As the Internet continues to dominate the daily lives of children, teens and adults, it seems as if too much convenience inevitably leads to a corrupted virtual world filled with emerging negativity, absurd rumors and complete nonsense. We are no longer talking about physical bullying but rather cyberbullying, which has been a worldwide trending topic these few years. This rampant social phenomenon is constantly brought to our attention, yet the complexity hinders us young adults from actually taking steps towards truly fixing this obnoxious norm. As an avid Internet user, I believe it is necessary to bring up these 3 potential ways of approaching the issue of cyberbullying in order to effectively halt the spread of this epidemic.
1. Start teaching and sharing this problem with children now
Nowadays, we can’t deny the fact that young children are also using the Internet quite often. Teaching them how to properly surf the Net is of the utmost importance. At first, young kids are probably using tablets to simply play games. However, once they enter primary school, they are surrounded by different types of friends and classmates. This hints at how easily children can be influenced by their peers in a negative way, such as watching inappropriate videos together or discussing about norms and rumors. Parents and teachers have to teach children the correct way to use the Internet instead of letting them blindly follow the wrong path.
2. Implementing a filtering system on social media sites
Despite the fact that establishing a filtering system is rather difficult, this would definitely serve as an potent strategy in targeting cyberbullying improvement. There are already similar functions on social media sites such as filtering out deliberate, personal-attacking comments below a Facebook post or disabling the comment function under certain videos posted on Ellen DeGeneres Show’s YouTube channel. The recently emerging anonymous comment sites can also be extremely problematic as it is even harder to track the identity of the person making intentional and derogatory comments. Therefore, implementing a solid filtering system is definitely required.
A very important lesson for all of us. (Image source)
3. Think twice before joining a discussion or commenting online
This is the easiest solution among the three. Hundreds of thousands of fake news posts, rumors and gossip appear on the Internet every day, making Internet users feel more confused when deciding which news source to trust or which norms to follow. When you are discussing rather controversial or unclarified topics with your friends, be extra careful. You might inadvertently comment something without any negative intentions while others interpret your words differently. Always remember to observe your surroundings on the Internet and think twice before joining a discussion about current or sensitive topics. This is also very important when it comes to posting and making comments on social media since a keyboard can kill a person.
After all this, I would like to take this time to acknowledge how serious cyberbullying can be; it may eventually lead to suicide. Calling out all Internet users worldwide – while we may be appreciating how convenient the Internet is, think again before you press ‘Enter’.