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RD May issue- The Rise of Cyber Bullying (Pg 114)

Reflection:

This article is about how technology advancement has caused undesirable effects- Cyber Bullying. Many children, teenagers and even adults are all helpless victims of this new deadly online attack, and it has created quite a storm in the internet.

Base on a 2007 study as stated in the article, one-third of American teens are targets of cyber bullies. This is prove that more and more internet users are using the internet as a tool to hide their identities and use it to harm others. What's more, cyber bullying is worse than physical bullying, as lots more audience is able to see the whole bullying process and there is no escape from it. This causes great emotional pressure on the victim, and death may result in a worse case secenario. One example of cyber bullying gone wrong is when Ryan Halligan killed himself after being taunted for months, accusing him as a gay. When an unexpected death occurs, some people realise that cyber bullying is a joke no more.

Cyber bullies themselves are usually of unknown identity, hence I think this is evidence that actually, they are very cowardly. They do not have the courage to reveal themselves, for fear of the punishments the may receive from the school or peers. They take advantage of the internet and stay annoymous so as to go around trying to be "tough" when actually they're cowardy, unable to be who they really are. Cyber bullying are thus more serious because nobody knows who they are dealing with, even the quiet student in the class may turn out to be the one wreaking havoc online. It may be anyone, including your best pal.

So, I believe that it has to be made known to everyone the consequences of cyber bullying in order to make it stop. Although the cyber bullies themselves are already feeling powerful in the midst of bullying in the dark, but with explaination and counselling from the school they can get to understand what are the results of their reckless actions. Being taunted and teased non-stop is not a good feeling, and I'm sure the bullies dont like the feeling of being threaten by someone unknown either.

Who wants a world filled with bullies, and I don't think it is nice to be one either. Days are better without seeing spams on your blog, or hurtful emails receive from annoymous, right? :D

Done by: Chua Jia Min (04), 3F