Alexander Bostic - Cyber Flame: The invasion of cyberbullying and the motives of bullies

Cyber Flame

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Copyright 2016 by Alexander Bostic. All rights reserved

Table of Contents

Introduction

Cyber Invasion

Social Media mess

Why do they bully?

Trolls

Conclusion

Introduction

My story and bullied children

At the time of writing this, I have a few days before heading back to school. I would say Im that metaphorical piggy in the middle of the education system. I have dealt with all sorts of dilemmas so far in my school life; A lot not pretty in the slightest. Although my deepest troubles regarding the topic of this book have hopefully passed, the hundreds of thousands of young people still getting bullied have to go back to school with fear. I have read, watched and seen the stories of those bullied. Sometimes minor. Sometimes deadly. The purpose of this book is not only to widen your horizons but to give a new insight on a problem we all know about, but a lot of the time isnt taken seriously enough.

77% of kids have been bullied, but I predict that to be a lot higher because these statistics are based on what the children say. And sometimes, the child doesnt know theyre being bullied or if they have been.

However, this isnt

First, Id like to briefly summarise my story.

During year 6, I experienced minor teasing (No big deal) however, moving on to year 7 where I was reunited with old friends from previous schools, I felt like I need to be with them. Especially one person in particular who was a close friend back in early primary school. I will refrain from using her real name or anyones real name, therefore, Ill call her Charlotte. Throughout that year it all seemed to be fine with just a few hiccups where she called me Hitler on her Youtube with another person just because I was born in Germany ,and near the end of the year I was excluded from my social group because of a childish club. However, we became friends again.

Where it gets interesting is in year 8 where there were more players in the game. To put a long story short; my friends teased, name called, irritated and angered me. We had several arguments and later, I was framed for cyber bullying two of Charlottes friends causing the whole class to turn against me. I had no friends until somehow we became companions once again. This was short-lasting as a few arguments laterPOOF. No friends. The next year, there was a lot of tension. Chatting shit behind my back and a lot of accusations were made.

In conjunction with the moments of year 8, I was bullied by another individual who made fun of how I spoke, my name, how I looked and threatened me with a saw and shoved a chair in my face. Drawing on my school work, breaking my belongings and the school practically did Jack-squat.

Im now always on edge, I feel like Im being watched, Im paranoid that Im being plotted against, Im occasionally hostile, easily irritable and agitated.

This will seem minor in comparison to the stories in this book, however, these small things have still deeply affected me, my behaviour, and my outlook on life. This is what we need to think about. How they will be affected for the rest of their lives, or in some cases, how theyll take their own life due to the distress.

Cyber invasion

How its changed

and how it kills

Our typical view of bullying is physical, however, this form has been replaced by constant cyber assaults which are in my opinion more harmful. Physical pain is temporary, but, cyber bullying can happen at any time, you dont know who it is, and that, as a result, makes you question your trust for anyone. Cyberbullying isnt the only form taking centre stage. Im going to share a few quick examples of teenagers who have taken their on lives because of bullying.

Ryan Halligan

A thirteen-year-old from Vermont who took his own life after he was ridiculed and humiliated by peers at school and online.

Ronan Hughes

A seventeen-year-old from Northern Ireland committed suicide after being blackmailed into posting pictures of himself online.

Jessica Logan

A high school senior who committed suicide after a nude photo of herself she sent to her boyfriend was distributed around the school.

Rachael Neblett

A seventeen-year-old high school student from Kentucky took her life after receiving threatening messages on her MySpace account.

Grace McComas

A fifteen-year-old sophomore from Baltimore took her own life on Easter Sunday after months of cyberbullying.

Hannah Smith

A fourteen-year-old from Leicestershire, England hanged herself in her bedroom following taunts on the Ask.fm social networking site.

Kenneth Weishuhn Jr.

A gay high school freshman from Iowa took his own life after being bullied online and in person for being gay.

David Molak

A high sophomore from Texas hung himself in his family back yard following ongoing cyberbullying

Anonymous

A fourteen-year-old mixed race girl attempted suicide after 6 months of racist, verbal and physical bullying.

All these examples couldnt have happened 20 to 30 years ago. And with these examples, you can identify a host of different types of bullying attributed to and heightened by cyber bullying. These include Revenge porn, Racism, Blackmail, Threats, and accusations. Lets break down how these forms of bullying (in regard to cyberbullying) have increased, why its becoming more of a problem and its effects.

Revenge Porn

It is the result of angered and vengeful people taking advantage of one of our basic human responses. Vengeance now has another form. The explosion of social media use and smartphone technology has made it easier for revenge . If youre unclear on what it is. Its the distribution of sexually explicit pictures of videos of one or people without their consent. And it usually starts with a sexy selfie sent to a partner.

In the case of bullying, a female may have trusted a partner to send those explicit images, however, if the relationship goes downhill or the partner is angry, he may distribute those photos for the world to see. Many arent worried about the privacy aspect of having intimate photos of themselves on a partners phone. They dont think that anything could happen to those pictures, ever!

This is made worse due to many pictures could be posted on a revenge porn website. And if the partner knows where the girl goes to school, where she lives etc; he can share with the world leading the girl in question in an extremely vulnerable position where any sexual predator could find her.

However, most of the damage comes from the comments the users of these websites make. I wont list any here but you now understand the point Im making. Although these revenge porn sites are a problem for young adults, teens can still have their photos leaked on facebook, twitter etc.

The effects of this can ruin lives. A common description of how victims feel is that they feel abused numerous times. It sometimes ruins lives. And in some cases, leads to suicide due to the embarrassment and shame every time they are seen. Walking away from it is impossible as moving schools doesnt stop the online taunting. Information is easily transferable. Those pictures can spread to the new school theyre residing at.