Written By: Ali Muhammad Hussain
The ongoing pandemic and the lockdown still in place, children are now glued more towards their screens, cyberbullying is on the rise.
CyberBullying the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person (such as a student) often done anonymously.
Cyberbullying is the attempt to hurt, embarrass, and target someone and is often used by bullies to raise themselves above the people who they consider weak and feeble. It’s often used to belittle, harm, and manipulate people, giving a boost to the ego of the abuser. Random individuals to renowned celebrities are bullied on the cyber platform by these bullies who seem to have no remorse for their actions.
Children now have moved from bullying kids at school and moved on to bullying them on the social platform which as a more severe effect on the victim as most of these posts can be viewed by almost everyone and has an adverse effect on the victim’s mental health leading to stress, anxiety and suicide.
According to research social media works just the same way as reward system, each like a child gets has the same effect as Dopamine has during gambling or the usage of drugs. Almost every app and game now have a chat feature where any anonymous individual could access and effect another’s emotional and mental state.
Nowadays, all first players games have a voice chat feature where children tend to exert anger on other players of their age by screaming and worse hurling abuses at them. Some even tend to record such instances and spread them across the web in the form of memes. Some even go to the extent of misusing others’ pictures and videos and spreading them as memes.
Parents need to have a keen eye on their children to make sure they are well aware of their actions and the consequences that come along with it. This can be avoided if parents:
- Being near the child when he is using the phone, tablet, computer, etc.
- Talking to their children and monitoring their behavior and building trust so that they can come and report anything they find upsetting and inappropriate on the internet.
- By asking them not to reply to such bullies
- Keeping a keen eye on their children’s social account and explaining to them the consequences rather than blaming the child.
- By not threatening the child forces the child to be more secretive.
