into a cyber bully, while the rest of the cyber bullies are perhaps feeling bored and wanted to joke on someone, being influenced by peers and starts to be a cyber bully or due to the inability to cope with stress from studies or family problems and resort to cyber bullying as an escape for them.

Therefore, to curb the problem of cyber bullying, we should start by dealing with the root of the problem leading to cyber bullying. We could raise awareness on actions that are being considered as bullying, such as sending threatening messages and posting embarrassing video footage and photos on the Internet. Also, we should instill good morals in teenagers to reduce them in the possibility of involving in cyber bullying and lastly, encourage those who are stressed to have a talk with their true, good friends or approach their teachers or school councilors or have a good talk with their parents.

In conclusion, I hope that cyber bullies would truly know the consequence of their actions and stop their bullying act. In the example of the scandal involving the circulating of nude photos of Hong Kong star Edison Cheng and several female artistes, the circulation of the photos on the web has brought devastating impact on the Hong Kong star and the chastity of the female artistes. Thus, if cyber bullies have that moral to think about the impact of their actions, I believe that the number of cyber bullies would certainly reduce and in turn provide a safe and good environment for the users of the Internet.