Do you know how bad cyberbullying is? Cyberbullying is so bad that it takes lives from our world. How can something go so far that it makes someone want to take their own life? Cyberbullying is everywhere in our society. It happens through the Internet, cell phone, or other electronic devices. There are many popular websites/apps that online bullying occurs, such as: Ask F.M, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. It is unacceptable and needs to be stopped. Don’t be a bystander, speak up.

One of my best friends was a victim of online bullying. She was bullied on Ask F.M. People called her terrible names like s***, w****, etc. She was also accused of doing things with a boy that she did not do. It made her sad, upset, and seemed to change her. My friend started to swear more and became mean. She deleted the app because of the stress it was causing her, and soon after she got a new account. The bullying had stopped and everything had blown over. She was back to her old self again, thankfully. Online bullying affects kids in bad ways and they can not always get back to their old selves easily. Cyberbullying doesn’t always just blow over and end up going away but luckily in this case it did.

The amount of kids and teens that get online bullied today is unbelievable. About 4,000 high school students die each year due to getting bullied online. Over 14% of high school students have considered suicide and 7% have actually attempted suicide. That’s a lot of kids getting bullied and not liking themselves. The effects that cyberbullying causes are absolutely terrible. Some of those terrible effects are bad grades, drugs, skipping school, and having a low self-esteem. About 43% of kids have been bullied online and only 70% of students report seeing the bullying. Only 1 in 10 victims report getting bullied to an adult. Girls are twice as likely to get abused than boys. Girls are a lot more judgemental than boys, so more girls end up getting cyberbullied because girls don’t seem to be afraid to hide behind a keyboard and send horrible messages to other girls.

Kendall Jenner is a celebrity that is against cyberbullying. “If I see something really nasty on Twitter, I will usually delete it or block the person because I don’t want to see that every day…Get to know me and then you can talk about me!” is a quote that Kendall posted on Twitter. Demi Lovato is another celebrity that is against cyberbullying. Demi was also a victim of cyberbullying. Demi is speaking at big events about bullying and trying to get it to stop. She is also a part of the Teens Against Bullying and has been featured in the STOMP Out Bullying videos. Demi is trying to make a statement by getting everyone to wear blue nail polish on their pinky fingers. The blue nail polish represents a pinky promise to not bully. She has many of celebrities and regular people, like us, on board with this campaign.

Cyberbullying is absolutely terrible and it needs to stop. There are lots of deaths each year because of cyberbullying. Individually a person can help prevent cyberbullying in our school and local community is to start an anti-bullying committee and/or an anti-bullying campaign. Parents, students and teachers should all be included in the anti-bullying campaigns. Schools should have an internet policy that is enforced during school. The policy should have regulations and punishments if you break them. All students/teachers should have to sign a sheet that says they will not break the regulations. For example, snapchat is a way that kids can get bullied during school. Inappropriate pictures of kids get taken and get sent around to all of their friends.

A solution for our nation would be what Demi Lovato is doing with the blue pinky promise. As a nation we could all join something like that, but we could also have kids in school all around the nation and world sign something like we do for ”‘Spread The Word To End The Word.” We could also try to make kids stop sending and creating chain messages that are mean, and just make sure that kids block the bullies. A thing we can do with cyberbullying on apps is have a place on the app where you can go to report the bully anonymously, once reported the bully’s account would get suspended for a period of time. If the bullies continued to bully and got suspended a certain amount of times the bully’s account would be deactivated.

Most people are too scared to bully someone in person, so they hide behind a computer screen and bully people online. Most bullies are insecure about themselves, so they bully other people to make themselves feel better. If you joke around with someone online they can take it the wrong way and think you are bullying them. If you joke around with someone it is better to do it in person so they can hear your voice and will most likely be able to tell if you are joking. Cyberbullying is inhumane and cruel behavior that needs to be stopped. Cyberbullying is so appalling, when will it end? You can help save a life and end bullying, all you have to do is stop a bully.