Cyber-bullying

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Cyber-bullying  is one of the newest forms of bullying that teenagers/bullies are using.

It is much easier to remain anonymous and still be able to have freedom of speech. Since these online bullies have found new ways to get to their targets, there have been more teenage suicides than in previous years. According to the CDC, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC.

Nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.

According to studies done by Yale University, bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. The ones more at risk of suicide are 10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide.

Some of the warning signs of suicide can include:

• Signs of depression, like ongoing sadness, withdrawal from others, losing interest in favorite activities, or trouble sleeping or eating.
• Talking about or showing an interest in death or dying.
• Engaging in dangerous or harmful activities, including reckless behavior, substance abuse, or self injury.
• Giving away favorite possessions and saying goodbye to people.
• Saying or expressing that they can’t handle things anymore.
• Making comments that things would be better without them.
Well now there is help for this dilemma, and most of that help is on the internet.
To get up to date information on things like:
• The common forms of cyber-bullying.
• How it harms students and warning signs that a student may be the target of cyber-bullying.
• How educators and parents can prevent or intervene in cyber-bullying situations and what responses may actually worsen the bullying problem.
• When cyber-bullying becomes harassment and the legal responsibilities of schools to protect and intervene in harassment situations.

I think that every school in America, and in other countries where bullying is a problem, should have seminars/become better aware of the problems that any kind of bullying causes.  If schools were more apt to the problems with there students, then they would be able to stop most of the suicides that are happening now with teenagers.

Why not try and save the lives of these teenagers while there is still time?

Please visit sites such as, www.stopcyberbullying.org; www.cyberbullyhelp.com; www.stopbullying.gov; and www.stompoutbullying.org, or talk to a professional if you have seen some of these signs in anyone that you know. The first step to getting better is by receiving help of any kind.