August 12th, 2016

Reading and Writing II

Professor Jacqueline García Botero

Leidy Carolina Mejía Orozco and Leandra Vargas Zambrano

Argumentative Essay

CYBERBULLYING

Now days, it is common to see many offensive post on internet from teenagers trying to

ridiculed someone else, this way of bullying is called “Cyberbullying”. According to the

Colombian law 1620 of 2013, Cyberbullying is defined as a way of intimidation using

technology (Internet, social networks, mobile phones, online video games) to create

psychological mistreat. This way of bullying has hardly been affecting society some years ago

with the increasing of social networks. For that reasons, Cyberbullying should be punishing by

doing community work in young people who commit it.

As we already know, Cyberbullying affects a big part of young people making most of

them committing suicide. A study made in North America shows that the 69% the population of

teenagers have their own computer or smart phone, it means, the majority of youth have an easy

access to social networks where Cyberbullying is committed making them effortless victims

bullying; in addition, this study also shows that suicide is the third killer of teens in the US. All

in all, Cyberbullying is one of the principal reasons why teens commit suicide.
 Furthermore, the victim of cyberbullying can be mistreating out of internet. Due to that

Cyberbullies can be classmates, a familiarity person, and sometimes it can be anonymous users,

but most often people they do know their victims, it implies that the aggressor can annoy the

victim in many places. Also, the sufferer becomes depress and his/her self-stem get low if is

constantly picked on by their classmates; so, it would be hard for them to communicated with

others. In brief, Cyberbullying makes it hard for the sufferer to hang out again.

As a solution, young people who commit Cyberbullying have to be punish by community

work. It consists of performing unpaid work for the community or for the benefit of people in

need. Moreover, the penalty work for the benefit of the community is one of the alternatives,

since it is more respectful of the rights of those facing and has a lower recidivism rate than jail,

and in theory the work performed by juvenile offenders should be related to the crime

committed; in this case it will be related with Cyberbullying victims. Nevertheless, the

community work will help the aggressors to train their main and also their body, and learn what

is good or not.

However, some people say that this type of punishment would affect teens as under-age

due to they are too young for work and effort their body to something else than study. But, if

community work is implemented as a punishment, bullies would raise awareness and realize that

what they did to their peers is very bad for their mental health and possible they would never do

it again. Additionally, they will not waste their time on social networks annoying their

classmates, they are paying their bad acts in a fair way because they are helping society, and they

are not suffering damage as well.

In conclusion, Cyberbullying is one of the main causes of depression, health problems,

and suicide in teenagers. So, it should be punishing by doing community work as the best
medium of penalty for under-age offenders who do not realize the damage they have done

because the tasks carried out more frequently are dependent care and other social services.

Besides, the penalty of community work can be useful in two ways: reduce the number of

prisoners and reduce the likelihood of reoffending convicts.

 Bibliography

Veasley, T. (2013). Recovered from: http://tameshaveasley-

cyberbullying.blogspot.com.co/2011/03/cause-and-effects-of-cyberbullying.html

National Crime Prevention Council. (ND). Recovered from:

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/cyberbullying/what-is-cyberbullying

Gobierno de la República de Colombia (2013). Ley 1620 de 2013. Recovered from:

http://wsp.presidencia.gov.co/Normativa/Leyes/Documents/2013/LEY%201620%20DEL

%2015%20DE%20MARZO%20DE%202013.pdf

Castaño, P. (2013). Recovered from: http://cj-worldnews.com/spain/index.php/es/derecho-

31/derecho-penit/item/2601-la-pena-de-trabajos-en-beneficio-de-la-comunidad-una-

oportunidad-perdida-para-la-resocializaci%C3%B3n-de-los-delincuentes

Blay, E. (2006), “It Could Be Us': Recent Transformations in the Use of Community Service as

Punishment in Spain”, European Journal of Probation, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2010, p. 75