The battle against cyberbullying

The recent phenomenon of cyberbullying has caused grave concerns among students and society at large. Many people think that only weak people will be bullied, but in the cyberworld, anyone can be a victim. For instance, bullies on the Internet may post nasty messages on Facebook. The bullies may also post sensational photos of anyone on the Internet, causing huge disturbance to the victims.  This will cause the victims to lose confidence in social relationships.

There are actually many different forms of cyberbullying. In one case, a girl was bullied because of her relatively poor performance in a singing exam. While she was singing in the exam, many classmates made fun of her bad voice. They also distributed her singing videos on social networking sites, making her afraid to take music classes. Now, she does not even have the courage to talk to her classmates. In another case, a female student was laughed at in the PE lesson. In the lesson, some male students made fun of their female students by saying that they ran slowly. Then they posted the girl’s photo online and continued the bullying. The female classmate was even forced to drop out of school because of this incident. In no way do children know how serious the problem is.

I suggest that when you see others saying something hurtful on the Internet, you should not post any responses. Do not retaliate. Instead, you should talk to your family and teachers. Try changing your screen name and stay away from unpleasant discussion forums. The online world is an open platform. Any information posted on the Internet can be seen by third parties. Once the information is put on the Internet, it cannot be completely deleted. Therefore, be careful to protect personal privacy and do not upload personal information and photos. Think twice before speaking online. Don’t distribute sensitive content casually. Only in this way can the problem be solved.
         
At school, we should not leave our students unprotected. I think our school should take the initiative to care for students who are suspected of being the victims of cyberbullying and provide the necessary support and suggestions. If the bullied students are emotionally troubled, the school can ask social workers to follow up and contact their families at the same time. Secondly, they can conduct Internet safety education on campus to teach students about cyber-security rules, such as how to protect personal information and telling them not to trust netizens. Apart from that, we should remind students to be responsible and respectful of others online and not to engage in or participate in cyberbullying activities.

I sincerely hope that these cyberbullying cases will not happen again. I truly hope that the above suggestions will help us prevent cyberbullying.

4B Krystal Lam