Social Media Bullying

Social Media Bullying

            Social media platforms always give users unlimited freedom of expressing their opinions and feelings. The development of social media has brought people together from all walks of life. However, the freedom of social media has not come without a price. Social media bullying is a menace that is tarnishing the name of social media with individuals and groups taking the opportunity of the freedom presented by the various social media platforms. Social media bullying is similar to ordinary bullying, although the main form of hurt caused by social media bullying is emotional. Efforts have been made to curb the social media bullying vice, but people are continuously falling victims daily. Social media platform platforms have tried to deal with social media bullying vice by improving privacy settings, taking a break from social media, and using legal procedures when necessary.

Social media privacy is crucial in avoiding cases of social media bullying. Bullying in social media platforms takes several forms that include extortion due to access to people’s private information (Edgerton et al. 2016). Some users may accidentally share their private information with untrustworthy individuals who might decide to use the information to their advantage. For example, people may get access to a user’s private photos and videos and threaten to release them to the public if a certain condition is not met. Such bullying may be beyond the user’s control if the bully has already accessed the information. Therefore, the privacy of social media remains a crucial consideration when trying to stop social media bullying. For example, users should avoid leaving their social media accounts logged on in public devices since the accounts may fall to criminals’ hands. Also, social media platforms should provide additional security checks before a successful use of a user’s account. However, social media bullying is not only done by strangers but also close associates.

Individuals who do not keep their life private when dealing with friends tend to fall victim of social media bullying. Some friends may not be as trustworthy as they appear and could easily leak out crucial information or even use the information against their friends (Rettew & Pawlowski, 2016). When social media bullying comes from close friends with hidden identities, dealing with the vice becomes a challenge. Users might be forced to abandon their social media accounts or even leave some social media platforms. A better remedy for social media bullying that is difficult to avoid is, however, to take a break from all social media activities.  Taking a break gives the victim sufficient time to heal from the impacts of bullying and take precautionary measures when getting back to the platforms.

Legal actions have been taken for criminals who are perpetrators of social media bullying. Sometimes social media users ignore the importance of other users’ privacy and end up bullying them (Williams, & Pearson, 2016). Victims of social media bullying can sue their offenders, and serious legal actions may be taken. Therefore, taking legal actions against social media bullies could be a major step towards curbing social media bullying.

In sum, social media bullying is as serious as any other form of bullying and is mainly associated with hurting the emotions of the victim. Preventing cases of social media bullying takes the combined efforts of social media platforms and users. Privacy settings of social media accounts should be well mastered, victims should take some break from social media, and when necessary, legal actions should be taken.

References

Edgerton, E., Reiney, E., Mueller, S., Reicherter, B., Curtis, K., Waties, S., & Limber, S. P.         (2016). Identifying new strategies to assess and promote online health communication       and social media outreach: an application in bullying prevention. Health promotion      practice, 17(3), 448-456.

Rettew, D. C., & Pawlowski, S. (2016). Bullying. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics,         25(2), 235-242.

Williams, M. L., & Pearson, O. (2016). Hate crime and bullying in the age of social media.