Amanda Todd was a teenage girl who was convinced by an older man to flash him on social media and he had taken a picture. He later came back around and tried to blackmail her with the picture of her. When she didn't do what he wanted, he let out the picture for everyone she knew to see. She got bullied really bad because of it. And no matter how many times she moved, or how many different schools she went to, it still happened. It got to the point to where she tried to end her own life by drinking bleach, but it didn't work. She later posted a video on Youtube and told her story of bullying, self harm, and trying to kill herself. She killed herself soon after that.

Cyberbullying is a serious problem that people face, especially teenagers.. It has caused many people great pain, and in extreme cases even suicide. Cyberbullying is “the act of harassing someone online by sending or posting mean messages, usually anonymously.”

Ryan Halligan was bullied since 5th grade. He later befriended his bully around seventh grade, and ended up telling an embarrassing story of something that had happened to him when he was little. The “friend” decided to turn it into a rumour that Ryan was gay, and Ryan got bullied and cyber bullied for it, tell tragically  he decided to take his own life.

The difference between cyberbullying and the traditional bullying is that with cyberbullying, people usually have their device with them, so they can be bullied 24/7. Also, the bully can be anonymous, and hide behind a screen. It is really hard to get rid of negative posts of images once they are posted, and so many people can see it. 

Tyler Clementi was bullied for being gay. When he told his college roommate that he was having a male friend over, his roommate went over to his friend’s room. The roommate had a camera in the room and decided to spy on  Tyler. Seeing Tyler with the man, the roommate thought it would be fun to show the video of Tyler's sexual encounter with the man to everyone. Tyler ended up taking his own life by jumping off the george washington bridge.

Studies show that cyberbullying can lead to depression and many other things. Although there is no proven link between cyberbullying and self harm, it doesn't mean there still isn't one. Cyberbullying can cause many things such as adulthood depression, anxiety, low self esteem, and other health problems. It can also lead to not wanting to go to school, and drug and alcohol abuse. Cyberbullying can also have the same effects, or even worse, than child abuse.

Phoebe Prince was an irish immigrant was bullied for her date to prom, a senior football player. She was called names like “whore” or “irish slut” one several different forms of social media and in person. She also committed suicide, and even then girls were leaving mean messages on her memorial page.

  

About 40% of college students are cyberstalked sometime in their life. And some states  have made laws against it.  Minors tend to get more protection under the law,and in some states it is actually a felony to stock minors. And about 23% of teanagers say they have been targeted on social media, and about 15% of teenagers admit to being bullies themselves. There are also the bullies who are bullied, and then they bully others. These are referred to as the “bully-victim”  and on study shows that about 5.4% of teenagers fit this.

Kenneth Weishuhn was bullied for being gay. He was bullied everywhere,  at school and online, and even got death threats over text. The bullies had started an “anti-gay group one facebook” and Kenneth was constantly being harassed. He also took his own life. 

Cyberbully, the movie by  Charles Binamé does pretty well at telling about cyberbullying.  It tells about a girl whose social media account was hacked and it spiraled into cyberbullying, and then leads to not only mean comments on Clickster, the social media website they use, but she also starts gets bullied at school. People constantly leave hurtful messages on her page, and her best friend pretends to be a guy named James, and claims Taylor gave him STD’s. The mean girls also post a video depicting her as a cheap prostitute and put it one Clickster. Having enough of it, Taylor tries to kill herself, but is stopped by her mom and her friend. Eventually she stands up to the bully and things get better.

In an interview with a school counselor, we talked about how the school and staff tries to deal with cyberbullying, why he thinks it happened, how the try and solve it, and ways it can be prevented.

He defines cyberbullying as a targeted, repeated attempt at hurting a person using different forms of social media. And  he believes that the effect of cyberbullying is more important than how many times it happens, and that each case is serious enough to address so that kids can be safe. The school does try and help prevent cyberbullying, with safe to tell and their zero tolerance, and explains how parents can help by monitoring and limiting their children's social media. He deals with many cases himself, but the knowledge of cases is only as big as the amount of people who report cyberbullying. When dealing with bullies he tries and gets them to see the point of view of the person they bullied and gives them a clear warning that it will not happen again. Also maintaining the convidentualility of a person who reports cyberbullying is important. The name is kept as anonymous as possible, and the bullies are warned not to try and retaliate to the person who reported. The reporter is also encouraged to let someone know if they get heat from the bully. He wants to make sure that people know that they can always talk to counselors, and they will be there to help navigate through cyberbullying and will do their best to help.

Cyberbullying is a serious problem that people, and mostly teens, face. Although not all cases end in suicide, all cases are still important and people should be aware of cyberbullying and report it if the see it happening to someone, or if it is happening to themselves. You aren't alone alone in this, and there are many people that you can talk to and ask for help.