The Cyber-Bullying: A Growing Trend In Today'S Youth Essay

Jamie Diesel
English Comp. 102
Mr. Dave Brumfield
11/06/2008

Cyber-bullying: A growing trend in today’s youth
For most adults, at some point in our lives, whether it is in grade school, middle school, or even in high school, we have experienced some form of bullying in school. It could be out on the playground, in the classroom, in the hallways, but for the most part, at least when we were in school, bullying was an in person, physical or verbal attack, and we knew who it was that was bullying us. With the kids in today’s society however, the extent and the ways in which kids bully one another has gone far beyond what most of us could ever imagine. Kids are using the internet, cell phones, and other forms of electronics to bully each other, thereby keeping their identities a secret,   and for a lot of bully’s, allowing them to get away with it because they can’t be traced.
According to Wikipedia.com, cyber-bullying is defined as: “when someone repeatedly makes fun of another person online, or repeatedly picks on another person through emails or text messages, or uses online forums and postings online intended to harm, damage, humiliate, or isolate another person whom they don’t like.”   Online bullying, termed “cyber-bullying”, happens when teens use the internet, cell phones or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person. Cyber-bullying researchers, Hinduja and Patchin define cyber-bullying as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text”, and recently updated the definition to account for cyber-bullying through internet that occurs without actual text, such as videos being uploaded from “You Tube” for example.
Cyber-bullying can be as simple as continuing to contact someone via email or text whom has made it clear that they no longer wish to be contacted by the sender; however, it may also include threats, sexual remarks, racial slurs, ganging up on victims by making them the...