Jessica Santos

ENC1101
November 22, 2014
Community Problem Report
In todays society, young individuals are commonly exposed to the internet at a young
age which in turn, has its own dangers. Cyberbullying is defined by www.merriam-webster.com
the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person (as a student) often done
anonymously. Before access to the internet was so easily provided, bullying used to occur in
everyday face-to-face situations in public locations such as schools and playgrounds. But in
recent times through internet access, chat forums, and social websites such as Instagram, Twitter,
and Facebook, these bullies have discovered a new channel of abuse. According to
StompOutBullying.org, 1 out of 4 kids is bullied and depending on the age group, up to 43% of
students say they have been digitally harassed. These numbers are too large to be ignored.
These statistics may even be inaccurate due to the amount of kids and teens who refuse to speak
up out of fear of being tormented more severely by the individual who bullies them. The danger
of cyberbullying is the fact that it is significantly more difficult than traditional bullying to track
down the perpetrator due to the fact that most hide behind anonymous usernames. Cyberbullying
in our community is a very prevalent issue due to the widespread use of social media. One of the
most common forms of cyberbullying and harassment in Doral is through the social website
Twitter where hurtful indirect remarks are made toward others about personal issues that most if
not all the time, should be resolved privately. These bitter comments have been coined,
subtweets and are commonly used to insult another person about a situation others may or may

not know about. These subtweets lead to direct fights on the website which gathers attention
from classmates, friends, and family members until a whole community may become involved.
Once a situation reaches this point, the victim may be exposed to traditional bullying and more
importantly, physical injury. Due to the extensive use of the internet in todays youth,
cyberbullying is a common sight to witness. According to StompOutBullying.org, In a national
report, 1 in 6 students reported that theyve either been the victim of some form of bullying or,
witnessed others being bullied. And 1 in 8 have experienced bigotry and name calling. These
statistics show how common and almost usual cyberbullying has become throughout the teens
of the United States and your local community. Since it has become so widespread, many
witnesses and even victims believe that it is not worth reporting or it is not even that big of a
deal, no one has to know about it. This way of thought leads to many incidents that can cause
victims to self-harm or even commit suicide. This problem affects the community deeply but
unfortunately, only once it reaches a public point. Moreover, many teens are cyberbullied and
report it to their friends, parents, and classmates but no one seems to care until the problem
becomes so severe it hinders daily activities due to the depression the victim is subject to. On
nobullying.com, they provide access to the Top 6 Unforgettable Cyberbullying Cases. The
victims were Ryan Halligan (1989-2003), Megan Meier (1992-2006), Jessica Logan (1990
2008), Hope Witsell (1996 2009), Tyler Clementi (1991 2010), and the most recent of these,
Amanda Todd (1996 2012). These cases all became so popular due to the single fact that a life
was lost. A vast majority of cyberbullying cases that gets the publics attention only does so due
to the tragic loss of a young life because of anothers carelessness, cruelty, and brutality. After
each of these cases, the communities that these victims were a part of were in mourning for an
extensive period of time but the fact that a life had to be lost in order to receive attention is

astonishing. Some cases do not reach such a severe point but when reported, it is not taken
seriously. Cyberbullying affects many teens throughout our community and in turn, affects
friends, classmates and family. This is a serious issue that can lead to dire consequences due to
the carelessness of anothers words. According to nobullying.com, Studies in Britain have
found half of the suicides among youth related to bullying. The link between bullying and
suicide is a very strong one due to the feeling of regret and not wanting to tolerate any more
mistreatment that these victims feel during their last moments of life. Cyberbullying is a big
issue to tackle but any effort made towards its solution is not made in vain. A popular criticism
of cyberbullying prevention in schools is What can we do? We cannot control what the students
do online in their personal time! But what some administrators and school staff fail to realize is
that the cyberbullying happens directly under their noses. Cyberbullying begins where the kids
are not so closely monitored: school. School is the ideal environment for a bully to identify their
victim and begin to turn people against them. Because of the amount of relationships people
establish in school, rumors travel quickly. Due to this, administrators play a crucial role in the
prevention of the continuation of bullying by online forms which then becomes cyberbullying.
As a school environment, the administrators can enforce certain rules which prohibit kids from
saying or doing certain things and implementing more security and actual surveillance. As a
community, what can be done to help prevent cyberbullying around us can range from small
changes to major tasks that sometimes, may be out of our comfort zone. A common form of
preventing cyberbullying is standing up for the victim when you see them being attacked online,
not engaging in a fight, but reporting it to authorities. The fear of many victims in regards to
reporting bullying incidents is that they will be in danger after ratting out the bully, but when a
third party quietly reports the incident to authorities, everything remains anonymous and no one

is in harms way if the authorities act immediately and appropriately. The idea that restricts
people from doing this is that they fear they may be looked down upon for telling on someone or
even stopping the fun that the bully was having. Once one overcomes this idea of others
perception of themselves, a small but effective step can be taken to help the hindrance of
cyberbullying. There is no one sole method of stopping cyberbullying because each case is
considered unique, but as mentioned before, every effort counts. The involvement of parental
guidance in a childs social life and social media activity is very crucial to their own security
online. Parents have always been urged to be involved in what kids do online as much as
possible because without this, kids gain easy access to situations that will be to their detriment
later on. Parents are encouraged to frequently ask their children about how their relationships are
with specific people and monitor their childs online activity in order to detect any signs of
cyberbullying and to assist and comfort them into standing up and doing the right thing. As a
parent, they hold this responsibility as a great one due to their knowledge of how severe the
consequences of not doing so may be. As a victim of cyberbullying, there are many things you
can do. Many people criticize the credibility of cyberbullying research claiming If you are so
upset then just go offline, leave. But as a victim of cyberbullying, it is not as easy as it sounds.
When you see something online regarding you, you become intrigued to the point where you
wait to see what else is posted. This is another danger of cyberbullying, the fact that the victim
feels obligated to keep up with what everyone is saying of them. To help end the bullying, as a
victim, you can report to the authorities what has happened. Printing out the exact words that
regard you and offend you should be done in order to be able to have ample support for your
argument when reporting incidents to authorities. After this, deleting your account may be
irritating but sometimes necessary to avoid online harassment and move on. Although this is a

sacrifice that many people do not feel like they need to give up, it is sometimes crucial in
escaping the persecution of others. The effects of cyberbullying on teens are very severe and like
mentioned before, can be life-harming. According to Charisse L. Nixons "Current Perspectives:
The Impact of Cyberbullying on Adolescent Health, results show there is a significant
relationship between cyber victimization and depression among adolescents. This goes to show
that words can really affect someones mood, and in turn, their way of life. As seen in one of the
fatal cyberbullying cases mentioned before, Amanda Todd confessed to suffering from
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and suicidal thoughts
and behaviors. This began to affect her so much that she did not leave the house for days at a nt
most time and spent most of her summer vacation inside, hiding from social interaction which
reminded her of how badly she claimed she messed up. This shows how severely bullying
affected her throughout the end of her life, an idea that some bullies maintain throughout this
process is Yeah they will probably never take what I say seriously anyway. And that is untrue;
many of these lives are lost due to the exact opposite. Of course, due to extensive focus,
attention, and recent research on cyberbullying, laws have been implemented in order to prevent
cyberbullying and punish those who deliberately disobey the law. In the 2014 Florida Statutes,
they prohibit the following, Cyberbullying, teasing, social exclusion, threats, intimidation,
stalking, physical violence, theft, sexual, religious, or racial harassment, public/private
humiliation, or destruction of property. They also require that every school adopts an antibullying policy and that it may be enforced. As shown in Figure 1, cyber bullying is the use of
hurtful words to offend and harass people by online channels. Those who do not follow the rules
may get into various levels of trouble because again, not every case is the same. Many times,
victims do not press charges against the offender in efforts to let go of the situation and to

move on smoothly without having to go to court and discussing details of the incident one tries
hard to forget. Cyber bullying is an increasing danger in todays youth threatening to harm the
physical and mental health of our children and teens. Although cyber bullying is a new form of
bullying that has recently emerged, expansive research has been done in order to spread the word
and help the cause. Cyber bullying is a serious issue that has to be stopped to help our societys
youth and create a more comfortable environment for future generations.

Figure 1 - Gary Salter/evolveimages.com

Works Cited

"Cyberbullying." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.

<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cyberbullying>.

About Bullying and Cyberbullying. Stompoutbullying.org.

http://www.stompoutbullying.org/index.php/information-and-resources/about-bullying-andcyberbullying/

Nobullying.com. 2014., Published 23rd Apr 2013. online. November 24, 2014.

Nixon, Charisse L. "Current Perspectives: The Impact Of Cyberbullying On Adolescent

Health." Adolescent Health, Medicine & Therapeutics 5.(2014): 143-158. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2014