Maria Migulea Isabel O.

Gorres
Grade 11- Gas
Reading and Writing

Critique paper about Social Media Cyber Bullying Linked to Teen Depression

Online bullying of children has drawn more attention, especially in

the wake of many high-profile suicides of kids who were allegedly
tormented on social media. For instance, a string of suicides in 2013
were connected to the anonymous question-and-answer website Ask.fm.
Ask.fm, which was bought by Ask.com in 2014, launched additional
safety initiatives in response to the deaths of teenagers who had been
subjected to abuse on the platform. Similar to Facebook, Twitter
announced intentions in April to remove offensive tweets and ban
bullies.

Teenagers often use social media, according to Michele Hamm, a

researcher in pediatrics at the University of Alberta, but little is
known about the health repercussions of cyberbullying on social media
platforms. Bullying's consequences can be as terrible as or worse than
child abuse, according to research, and regular, face-to-face bullying
throughout the adolescent years may more than double the risk of
depression in adulthood.

In the latest research, Hamm and her colleagues went through studies
on social media and cyberbullying and discovered 36 that looked at how
the behavior affected youth between the ages of 12 and 18. One
conclusion stuck out despite the fact that the research looked at
various health outcomes and occasionally used various definitions of
cyberbullying. According to Hamm, who spoke to Live Science, "there
were consistent connections between exposure to cyberbullying and
increased chance of depression." Between 89 and 97.5 percent of the
kids who utilized social media had a Facebook account, according to
the surveys, which included a range of social networking sites. In 17
of the 36 papers that were reviewed, researchers examined the
prevalence of cyberbullying, and they discovered that, on average, 23%
of teenagers reported being the subject of bullying. 15% of internet
users said they have personally been the target of online bullying.
 Hamm and her colleagues found not discover recurring connections
between being bullied and self-harm throughout the research, despite
the well-publicized suicide instances connected to cyberbullying in
news reports. They also failed to detect a persistent connection
between cyberbullying and anxiety. There is evidence for these
connections in some research, but not in others.Hamm emphasized that
the findings do not necessarily rule out the existence of these
linkages. There hasn't been enough research done to establish or
disprove links between cyberbullying and anxiety or self-harm since
the 36 studies employed a diversity of definitions and health
outcomes.

These studies by themselves cannot establish causation, it is

conceivable that depressed youths are more likely to be the targets of
bullying than their healthy counterparts. However, one of the ten
studies did keep track of the adolescents over time and discovered
that the cyberbullying came before the adolescents' sadness,
suggesting a causal connection, according to Hamm. The study also
discovered that a teen's depressive symptoms were more severe the more
cyberbullying he or she endured. Alarmingly, kids frequently suffered
silently from cyberbullying. Children are reluctant to report
cyberbullying, according to Hamm. "There seems to be a widespread
concern that, for instance, kids would lose access to the Internet if
they notify their parents.

Because of this, she added, it's crucial for parents to react

cautiously if their children are being bullied online and to teach
them how to use the Internet safely rather than denying them access.
Parents must face both the fact that this is taking place and the
existence of the Internet and social media, according to Hamm. It's a
significant aspect of their children's life, but it requires a
collaborative effort.