Adolescent Boys & Girls and Cyber Bullying
Adolescents and cyberbullying is a new phenomena. Technology and social media has exploded worldwide and it has grown faster than society can keep up. Here in the US social media has ballooned into one of the most dominate activities in the life of adolescent boys and girls. in large school administrators were not prepared for the fallout of cyberbullying. Both boys and girls have turned to social media in an attempt to coerce, harass, and bully their peers.
Here's a news flash… female teenagers are far more likely to engage in cyberbullying than their male counterparts. Research shows that out of 2,000 middle schoolers surveyed, teen girls were also more likely to report cyberbullying to parents and school administrators. But this does not mean that cyberbullying is an "all girls" problem. Cyberbullying has become an epidemic nationwide, effecting adolescents in every school at almost every age.
Bullying Today has moved to the Cyberspace
In reality, nothing has changed. Today boys and girls are behaving in a similar fashion to past generations. The difference is that we can now see what adolescents "do and say" because they are now posting it to Facebook.
Girls generally spread rumors as a means to cyberbully, whereas boys use cruel pictures or videos to hurt others. Sadly, the center also learned that victims of cyberbullying were practically twice as likely to have attempted suicide compared to their classmates who have remained cyberbully-free, a phenomenon now referred to as “cyberbullicide.”