While learning about anonymity regarding social media, I thought I would take a look into cyberbullying. The article goes into the definition of cyberbullying, and how to decrease the likelihood of young people coming into contact with this type of interaction. While researching this topic, I came across the phrase 'cyberbullying is worse than regular bullying.' From what I have gathered, this phrase seems completely accurate. Before social media was a part of our society, kids would go to school and get bullied, but they would then come home and get away from those who were physically or emotionally harming them. Nowadays, there is no getting away from the emotional abuse. Like the article stated, pictures can be altered, comments can be sent, multiple people can view the abuse, and it is quite difficult to delete these items. To connect cyberbullying to anonymity, kids are less likely to have consequences for their actions if they are anonymous. Therefore, cyberbullying is on the rise. The article goes into ways on how to prevent this form of abuse. Parents need to monitor what their children are posting and what they are viewing online. Also, there needs to be rules on how to use social media in an appropriate way. While social media definitely has positive aspects to it, there are obvious negative sides as well.
http://www.hometownlife.com/story/opinion/2015/09/21/cyberbullying-wrong-mean-puts-kids-risk/72555986/
As a mother, this topic is one that will be very dear to me as my daughter gets older. Currently, she is only 2 so her use of the Internet is little to none (Netflix no more than 2 hours a week with adult supervision). However, as she gets older and technology changes this will be something that concerns me quite a bit. The problem I see with this is how invasive this would make parenting when the child is at an age where gaining independence is key. They could be aware of much more than the adult and find ways to do exactly what the parents are trying to prevent in an attempt to rebel. That said, I do think that very open lines of communication and some monitoring need to be involved when the Internet comes in. I am very thankful that my fiancé is technologically savvy because I am not. My daughter is of the generation that will need to be advanced with technology in order to be successful in a career. However, I don't have any interest in advancing my knowledge of the Internet and I limit myself in terms of amounts of usage. I don't want to pass this down to my daughter, I just want her to be aware of the dangers and teach her how to avoid them.
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