Diary Of a Nerdy Blogger: November 2010

Pro/Con Subtopic Essay- Cyberbullying

Cyber bullying has become more frequent now days with our society growing more dependent on technology. Bullying use to be thought of as a normal process of growing up, but times have changed and teens are being harassed to a point where it’s leading to suicide. There are different things that teens have access to and use regularly. Video and camera usage are a few of many different types of technology that teens utilize on a daily basis. They make music videos, perform comedy shows, display their talents, and talk about their day or their opinion on a specific topic. Although this may sound innocent, there are people out there who won’t always like or agree with what others have to say. Teens are still naïve and emotionally vulnerable as they attempt to grapple with their haters. Most of the time they cannot handle what other people have to say and they feel like committing suicide. YouTube is one broadcasting site that allows people to upload anything they want. This leads to exposure of sexual content, profane language, and nudity. Teens shouldn’t be exposed to this because they are not aware of the consequences and it can corrupt the way they think the world should be like. Parents/Guardians should monitor their child’s use of broadcasting and video usages at all times and in all areas because kids are still not mature enough to be fully aware of the adult content, hate comments, blackmailing, and sexual predators.

Granted, teens should express themselves through technology because they should be allowed to be creative and display their talents. However, this shouldn’t mean teens should exploit themselves sexually. If kids are perfectly okay with exposing themselves to complete strangers then they should be comfortable with showing their parents. It goes to show that the teens who disagree with this have something they want to hide. Sites like YouTube do not filter out people so anyone can have an account and upload whatever they want. Some kids use this for their advantage in a good way by posting up music videos, short films, and etc. to entertain others and show off their talents. On the other hand, teens also take advantage of these sites in a bad way, such as recording themselves in a provocative way. They don’t understand that there are people out there who don’t always agree with what they say or do. For instance, an 11 year old girl from Florida, known online as ‘Jessi Slaughter’, became the center of a cyber bullying frenzy on July 22, 2010. The young girl - whose real name is Jessica Leonhardt - told Good Morning America Thursday that the escalating bullying began with postings aimed at her, regarding her alleged sexual history. In response, she said she used her webcam merely as a way to vent. This back fired however, because everyone began targeting her due to her profane videos. After these hateful comments, she posted a video of her meltdown. It goes to show that kids are not mature enough to be online unsupervised. If parents were to monitor their kids all the time on these types of websites, they could see that they are doing something productive or they’re just trying to exploit themselves.

Another way that teens can take advantage of camera usage is by blackmailing. “Sexting” is the common name for taking nude pictures of oneself and then sending them through cell phones or uploading it to the internet. Most often done by teenage girls for their boyfriends, they never think about the outcome after the breakup. Many times, these photos spread around the school and it leads to bullying and embarrassment. Several cases have risen over the past year where teenagers have been charged for producing and sending child porn since they are under aged. With light weight cameras or cameras built into phones, almost all teenagers have one. With a click of a button, it is so simple to blackmail another person.

In conclusion, the generation today is overly exposed to a lot of adult content and this is corrupting their minds. Teaching them right from wrong is not enough anymore because they want more proactive involvement rather than prohibitive don’ts from parents. Parents just want their kids to be safe because there are so many dangerous people out there that teens don’t realize. They think it’s harmless but there are pedophiles who take things too seriously.

Bibliography:

-Authoritarian Parenting, Authoritative Parenting and Permissive Parenting - their effects on children:

http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/authoritarian-parenting-authoritative-parenting-and-permissive-parenting-their-effects-on-children-1459885.html

-Online Child Molesters:

http://www.netsmartz.org/news/onlinemolesters.htm

-"Generation IM":

http://www.netsmartz.org/news/apr02-2.htm

-Girl Scout Survey: Sexual Harassment of Teens on Net: http://www.netsmartz.org/news/feb02-1.htm

-11 Facts About Cyber-bullying:

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying

-Facts About Cyber bullying:

http://www.suite101.com/content/truth-about-cyberbullying-a280827