Have you ever wondered if there are any laws passed in Maryland regarding cyberbullying? Research states there are no federal laws actually made regarding cyber bullying. Instead, there are laws that bullying overlaps “…when it is based on race, national origin, color, sex, age, disability, or religion.”
Cyber Bullying is a form of bullying that takes place when using technology. People should be doing more to stop all types of bullying. Cyber bullying is a serious issue that is present all over the world especially since social media is big right now. The article, ”The Complicated Web of Teen Lives,” states, “64 percent of children who were bullied did not report it; only 36 percent reported the bullying.”
This means that a very small percentage of people report bullying and there are still so many people who get bullied but never report it. It has also been proven that around 25% students get cyber bullied at some point in their lives and about 16% of those students have cyberbullied others at some point in their lifetimes.
The thing about bullying and cyberbullying is that the percentages may seem small, but those are just percentages from people who decided to share. There are still so many people out there getting cyberbullied. People tend to look at these statistics and ignore the fact that even though the percentage is small, there are still people who haven’t reported getting cyberbullied.
Maybe that’s why people believe that there are bigger problems in the United States to solve than pay attention towards something so “small”. Cyberbullying causes physiological, emotional and physical stress. Depression is a very large effect of cyberbullying as well. Being depressed due to bullying can cause increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, loss of interest in activities and more health complaints.
According to the article, “End of Bullying,” youths who are bullied are more likely to struggle personally and at school. Those who do struggle personally and at school due to bullying miss, skip or drop out of school, receive poor grades, have lower self-esteem, and use alcohol and drugs. Not only does bullying lead to that, but it leads to thoughts about suicide. People who do want to make a change towards cyberbullying, bullying, and suicide all due to bullying, simply aren’t trying enough. This includes myself.
It may or may not be surprising to people that suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people and that this issue results in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. Even though there is a free suicide hotline (1-800-273-TALK (8255)), if percentages based on cyberbullying are rising, if the amount of suicides per year are increasing, and people who go through depression due to bullying also increases, why not take another step to resolve these issues?  It’s better late than never, right? Let’s all try to take a larger step to make a difference and raise awareness about all types of bullying, so it all comes to an end.