While wrapping up numbers and cyberbullying statistics for 2014, we have come to realize that Singapore is now ranked second in most Cyberbullying searches on google.
According to Google Trends, Singapore has shown a massive increase in searches for the term “Cyberbullying” in 2013 compared to previous years.
As for resources more specific to the cause, we found out that 70% of 4,000 Singaporean students surveyed have reported some kind of bullying experience during their school years.
According to Wired Safety, Singapore has the highest incidence of Internet bullying and cyberbullying right after the United States.
When further exploring, we found a recent Microsoft survey that puts Singapore and China on top of the cyberbullying race in Asia and not in a good way, putting Singapore right after the United States for cyberbullying incidents per capita.
According to the most recent definitions, Cyber Bullying is using the Internet, cell phones, video game systems, or other technology to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person. It is also defined as acts of aggression through computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices” (Jackson & Cohen, 2012).
Cyberbullying can happen across several mediums such as
Online Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, MySpace and various other networks
Instant Messaging (IMs) and Text messaging
Chat rooms/ forums/blogs
Online Games
The spectrum of Cyberbullying actions is very wide. Famous examples are:
Harassment
Stalking
Rumor Spreading
Disclosure/sharing of personal information of others without their consent
Exclusion/ Ostracism
Heated Exchanges
Defaming, Belittling, or Mocking
Impersonating
Remember that cyberbullying is a wider danger to teens and adults as it is not restricted to specific locations and can follow the victim 24/7.
Media attention in recent years has brought the problem of bullying into the national spotlight. Human beings are an aggressive species. Bullying probably started as soon as two humans could stand upright. One probably couldn’t stand seeing the other standing, too, and promptly knocked him down. However, humans are not doomed to be bullied. We are a species that can learn to behave with others rather than react purely on instinct. Just as we can learn to be bullies, we can also learn not to be bullies.
Victims of bullies often feel all alone. They may not report their bully because they feel that no one would believe them or do anything to help them. According to a 2010 study done by the Regional Educational Laboratory of Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI), 40 percent of bullying incidents in schools go unreported. The study looked at 5000 more students aged 12 to 18.
The older a person gets, the less likely they are to report their abuses. The CareerBuilder.com survey of 2012 (mentioned earlier) noted that about 50 percent of all workplace bullying goes unreported. NBC News reported that the bullying statistics related to senior citizens are on the rise in America, where one in ten seniors is either verbally or physically abused.
In a survey conducted by www.stopcyberbullying.org, victims of Cyberbullying responded in the following methods:
Thirty-six percent asked the bully to stop.
Thirty-four percent blocked communication.
Thirty-four percent talked to friends about the bullying.
Twenty-nine percent did nothing about the bullying.
Twenty-eight percent signed offline.
Only 11 percent of teens talked to parents about incidents of Cyberbullying.
Kids that are bullied are more likely to skip school in an effort to avoid having to encounter their nemesis and experience the emotional, psychological and physical effects of being bullied. It is estimated that as many as 160,000 students skip school nationally on any given day out of fear of facing a bully that has, in some way, been terrorizing them.
Bullied kids are more likely to get sick. Children who are being bullied are more likely to report feeling sick with some common symptoms being sore throat, cough, headache, stomach ache, and stuffy nose.
Bullied Teens are more likely to use alcohol as a coping mechanism which normally causes the teen to become more aggressive toward others. It is not uncommon for a child that was bullied in middle school or high school to ultimately become a bully later on in the academic process. Many kids that are bullies in college were bullied in middle school and high school.