
Technological advances, coping mechanisms, and generational impact all contribute to teen development as affected by cyberbullying. Middle and high school students are suffering from proper mental development because of cyber-crime. Psychologists love to emphasize infancy as the heaviest growth-dependent years for development, but that can be misleading for growing teens struggling to identify their ideal self. In fact, the middle and high school years today should be tied for first place on the significance of development scale. These years rely heavily on mental development, focusing on cognitive decision-making, information processing, individual perception, and personality growth. All of these topics influence day-to-day functions, so when cyberbullying factors in, it takes a heavy toll on one’s development. Researchers have conducted correlation studies to prove the effect cyberbullying has on depression and suicide rates in middle to high school teens.

Bullying, as a social issue, has many subcategories descending from it, with two of the largest categories being traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Traditional bullying occurs on school grounds and commonly in the form of name-calling, teasing, or physically harming a victim. Cyberbullying, on the other hand, is much more complex. This category also consists of name-calling and teasing, but through technological means. Once technology is involved, often via social media, the issue becomes a cyber issue and is much more difficult to deal with. It is hard to reprimand because it often occurs off school grounds and traces victims back to their own home, making it impossible to escape the attacks. Ben Keren, head instructor of a self-defense program in Boston, Massachusetts, said “Gone are the days when a child could walk home, close his or her bedroom door, and escape being bullied” (qtd. in Disare, “Cyberbullying on Rise”). These unfortunate acts occur daily for teens and the constant bullying can be extremely hard to cope with. A study followed teens over time and found that “cyberbullying preceded the teens’ depression, hinting at a causal relationship” and the “more cyberbullying a teen experienced, the more severe his or her symptoms of depression” (Pappas, “Cyberbullying and Depression”). These results are reinforcing the effect cyberbullying has on mental development. With these young adults in high growth-dependent times of their lives, cyberbullying can factor in heavily and interrupt their development.

As technological advances continue, we see generations becoming more and more dependent upon the technology of their time. It used to be unheard of for elementary and middle schoolers to have their own cell phones and social media accounts, but today that is considered the norm. With these generational changes, kids are often more tech-savvy than adults, leading adults to often miss certain ques that could signal cyber issues with their child. However, adults must go about these signs calmly because studies have found that “kids really are hesitant to tell anyone when cyberbullying occurs,” because there is a “common fear that if they tell their parents, they’ll lose their Internet access” (Pappas, “Cyberbullying and Depression”). Unfortunately, there have been incidents where adults had no idea of their child’s technological addictions until the cyberbullying went too far. Rebecca Sedwick from Miami, Florida is an example of how a mother’s lack of knowledge about social media impacted her experience with cyberbullying. 12-year-old Rebecca was being taunted on social media by a group of students from her school.  Her mother found out about the issues and deleted her daughter’s social media sites, took away her cell phone, and even pulled her from school when administration was no help. Time passed and things seemed to get better, but that is when new social media sites pulled one over on Rebecca’s mother. She didn’t know about the new sites her daughter joined when she got her cell phone back, which allowed the cyberbullying to pick up again. Shortly after the issue rose again, Rebecca Sedwick ended her short life. Cyberbullying experts say “cellphone messaging applications are proliferating so quickly that it is increasingly difficult for parents to keep pace with their children’s complex digital lives” (Alvarez, “Girl’s Suicide Points to Rise”) which is unfortunately what happened with Rebecca and her mother. 

Suicide is a very powerful topic that no one wishes they have to deal with. Unfortunately, because of cyberbullying and other acts that increase depressed feelings in individuals, suicide still exists in society. We can teach these victims possible coping and termination mechanisms for cyberbullying, but even then, the cyberbullying may persist and continue to defeat the victim. Often times these victims want to turn to their school for help, but can’t because of administration restrictions. Unfortunately, we are seeing more and more cyber-crime cases are being left unresolved because the incidents did not occur on school grounds, so administration cannot properly settle the issue. Even if administration may want to do something, their hands are often tied because if they intervene and attempt punishing the bully, they are going against the First Amendment by restricting the freedom of speech.  “Although 44 states have bullying statutes, fewer than half offer guidance about whether schools may intervene in bullying involving “electronic communication,” which almost always occurs outside of school and most severely on weekends, when children have more free time to socialize online” (Hoffman, “Online Bullies Pull Schools into the Fray”). This statistic is saddening especially for parents and their children in school systems struggling to deal with cyberbullying. We need to establish a solution that allows administrative help to cyberbullying victims and cases, because even though it may occur off school grounds, it is still affecting the students on school grounds.

These unfortunate events lead us to research coping mechanisms for these poor teens struggling with cyberbullying. With growing technology and social media advances, it becomes almost impossible to combat cyberbullying altogether, so we must turn to mechanisms that can help individuals dismantle their personal cyber issues and cope properly. Authors Robin M. Kowalski, Sue Limber, and Patricia W. Agatston of Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age researched prevention and possible termination methods for victims. Some of their ideas were as follows: better educate students on technology use, encourage the reporting of cyberbullying in schools, and share resource options with parents. These ideas may seem rather simple which is why they are being overlooked in today’s current methods. As previously mentioned, cyberbullied individuals are withholding information from their parents and adults because they fear the restriction of their mobile devices or social media accounts, when in reality the adult could try to dismantle the problem in other ways before having to remove the technology. As a society, we also feel that it is bad to tell on someone or tattletale, but it is exactly that, telling someone else, that could help those being cyberbullied. Since teens are still developing cognitively, they may not always know the best situation to deal with the problem at hand, which is why telling an adult or getting another perspective can truly help the situation. Another group of researchers conducted a study that evaluated current coping mechanisms and observed their effectiveness. Hana Machackova and the other authors of Effectiveness of Coping Strategies for Victims of Cyberbullying sent out a questionnaire to middle and high school teens with questions pertaining to cyber aggression, length of cyber aggression, experienced harm, and types of responses. The results found that the most common strategies used were depreciating the aggressor, talking to someone, and avoiding thoughts about the incident. Most strategies such as blocking the bully, deleting social networking profiles, avoiding the site, and seeking support were found to be effective, whereas retaliation, confrontation, and searching for online advice were least helpful. Also, a Watch-Well-Cast video discussed quick tips to beat the bully such as making all accounts private, blocking them on social media, not responding or retaliating when bullied, and reporting the bullying to an adult immediately. This 2013 source provided great day to day information to dismantle a bully on one’s own before addressing an adult, which can be very important for the generational teens who fear mobile device and technology removal if they tell an adult about the cyberbullying.  Various types of coping mechanisms have been mentioned for all types of individuals. Unfortunately, these tips are not always discovered or followed and we begin to see teens struggling to a point of no return with cyber-crime. This point is often after the individual has also experienced depressed feelings for a while and hasn’t reached out for help, or if they have, the help has not performed its job properly. This is the highest time that researchers see self-harm and suicidal thoughts begin to occur in victims. 

Kelly McBride, author of Bullying Is Not on the Rise and It Does Not Lead to Suicide, wrote that all suicides are tragic and complicated; however, cyberbullying is not to blame. The “common narrative” depicts a popular, mean student singling out a weaker classmate who will eventually become depressed and commit suicide. McBride believes these are the wrong facts for teen suicide and more accurately, teens commit suicide because of mental illness. She went on to state that “even in specific cases where a teenager or child was bullied and subsequently commits suicide, it’s not accurate to imply the bullying was the direct and sole cause”. Overall, the author admits that both bullying and teen suicide are problems that need to be dealt with; however, they cannot be paired together based off trends. Journalists often depict the suicide or incident as being linked to a single, specific factor, when most likely the suicide was influenced by many factors.

McBride gives rise to a great point. It can’t be proven that cyberbullying is a cause for suicide; however, it can be proven that cyberbullying increases one’s chance of demonstrating depressed behaviors that can lead to suicidal desire. Bullying acts as a factor that increases depression and other developmental issues and kids who are bullied are more likely to experience “depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy, and decreased academic achievement” (Aspa, “Effects of Bullying”). These findings show how bullying is affecting individual development and growth on a day-to-day basis. It inflicts negative behaviors and thoughts onto others and should therefore be dealt with immediately. According to a 2014 article by Charisse Nixon dealing with the impact of cyberbullying on adolescent health, “Adolescents who are targeted via cyberbullying report increased depressive affect, anxiety, loneliness, suicidal behavior, and somatic symptoms” (Nixon, “Current Perspectives”). Both of these sources report the same findings concerning the effects of cyberbullying on an individual’s development. We need to realize the effect cyber-crime is having on these individual’s during their fragile years of development and diminish it. 

Due to our continuously improving technology, it is often difficult to eliminate cyber-crime in our society, so we must look towards other outlets to deal with cyberbullying. I propose we start by reinforcing strong coping and termination methods for certain situations. I also propose we better educate students, parents, and school administrators on how to properly handle a cyberbullying situation. I understand we can’t necessarily implement certain punishments because of the fine line that exists between school administration and individual rights; however, educators need to find a new way to dismantle the problem and make students feel more comfortable in their classes and daily environment. Once again, we must act now so these students are not suffering during their developmental years. 

If we implement these strong plans for dealing with cyberbullying, the hope is to eventually decrease serious signs of depression we see in victims. By decreasing depression rates, we will be able to also work with the daily struggles previously mentioned such as academic success decrease, strange eating and sleeping patterns, and frequent states of loneliness. The goal is to decrease the rate at which we see these daily struggles and by doing so, hopefully decrease suicidal thoughts as well. This overall goal would provide individuals a higher chance for better development. I strongly believe that these new plans could create better opportunities for victims of cyber-crime. As long as we are working with them, they can have a chance at normal development which will essentially affect their growth into adulthood.  

Currently, cyberbullying still exists as a dangerous subcategory of bullying. Attempts to terminate cyber-crime have failed in previous years, which is why the issue still exists today. By enacting productive coping mechanisms and better educating teens and adults on ways of dealing with cyberbullying, we will decrease the rates of depression we see in developing teens. Once these proper behaviors are in place, we as a society will be able to see a decrease in the feelings of loneliness, sadness, and suicidal thoughts in these victims, once again putting those individuals back on track for normal development. These simple implications can go a long way for the young teens and adults who still have a long way to go with their personal development, upcoming occupations, future families, and evolving environment around them.  Today can be the beginning of the road to recovery for children and families victimized by cyberbullying, as well as the day we discover a solution to prevent and terminate cyberbullying altogether.
