The Menace Behind the Machine

THE MENACE BEHIND THE  MACHINE

More than one in three young people have experienced cyber threats online. Over 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their cell phones or the Internet. Cyber bullying is a huge issue that more people need to start noticing.  Mean or hurtful comments and rumors spread online are the most common types of cyberbullying. Skipping school, receiving poor grades, have lower self-esteem, have more health problems, and suicide are all side effects of cyberbullying. Suicide is the most serious effect to this horrible act.               

SUICIDE

Teens, especially in middle school, are starting to take the stress of being bullied out on themselves. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it. Suicide directly links to cyberbullying because teens get bullied behind a computer screen and have no one to stand up for them. They go through the whole process on their own. Sometimes, suicide is their only option.

For Example, Rebecca Ann Sedwick, 12 years old, committed suicide in near home in Miami over cyber bullying. She changed her username on Kik Messenger, a cellphone application for messaging, to “That Dead Girl.” Rebecca then delivered a message to two of her friends, saying goodbye forever. She then climbed a platform at an abandoned cement plant near her home in the Central Florida city of Lakeland and leaped to the ground. For more than a year, Rebecca was cyberbullied by 15 middle-school children (including her own boyfriend) who encouraged her to kill herself, her mother said. The Polk County sheriff’s office is investigating the role of cyberbullying in the suicide and considering filing charges against the middle-school students who apparently taunted Rebecca with hostile text messages. Florida passed a law this year making it easier to bring felony charges in online bullying cases. Hopefully, cyber bullying will be completely stopped and children understand the dangers of other’s lives.

Cyber bullying is the most negative effect of social media. It is the most unhealthy act. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. Social media enables young teens to bully others without dealing with the other person’s feelings. They cannot see how someone actually feels or is affected by the bullying through a computer screen. Although parents can try to prevent cyberbullying by limiting the use of their children’s computers and monitor what they are doing, it is still slowly ruining more and more teens lives every single day.