Cyberbullying among adolescents has grown significantly and can have severe negative consequences such as depression and suicide. Current anti-bullying programs have proven ineffective at addressing cyberbullying due to its unique aspects like anonymity online. Strengthening laws around cyberbullying may be the most effective solution as it would increase awareness of consequences for perpetrators and treat cyberbullying with the same severity as traditional bullying. If laws are strengthened concisely, it could help reduce cyberbullying over time by deterring harmful online behavior.

1. Enhancing law penalty to prevent cyberbullying among
adolescents
Ling 200
SDSU
Bullying, “the repeated use of aggression against someone who
cannot easily defend themselves” (Olweus, 1997), has always
been a big issue in education area. Various ways were used to
prevent bullying in school; however, in spite of continuous
efforts to stop bullying, bullying started to take place not only

2. at classrooms, but also at outside of classrooms as technology
developed. As bullying takes place online, it is called
“cyberbullying” and is defined as “an aggressive intentional act
carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of
contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot
easily defend him or herself” (Smith et al., 2008). Every
harmful action towards people who are incapable of defending
themselves via online would be considered as cyberbullying.
According to Cyberbullying Research Center (2014), the rate of
cyberbullying victimization in middle and high schools across
the United States has grown to 34.6%, and near 25-30% of
teenagers reported experiencing cyberbullying (Beran & Li,
2005; Li, 2007; Patchin & Hinduja, 2006). As the number of
victims is growing and cyberbullying is becoming more severe,
it is very important for people to acknowledge effects of
cyberbullying that can lead to tragic consequences.
Furthermore, not only should the negative effects of
cyberbullying be discussed, but also problems of current
preventive programs should be known and thus solutions to
prevent cyberbullying should be discussed.
In terms of effects of cyberbullying, it is important to
discern what the possible impacts that cyberbullying can have
on teenagers are, because teenagers tend to respond more
sensitively on in bullying situations (Beran & Li, 2005;
Kowalski & Limber, 2007; Li, 2007). Cyber bullied victims
reported experiencing emotional and psychological affronts.
Cyberbullying experience can lower one’s self-esteem, bring
great level of depression, bring academic failure, and social
anxiety (Williford et al,. 2013). A 15 year-old girl from LA was
a victim of cyber bullying. She tried to avoid going to school,
her self-confidence fell, and she also started to fail her classes.
Not only does it bring great level of depression, but it can lead
to much more crucial consequences: suicide. There was a 14
year-old girl from Minnesota, who was bullied and started to get
an idea of committing a suicide due to the pain. She commented
that "Cyber Bullying is a serious topic! I was bullied and began

3. to cut myself...They told people to walk up to me and ask me if
I was a hoe, lesbian, dyke, slut, pregnant.. etc. I couldn't take it
anymore I was on the verge of suicide…” This comment clearly
shows that cyber bullying had negative effect on her.
Experiencing cyberbullying can cause teenagers to feel
depression as well as fear. Another case, a 22 year-old girl also
wrote about her high school story on “Cyber Bullying Us,”
saying that “They would instant message me and tell me I was
going to die. They were going to kill me. I was afraid to leave
the house, to have friends, to pick up the phone. I lived in fear
for so long.” This shows how cyberbullying can have effect on a
person for long time. Cyberbullying does not just make the
victim fearful for the moment, but it could make them fear for
their whole life; it can traumatize victim. Unlike traditional
bullying, which is done in actual situation, cyberbullying may
not directly cause physical wound; however, it can eventually
lead to physical harm to the victims of cyberbullying. For
example, the girl stated above started to hurt herself because
she could not bear the psychological pain of being bullied. As
cyberbullying can lead to severe consequences in a
psychological, emotional as well as physical way, it is very
important to find measures to reduce the number of cyber
victimization.
As the number of cyberbullying victimization is increasing,
several programs were suggested to reduce cyberbullying such
as “the KIVA program” and “the VISC Social Competence
Program” (Williford et al, 2013; Gradinger et al., 2015). Both
of the programs were suggested to prevent cyberbullying and
cyber victimization. The KIVA program puts importance on “the
behaviors of bystanders” so that their behavior in classes can
weaken the atmosphere of bullying. Another suggested idea,
VISC social Competence Program is a program which teaches
both teachers and students to prevent bullying through practices
and projects. It is very structured program which can apply to
general anti-bullying program. Both programs were designed
concisely; however, it was not effective enough to show

4. distinctive results. Both of the programs have failed to prevent
cyberbullying because they overlooked the difference between
traditional bullying and cyberbullying.
Bullying in general and cyberbullying differ in several ways;
anonymity and constraint on time and space (Williford et al,
2013). Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying has higher
anonymity; it is unlikely to find out who the bullies are.
Victims of cyberbullying suffer more because identity is not
revealed online. They may assume who assailants are; however,
it is more fearsome when they are in a defenseless state due to
an uncertain attacker. Not only does it make victims more
suffer, but also it makes those programs such as “the KIVA
program” less likely to prevent cyberbullying. As the main
focus of the KIVA program is “bystanders,” it is hard to find
bystanders because of anonymity. Another feature of
cyberbullying is that there are no constraints in regards to time
and space. Cyberbullying can occur whenever and wherever as
long as victims and bullies have electric devices since it takes
place online. Thus, cyberbullying needs a specified solution
apart from general bullying to be prevented.
As a solution to prevent cyberbullying, strengthening the
law related to cyberbullying could be the most effective idea for
several reasons; current laws in U.S are weak to prevent
cyberbullying and by strengthening the law it will awaken
assailants to be more aware of consequences of their behaviors.
Current laws in the United States are not weak to cover
cyberbullying. According to State Cyber Bullying Laws (2014),
there are 31 states in U.S that does not consider cyberbullying
in their laws although cyberbullying has been occurring
severely. The law should be strengthened and cover not only
traditional bullying, but also cyberbullying which is frequently
happening around the world. The law should be specifically
established for cyberbullying. Another reason that reinforcing
law could be a way to stop cyberbullying is that teenagers are
less responsible with their behaviors because the penalty is
more generous compared to adults. There was an actual case in

5. Korea; a boy who bullied his classmate very severely and made
the victim to attempt a suicide was asked whether he was not
afraid of the punishment. The boy answered that he was not
afraid because the law is not severe. Assailants would be more
considerate with their actions if they acknowledge the
consequences. By strengthening the law, assailants would
reflect on their behaviors. Some people may insist that it could
cause negative sequence rather than positive effect by saying
“Once passed, a law is not easily revoked, and must be obeyed
even if it causes more harm than good” (Israel C. Kalman);
however, if the law is concisely established, it will do more
good than harm.
To conclude, cyberbullying is occurring more times and
severely. As cyberbullying have distinctive features such as
anonymity and unrestrained physical environment, it is
important to consider cyberbullying apart from general,
traditional bullying. To prevent cyberbullying, law should be
strengthened so that assailants can be more aware of their
behaviors and so that cyberbullying can be considered as much
important as general bullying. If the law is strengthened, the
number of cyberbullying would reduce gradually.
References

6. Beran, T., & Li, Q. (2005). Cyber-harassment: A study of a new
method for an old behavior. Journal of Educational Computing
Research, 32, 265–277.
Cyber bullying research center (2014). Retrieved Dec.13. 2014
from http://cyberbullying.us/
Gradinger, P., Yanagida, T., Strohmeier, D., & Spiel, C. (2015).
Prevention of Cyberbullying and Cyber Victimization:
Evaluation of the ViSC Social Competence Program. Journal Of
School Violence,14(1), 87-110.
doi:10.1080/15388220.2014.963231
Kowalski, R. M., & Limber, S.P. (2007). Electronic bullying
among middle school students. journal of Adolescent Health,
41, S22–S30.
Li, Q. (2007). New bottle but old wine: A research of
cyberbullying in schools. Computers in Human Behavior, 23,
1777–1791.
Olweus , D. ( 1994 ). Bullying at school: Long-term outcomes
for the victims and an effective school-based intervention
program . In L. R. Huesmann (Ed.), Aggressive behavior:
Current perspectives (pp. 97 – 130 ). New York , NY : Plenum
Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2006). Bullies move beyond the
schoolyard: A preliminary look at cyberbullying. Youth
Violence and Juvenile Justice, 4, 148–169.
Roberto, A. J., Eden, J., Savage, M. W., Ramos-Salazar, L., &
Deiss, D. M. (2014). Outcome Evaluation Results of School-
Based Cybersafety Promotion and Cyberbullying Prevention
Intervention for Middle School Students. Health
Communication, 29(10), 1029-1042.
doi:10.1080/10410236.2013.831684

7. Smith, P.K. Mahdavi, J. Carvalho, M. Fisher, S. Russell, S.
Tippett N. (2008) Cyberbullying: Its nature and impact in
secondary school pupils Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry, 49, pp. 376–385
State Cyber bullying Laws, A Brief Review of State
Cyberbullyinh Laws and Policies by Sameer Hinduja, Ph.D. and
Justin W. Patchin, Ph.D. retrieved Dec.1 from
http://www.cyberbullying.us/Bullying_and_Cyberbullying_Law
s.pdf
Williford, A., Elledge, L. C., Boulton, A. J., DePaolis, K. J.,
Little, T. D., & Salmivalli, C. (2013). Effects of the KiVa
Antibullying Program on Cyberbullying and Cybervictimization
Frequency Among Finnish Youth. Journal Of Clinical Child &
Adolescent Psychology, 42(6), 820-833.
doi:10.1080/15374416.2013.787623