The document discusses the background and home life influences that can cause cyber bullying. It finds that parental influence and poor parenting styles play a large role in whether a child engages in cyber bullying. Specifically, it discusses how over-demanding or under-demanding parenting, lack of parental warmth, poor home life experiences, and parental modeling of bad behavior can influence a child to participate in cyber bullying to gain a sense of power and control that is lacking in their home life.

1. L U I S A M I L A N O
C O M M U N I C A T I O N & T E C H N O L O G Y
P R O F E S S O R Y A N G
A P R I L 2 9 , 2 0 1 4
Cyber bullies Background and
Home life

2. Topic of Project
I have chosen to focus on the background and home
life of a cyber bully. Specifically, what drives an
individual to participate in bullying over the Internet.
In my research on this topic, I found that parental
influence and overall self-esteem plays a large role in
whether or not a child will participate in cyber
bullying. These are the main factors that I have seen
throughout my research and have focused on them the
most.

3. What is cyber bullying?
Cyber bullying is the action of harassing or
intimidating another over the Internet using media
technology such as cell phones, instant messaging,
email, chat rooms, or social networking sites such as,
Facebook or Twitter.
 Cyber bullying is all about feeling power and gaining a sense of
control
 Children may be seeking this power because they lack it else
where, such as, in the home, or with parents

4. Influences that can Cause Cyber bullying
 Poor home life
 Lack of parental control
 Poor role models
 Lack of warmth and comfort from parent figures
 Poor parenting styles
 Over-demanding and under-demanding parenting styles
 Traumatic childhood experiences

5. Parental Influence
When researching this topic I found that parental influence is a big part of
how a child becomes active in cyber bullying.
 Parenting styles often lead children to find pleasure or satisfaction in
mistreating others, in many cases, children become bullies to gain a
sense of power
 When parents are over-demanding and give their child no say in what
happens in the household, children feel restricted and lose their sense
of autonomy. They can then regain this sense of autonomy by
dominating their peers.
 Children look at their parents as role models and therefore are likely to
imitate what their parents do
 If a child has grown up in a home with poor child rearing and bad influences, they are
likely to carry this sort of behavior over into their school life and other aspects of life

6. Parental Influence
 Parenting styles that emphasize demands over
parent-to-child affection can indirectly encourage
bullying behavior
 Without parental emotional rewards to guide a
child’s behavior, the child will seek external rewards
 The feeling at demanding respect through cyber
bullying can artificially substitute parental warmth

7. Home Life Influence
 How children grow up at home plays a huge role in
determining how one becomes a cyber bully
 Children who have the need to gain control over their peers
often are acting out a need that is unfulfilled at home
 In children who gain little attention in the home, even
negative attention from adult figures, such as teachers can be
rewarding
 Kids that may be suffering from abuse or from not having
their needs met at school or at home are prone to cyber
bullying
 Often children who are dealing with difficult situations at
home, such as divorce can be another factor for children to
participate in cyber bullying
 Between 2-16% of the population under 18 cyber bullies
others

8. Home Life Influence
 Homes that are lacking effective and positive parental
supervision may create an environment that produces
children with bullying-like tendencies
 Homes where alcohol abuse exists causes an elevated risk
of bullying behaviors in children
 A lack of consistent consequences and parenting within
the household can also lead children to exhibit bullying
behaviors
 Sometimes parental encouragement can be taken the
wrong way by a child and they think it is okay to use
hurtful words to others to stick up for themselves over
the Internet

9. Over-demanding Parenting Styles
 Parents who use an overbearing parenting style
restrict their child’s autonomy and feeling of control
over their situation
 A child who feels limited at home may use this frustration out
on others by cyber bullying and gaining a sense of power
 Parents using overly controlling parenting styles can reduce
the possibility of bullying by giving more respect to their
children in rule-setting

10. Under-demanding Parenting Styles
 Parents who put little constrain on their children
 Lack of limiting settings can result in a child not
understanding or respecting others’ autonomy
 A child from an undemanding family might not
know what social limits are and can cross the line
 Lack of attention received in the family situation
causes a child to act inappropriately in other
settings, such as cyberspace, as a cry for help
 A child gains negative attention from others, but still
it is still better than no attention at all to that child

11. Lack of Warmth
 Children failing to gain positive support when
they’ve performed well or behaved well
 Without parental emotional rewards to guide a
child’s behavior, the child will seek external rewards
 Children may find rewards by cyber bullying, to gain
power and peer respect
 Participating in cyber bullying can substitute
parental warmth

12. Conclusion
 Parenting styles play a large role in how a child
becomes a cyber bully
 Poor parenting can lead to cyber bullying to gain power and to
feel better about their own situation
 If parents are mean and do not show sympathy for their
children, their children will think this is a proper way of
treating others as well
 Children look up to their parents as role models, if the parents
have poor parenting styles then the child will pick up poor
habits from them

13. Conclusion
 Home life also has a huge influence on a child’s
behavior
 If a child lacks attention or the help they need they may feel
that bullying over the Internet is a outlet for them to obtain
this feeling of power or sense of autonomy that is taken away
inside the household
 A poor home life can consist of alcoholic and abusive parents,
which can lead a child to have the wrong impression on how to
treat others properly

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