Ladies and Gentlemen, the topic of current interest I am going to talk to you about is cyberbulying. Cyberbullying is when a child or teenager is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated or otherwise targeted by another child or teenager using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. There are two kinds of cyberbullying, direct attacks which are messages sent to people directly and cyberbullying by proxy which is using others to help cyberbully the victim. Because cyberbullying by proxy often gets adults involved in the harassment, it is much more dangerous. Examples of direct attacks used would be instant messaging, stealing passwords, blogs, websites, sending pictures through E-mail or mobile phones, internet polling and many other ways. When it comes to cyberbullying, the offenders are often motivated by anger, revenge or frustration. Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and because a wide range of technology is available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction. Some do it by accident, and either send a message to the wrong recipient or don’t think before they do something.
Unlike physical bullying, electronic bullies can remain virtually anonymous using temporary email accounts, instant messaging programs, mobile phone text messaging, and other Internet venues to mask their identity. Additionally, electronic forums often lack supervision and in my opinion that should not be allowed. Research had demonstrated a number of serious consequences of cyberbullying victimization. For example, victims have lower self-esteem, increased thoughts of suicide, and a variety of emotional responses, retaliating, being scared, frustrated, angry, and depressed. One of the most damaging effects is that a victim begins to avoid friends and activities, often the very intention of the cyber-bully and I really think this should not be happening to young teenagers....