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REPORT ON BULLYING
Summary
The report is a critique of two different articles on bullying by looking at the latest forms of bullying which is Cyberbullying and the statistical impact on the teenagers in the US and how the various stakeholders involved like the parents, teachers, tech companies and the politicians have not done enough to address these issues. The article also includes surveys of different ethnic backgrounds and the percentage of the different forms of cyberbullying that teenagers face online. The main motive behind the research is to create urgency to act and take necessary action to reduce cyberbullying. The second article’s focus is on the effects of bullying on the disability of teenagers and how anti-bullying programs and social interventions in school can reduce the damage and work towards improving the mental health of the victims of bullying.
Introduction
Bullying is a form of harassment that is harmful to individuals, it usually involves picking on the weaker individual and harassing them into doing things that the bully intends to do. Bullying can be classified into different types like cyberbullying, physical harm, verbal abuse, etc. Bullying is a major issue among children and teenagers and most often is confined to schools. The effects of bullying are adverse to health and can have psychological impacts in the future due to which the child can face trauma later that would be visible in their behaviors or actions. Mental health takes the most damage in such scenarios. It’s imperative to identify the percentage of children facing this issue and take necessary action to prevent it and ensure that there are counselors in schools to help impede such events. However, with the advent of the social media platform, Bullying has extended to virtual spaces where teenagers are victims and this requires a different approach.
Discussion
Pew Research Center
According to (ANDERSON, 2018), the teenagers in the US that are bullied online are 59% and the issue is not getting enough attention to be addressed by the authorities in school or by people in power that could bring attention to the situation. The stakeholders identified in the article by the Pew Research Center are the teenagers, teachers, companies, and politicians. The research has identified various factors that contribute to bullying teenagers and conducted a survey to show the statistical evidence of these factors. Among the many factors, name-calling was something a majority of teenagers experienced, 42% of the teenagers said that they were victims of name-calling, 32% were victims of false rumors in the survey. 21% of the teenagers were constantly harassed about their whereabouts by parents. 16% of teenagers received physical threats online. These statistics only describe the situation among teenagers in the U.S and it can be used as a guide to understanding bullying and its forms in different parts of the globe.
The article has detailed the platforms through which teenagers most often are at the receiving end of bullying. The most common platforms are text messaging and digital media which also includes individuals receiving explicit images without their consent and this feeling is shared by the parents of the children as well. The significance of this research is to call out the authorities like the teachers, companies, and politicians who haven’t addressed the gravity of the effects of bullying. Bullying has long term impacts on the lives of individuals and it induces fear in the minds of little children and teenagers who are victims of bullying in the school premises (Banks, 1997). The numbers that Pew research center has come up with can be useful for the people at the top who are mentioned to see the magnitude of the influence it has on the lives of children and teenagers and with digital platforms, the issue has only been amplified with the means. The effects of bullying have been etched in the memory of the victims and recall of any event or symbol that reminds them of the event causes trauma and mental health problems (G.W.Giumetti, 2017).
The number of teens that were part of the survey conducted by the Pew Research...