Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that takes place on a digital device. It can be on a computer, phone, tablet, or anything that you can communicate on. The bullying that takes place on these devices can be anything from making fun of someone's appearance to calling someone mean names. The most common places that this occurs are social media, texting, emailing, and online games. It can happen to people of all ages. Not all cyberbullying happens in middle school, but it can even happen among adults or be an adult to child bullying situation. It is a worldwide issue that has been discussed since the beginning of devices becoming popular. There are now laws in place to try and prevent or stop the bullying in place. All states are held to standard as they must respond to bullying. Another thing about this form of bullying is that it could be your closest friend bullying you but it could also be an anonymous person or someone you have never met. That is scary as a child when a stranger to trying to contact you. Adults can take advantage of the uninformed child by getting into communication with them and then the bullying or inappropriate behavior can begin. 

Snapchat has been a major platform for cyberbullying

I think cyberbullying is hard for children to understand. This is because children do not see how the internet is forever. It is not just something that you can delete in a week. Once you put something out there it is out there forever. Everything about the internet is forever even Snapchat which appears to disappear in 60 seconds or 24 hours. I think the creation of Snapchat started a whole new world of cyberbullying. It was confusing at first because you think that everything on the app disappears. News later came out that everything can be pulled up and shown on the internet later. This was a major topic between my parents and me as I was growing up. Nothing that you put out there can be taken back no matter how sorry you are. This needs to be shown to young children in an attempt for them to not be hateful on the internet. They should take their relationships off social media and have face to face conversations. Cyberbullying cannot be prevented completely but the more knowledge the children have the more we can try to prevent it.