At this point in society, you are probably asking: what’s up with all these bullies? What is wrong with them? Do they bully out of hate? Or, a desire for power? Are they empty souls desperate for love? Is it fueled by mental issues? Is it genetics? Is it culture? What in the world could cause someone to muster up the audacity to cyberbully? Or, is there absolutely nothing wrong and it’s simply human nature?

Surely the fanfare on this topic has been heard by just about everyone—October is both National Cyber Security Awareness Month and National Bullying Prevention Month. Nowadays, we are practically engulfed by technology; we rely on it for almost everything we do, as it’s intertwined with our existence. With the majority of our interconnectedness prevailing through online presence, we must ensure it thrives under secure circumstances.

Following are a few statistics about cyberbullying:

• "43% of teens have been victims of cyberbullying in the last year
• Almost 80% of teens said that they either did not have parental rules about Internet use or found ways around the rules.
• Nearly 30% of teens wanted to seek revenge on those who cyberbullied them.
• Only 11 percent of teens talked to parents about incidents of cyberbullying"
• Over 70 percent of teens said that being able to block cyberbullies was the most effective method of prevention" (“Stop Cyberbullying Before It Starts”)

Plenty of advice can be found online on what parents can do to help prevent cyberbullying and assist their children in coping as victims, including awareness of what their kids do online and setting rules about technology use. General morals on the issue should be taught, such as teaching, “not to share anything that could hurt or embarrass themselves or others" (“Prevent Cyberbullying”). They can also emphasize utilization of stricter privacy settings; think if you want your information public, visible to friends of friends, or just friends—and be sure not to share passwords- you might compromise control of your online identity.

Furthermore, technology exists to counter cyberbullying on the part of parents. For example, Web Safety Inc. released a smart phone application for parents to monitor activity on their children's phones. Web Safety claims to have "the world's largest database of its kind, with 4,000 terms that indicate a child is in harm's way,"—this app uses this database to notify parents when their kids are sent any combinations of the aforementioned terms. There is also the GoGoStat Parental Guidance iPhone app with similar functions to Web Safety’s app, and notifies parents "when kids post or receive inappropriate messages, displays the age and location of anyone their child intends to friend on Facebook, and has a panic button feature that automatically sends a report to the police in case of emergency” (Bernard).
 
This leads us into broadcasting cybersecurity and accountability issues in general when it comes to online social networks. As applicable to various innovations, online networking is a technology we’ve developed and has flourished, yet the possible consequences and negative practices may have slipped our minds and were trounced by expected benefits. When we mass produced highways and individual automobiles became a norm, we didn’t think too hard about environmental consequences. When we introduced medications for mental health, heart disease, and other conditions, we overlooked the extent of adverse effects. Even when we further established nuclear energy, we dismissed environmental detriment, and used the advancement against the welfare of humanity. Now, with cyberbullying, the primary plausible means of improvement is through intelligently and effectively composed laws and technology, which need to be adequately enforced.

Technology amplifies the issue of bullying because the indirectness of social networking lowers inhibitions, while often anonymous as well, and gives more leverage to people to be exceedingly vicious. When people know they will be held accountable and punished for their wrongdoings, logically, they will be repelled from cruel actions, such as cyberbullying.

A recent model of what may be done to address cyberbullying legally is in Denver, CO. After a public hearing for students and parents to voice their experiences, Colorado’s House Education Committee passed a bill earlier this year to make cyberbullying its own separate crime. The bill "would make cyberbullying of a minor by another minor a Class 2 misdemeanor, which would carry up to three months in jail. The penalty could double if the harassment is based on race, color, religion, ancestry or national origin" (Sablan). Usually, cyberbullying, when addressed in court, is considered harassment, or possibly stalking. Yet, most cyberbullies do not believe their actions fit such labels, thus the possible penalties do not deter them. Thus far, all but one U.S. state has bullying laws: only 20 include "cyberbullying" while all but two include electronic harassment, only 14 have criminal sanctions, 44 have school sanctions, and 13 include off campus behaviors (Hinduja and Patchin).
 
Hypothetically, proposed preventative measures that can be embedded within social networks to flag cyberbullying may become obligatory. The MIT Media Lab's Software Agents Group developed "an algorithm that identifies certain groups of words within a post. It then assigns them to 30 themes pertaining to sensitive topics and possible harassment." This artificial intelligence (AI) system could offer a pop-up warning to the user posting/sending the predicted harassing post/message about the consequences of being a cyberbully. Whether or not sites choose to implement such an AI is up to them; however, a member of the Software Agents Group emphasizes their goals are "more inspiration than strict problem solving” (Sydiongco).

All in all, unless humanity chooses to collectively and drastically change its social norms and innate tendencies in how we interact with one another, it will take a long path of necessary strengthened laws and cybersecurity measures to place even a partial halt to conflicts such as cyberbullying. We can carry on weakly, without endorsing self-accountability among everyone of all ages and backgrounds, and basic cybersecurity, thus allowing a trend as unnecessary and destructive as cyberbullying to continue—or, we could use common sense and simply have civility to warrant cyberbullying nearly impossible to engage in without punishment.