Bullying and cyber bullying

I'm sure you've known at least one person in your life - maybe even yourself - who was
bullied when they were younger. I wasn’t alive before the Internet and social media
emerged the way we know it now, but from what I’ve seen in movies, I can tell you
bullying has changed over time. When our parents were our age, they were more likely
to be bullied physically by kids they knew. This still occurs, but kids our age are much
more likely to be victims of what we know as cyberbullying.

Even though having an anonymous person insult or harass you sounds better than
having an actual person threaten to punch you in the face, I can assure you it isn’t true.
In fact, it can even be worse. StopBullying.gov published some surveys that have
actually proved that most teens consider cyberbullying to be worse than face-to-face
bullying. Cyberbullying isn’t just something that happens in school or at recess, it’s an
awful way to harass a person all the time, no matter when or where.

One of the main factors in the increase in cyberbullying is the fact that bullying someone
face-to-face can be harder than attacking the victim online: everyone knows about it,
people judge you, and you might even feel afraid of possible consequences. On the
other hand, when you're behind a screen you feel stronger and safer. Studies show that
90% of the time the victim knows who the bully is, but they can’t prove it since trolls tend
to use fake accounts or message anonymously. This allows the bully to feel less worried
about getting caught.

For a long time, I wondered why anyone would decide to attack me for no reason, I
hadn't done anything to anyone that should have warranted this kind of attack. But the
truth is that many cyberbullies attack their victims just to feel powerful, for no reason at
all. And by the way, to this day I still don't know who the troll was since the page didn't
reveal the person behind it, but I honestly don't really care.
But just because I don’t care doesn’t mean everyone else is like me, it’s pretty obvious
that it affects many teens every single day and leads to depression, anxiety and even
suicide. So just like “traditional” bullying, cyberbullying should be addressed and
become a concern for everyone with or without social media.

Counsellors

The guidelines also suggest schools to employ trained counsellors to deal with people
affected by bullying, be it the victim, the perpetrator or any other student affected by it in
any way. This guideline is issued to provide the emotional support that a child needs to
cope with bullying and to provide professional help to help him/her overcome it.

Mitali Gupta
2021-2023