Teens around the world use social media constantly. This means there will be a lot more communicating between everyone. But is this a good thing? While you can say nice and kind things on the Internet you could also say mean and hurtful things too. When someone says something mean or hurtful online, it’s called cyberbullying. However, cyberbullying isn’t always as simple as it sounds. There are cyberbullies who would say and do things that would hurt someone and they would constantly do it. This kind of extreme cyberbullying shouldn’t be allowed. Extreme cyberbullying should be illegalized.

When people say mean things to us, we get sad. In 2011 the National Crime Victimization Survey, conducted between 9th to 12th graders, estimated that about 2.2 million students experienced cyberbullying. (meganmeierfoundation) That’s 2.2 million people who could have low self-esteem, increase in depression and/or feelings of powerlessness. These are just some of the possible negative effects that could affect teens who are cyberbullied.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, homicides being the second and car accidents the first. (cyberbullyhotline) 20% of kids think about suicide and 1 out of 10 attempt it. When people are constantly sad or depressed, they could begin to think about suicide. They think that their lives aren’t worth anything or that their lives are too hard to handle, and then they do it. It’s hard to believe that one person saying mean or cruel things to another person would make them think about suicide, but it’s true and it does happen. It just happens so easily. 81% of teens say that bullying online is easier to get away with. It happens so easily because you don’t always know who you’re talking to online. They can make themselves anonymous or even pretend to be someone they’re not. Anyone on the internet can say whatever they want to you and no one could know that it was them.
Now, you could disagree with everything that was said. You could be saying that all the teens can just turn off their computers or turn off their phone. They could just block the person or they can just simply ignore it. Now I would disagree with this. People, especially teens love going on the internet and love talking to people. They can’t just turn it all off. It’s a part of their daily lives. They can talk to family and friends over the internet. They can be the ones who cheer them up every day. They can watch videos or look at pictures on social media. If they just turn it all off, there wouldn’t be anything for them to do. It’s unrealistic to tell them to do that. If they blocked someone the person can just keep coming back on a different account or as someone else. You could be saying that that kind of things doesn’t happen. Why would someone just keep harassing one person. There’s difference answers for everyone, but it does happen. People who really want to get to their victim and really want to make his/her life miserable will keep on doing that. Also if it’s a publicly posted video, picture or message, everyone will see it and everyone could repost or share it. If they’re all talking about it, then he/she would need to block everyone. That’s unrealistic. You can’t just block everyone. And finally how can a victim just ignore all the mean things that are being thrown at them. He/she can try to ignore it to their best ability. Anyone could try to ignore something to their best ability but just hearing or reading all the mean things will eventually get to someone. No one is perfect and no one can just ignore so many harsh words and harassment. It will eventually get to someone and the end result could be terrible.

Overall, cyberbullying is a terrible thing that people do. It’s easy to get away with because it’s all online and when online someone can make themselves anonymous or even pretend to be someone they’re not. It makes people sad and depressed. It could go as far as making someone commit suicide due to all the hurtful things said to them. Teens can’t just simply just turn off all their devices and can’t just ignore it all. It’s not realistic.  So from the point where a victim is continuously being harassed or cyberbullied and they are severely bothered by it, then that should be where the law should come in. The law that says extreme cases of cyberbullying is illegal.