Title:The Rise of Cyber Bullying

Reader Digest May 2008, pg 115 to pg 119

Done by:Neo Guo Rong(38)

Many people are bullied and taunted in the internet.It could be through instant messaging, chatting online, calls on mobile phones, posting embarrassing videos and photos on internet and many more which causes people to do foolish things like suicide.

A 2007 study by US-based Pew Internet and American Life Project found the one third of American teens have been targeted for cyber bullying. It is turning obvious that aspects of online communication had encouraged people to act more aggressively, doing stuffs people would never dare to try doing in reality,no one would dare to do bad things in front of everyone,but if there is no one around, there is nothing to be afraid. Internet enabled people to reach out to even more people, this means cyber bullying can have even more negative effects on the victims. A 2006 study by UK-based internet market researh firm YouGov found out that For 1 in 8 young people, cyber bullying is worse than physical bullying. This is because when you post it in the internet, everyone can see it. Would you like to keep your embarrassing moments to yourself or telling the world wide world that you are gay or something?

Another reason why cyber bullying is harmful is its relentless attack. When you get bully in school, it will end quickly when school ends or during holidays. However, the internet is always on, it does not have holidays or something, it is on 24/7 for the whole year. Many people said that it can be ended by offing the computer, but is it possible? Another factor that worsen matter is getting to know who is behind all these ? When one gets bullied, they would like to know who is that and maybe they could have revenge on them. But in the internet, bullies can stay anonymous, they can do whatever harmful stuffs to you without you knowing who they were. That would be even more torturous as you could not do anything about it, this would amplify the damage done to the victims.

After reading this article, i realised that the threat of cyber bullying is so serious. I feel sorry for the victims that are targeted by the cyber bullies and ending up in a very sad state. They might have found fault with someone and that person wanted to make him feel sorry for what he has done, by humiliating them via the internet or maybe someone like his classmate has a dislike towards him or her and ending up embarassing them in the internet. It is not their fault as they maybe did not know what they have done. I think that those cyber bullies are cowards as they do not dare to bad things to the person in front of everyone and even though they attacked the victims by using the internet, they use fake names. I think that they should talk things out instead of doing such things and the victims should not take those attacks too seriously and end up doing stupid things like commit suicide. They should treat them as a joke or something that they won't put in their minds.