Problem Essay Final Draft

Essay Draft 4

The increasing use of social media has brought about many problems, one of them being cyberbullying. Singapore is ranked second amongst nations of cyberbullies (Family & Life, 2014). It is reported that one out of four secondary school students has admitted to bullying their friends and one out of five primary school students has been bullied online (Tan, 2014).Through the use of social media, there is an increasing number of cyber bullying cases among youth aged between 8 and 17 in Singapore. This is extremely detrimental to the Singaporean youth’s development due to the psychological effects that are brought about from cyberbullying. While the Media Literacy Council (MLC) and SingTel have both launched cyber wellness programmes to combat cyberbullying among youths in Singapore, this issue has to be solved through a collaboration between them, Touch organization and the Singapore legal system, which is the passing of the anti- harassment law in Singapore.

Cyberbullying includes sending unpleasant photographs and messages by mobile phone or online messaging. Deleting a person’s name from a group or not replying to that person’s messages on social networking sites can (also?) be a form of bullying as it can be seen as ostracization (MLC,2015). It is important to combat cyberbullying as youths who are cyber bullied often suffer mentally. They will face lasting emotional damages like depression, loneliness, unhappiness and poor sleep (Caudle, 2015). These problems could disrupt youths’ daily lives, causing them to grow up to be people who shun   interaction with others, and this might greatly affect their school lives, academics and future career. To make matters worse, the adverse effects from cyberbullying are often not shown explicitly by the victims. For the bullies, the continuous abuse on others could lead to them to become more aggressive and more narcissistic. This might also hinder the development of these perpetrators as they are growing up to becoming people who are not appreciative of others.

One solution that organizations in Singapore have implemented is the use of cyber wellness programmes to educate both youths and their parents about the harmful effects of cyber bullying. MLC has launched a site together with Facebook called the Bullying Prevention Centre (Asiaone, 2015), which offers guidance to the bullies and the bullied. The aim is to ensure that interactions online are relevant and user-friendly for the youths. School students will be able to report suspected cases of bullying online and learn how to differentiate signs of cyber bullying. Also, SingTel has come together with TOUCH to create an application called “notAnoobie”. It allows parents to keep track of their children activities on the internet and to protect their children from online risks. There are also stories of victims from cyber bullying on the website. “NotAnoobie” aims to educate and empower parents with information on what their children are doing. This is important as parents play a huge role in the upbringing of their children.

The two examples mentioned are both cyber wellness programmes organized by the relevant organizations. Cyber wellness programmes are effective in combating cyber bullying as they empower netizens with information that they may not have known previously. The cyber wellness programmes heighten the awareness of people and allow them to identify, prevent and report possible cases of cyberbullying. This is effective as people learn about the consequences of their actions and encourages them to reconsider their actions. People may be able to prevent themselves from getting bullied as they are able to recognize signs of cyberbullying and then stopping it themselves. However, due to the anonymity of the users on social networks, bullies are able to repeatedly post harsh and cruel comments or even cyberbully without being caught if they are not reported. It is difficult for social media platforms to constantly monitor their users and it is difficult to establish a common standard to distinguish between what cyber bullying is and what it is not. The programmes may be effective to some degree, but different bullies have different motivations to cyberbully (Varjas, Talley, Meryers, Parris & Cutts, 2010). The bullies may be motivated by anger or entertainment. They may even do it to enhance their social status in school. Educating netizens on cyber bulling may not be the solution as cyber bullies have different types of motivations. Cyber wellness programmes only help to curb cyberbullying of certain type of motivations.

Another solution is the passing of the anti- harassment law in Singapore by the parliament. The new law aims to protect the people in Singapore from the “social scourge” (Shanmugam, 2014). Harassment in the online sphere like cyberbullying is included in the anti- harassment law. This is effective as victims of cyber bullying now have legal protection. Moreover, potential bullies will be deterred from cyber bullying due to the possible implications of the law. This should lead to a reduction in cases of cyberbullying. However, as mentioned above, it is difficult to constantly monitor social media and the protectors of law are unable to cover the whole social media to keep track of these perpetrators.

Cyberbullying is an important issue that Singapore has to solve. The above solutions are effective only to a certain extent as both aim to educate and then deter people from cyberbullying. With the rise of the status of social media, there is an increase in the importance of handphones and computers to youths. It will be difficult to take these things away from them now. Therefore, it is important for parents to enforce rules at home. Meanwhile, policies by schools, the legal system and the organizations like MLC and Touch have to continue to aid in resolving cyberbullying effectively (Kraft & Wang, 2009).

Reference

Kraft, E.M. and Wang, J. (2009). Effectiveness of cyber bullying prevention strategies: A study on students’ perspectives. Cyber Crime Journal.com. Retrieved from http://www.cybercrimejournal.com/KraftwangJulyIJCC2009.pdf

Family and Life (2014). Singapore is the Second Highest Nation of Cyberbullies. Retrieved from http://familyandlife.sg/Nurture/2014/03/Singapore_Second_Highest_Nation_Cyberbullies

Facebook, Media Literacy Council launch site to combat bullying. (2015). Asiaone. Retrieved from http://news.asiaone.com/news/science-and-tech/facebook-media-literacy-council-launch-site-combat-cyber-bullying

Tan, J. (2014). 1 in 4 secondary students ‘admits to cyber bullying’. The Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/education/story/1-4-secondary-students-admits-cyber-bullying-20140714

Shanmugam, K. (2014). Anti- harassment laws to fight ‘social scourge’. Today Online. Retrieved from http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/anti-harassment-laws-fight-social-scourge?page=1

Varjas, K., Talley, J., Meyers, J., Parris, L. & Cutts, H. (2010). High School Students’ Perceptions of Motivations of Cyberbullying: An exploratory study. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2941365/