Even though I have researched Facebook and its privacy settings I have also looked at cyberbullying which is one of the dangerous aspects of exposing yourself on the web. Cyberbullying is referred to bullying carried out through technological devices either being the web, phones, ipods; this can consist on written messages to deliberately threaten or hurt someones feelings. This type of bullying can also consist of photos, videos, emails, blogs etc... Rumours are also spread this way in order for more people to find out and dislike this person which in many cases leads to all of them ganging up on them. The use of of social networking sites are great to share events in our lives with friends and family members but exposing yourself in these sites is very dangerous. Many people don't realise how dangerous cyberbullying is in some cases it has lead to deaths.
Forms of Cyberbullying
There are different forms of cyberbullying theses are explained below:
Threatening messages are sent from this form of communication sometimes people don't realise how bad they are as they are not actually being said in person just by a technological device.
- Logging into someone else's account without their consent
In many cases users have given out their passwords to friends, family members etc... This results to people logging into their account and pretending to be the other person, they tend to insult people and post inappropriate comments, pictures etc... Giving out passwords to other uses have resulted to people being blocked out of their own accounts as their passwords have been changed or the inappropriate content has resulted the website into disabling their account.
These forms of communication have been used to bully people as it has a very wide audience and therefore many people will see what is being posted not just a minor amount. Facebook pages have been created to insult other people, personal information along with pictures to identify the person are posted this is also a form of ruining their reputation and getting more people to hate them.
- Using emails and phones to send information
These forms of communication are normally used to contact people although it is also used to send inappropriate pictures, videos of people they may know in order to embarrass them. Unfortunately methods of communicating such as these can be sent to hundreds of people and they can then themselves resend the message to more people resulting in everyone seeing it. Many of these pictures aren't posed with the intent of having them sent to everyone in many cases people are in locker rooms or their own homes when predators are looking to capture them at their most personal time. These forms of communication are even used to send hacking software and virus codes to victims. Programs such as the Trojan Horse allow bullies to control their victims computer information or even the stuff they do.
- Interactive gaming online with games consoles
Many devices nowadays such as the PlayStation 3 and X-box live have the ability to allow users to play against others online. The even allow the 2 gamers to communicate to each other online using the chat facility or the Internet phone which tends to be a headset you wear as your playing the game. Unfortunately with gaming users are very competitive and tend to insult and be verbally abusive to the other players.
Prevention
In order to prevent cyberbullying people need to be told about the consequences that will occurr if they aree involved in cyberbullying. They should also be taught to not tolerate bullying and help prevent it if they personally see if on something such as their Facebook homepage.
Resources
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/
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