Cyberbullying- The New Chronic Virus Infiltrating Technology

Bullying as a term itself has taken responsibility for producing a variety of pressing stigmas which have prevented voices from speaking their thoughts and struggles and further denied the public access to the measures required to be kept in mind in order to curb bullying. These stigmas have included victims to force themselves to silence the matter wholly due to the fear of being ignored or judged by society on their decisions regarding the appropriate, or rather, ‘inappropriate’ actions taken by them to prevent the matter from occurring repeatedly.

A form of bullying that has contributed to the alarming rise in the number of suicides and complaints presents itself as cyberbullying- having seeped into the world of technology as a virus penetrating through one’s electronics and destroying the mental health of the targeted victim. This trend has been further boosted with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, which transported the world online in order to escape from the virus. A recent survey conducted by the National Institutes of Health recorded 9% of every 10,000 adolescents to be victims of cyberbullying (mainly females and Black adolescents), and less than 1% filed complaints against the same. The survey also recorded victims of cyberbullying were 4 times likely to have faced suicidal thoughts and attempts at self-harm, as opposed to those who didn’t. “At a time when young adolescents are spending more time online than ever before, this study underscores the negative impact that bullying in the virtual space can have on its targets,” stated Dr. Ran Barzilay, researcher on the NIH funded survey, addressing the potential causes for teenage suicide through thorough analysis conducted by the NIH research team.

An infamous case of India falling under the category of cyberbullying was the case of Manav Singh, a 17 year old student who committed suicide after facing accusation of assault allegations further triggering a series of death threats, as well as enduring bullying and public shame. However, after the registration of an FIR, police refused to submit details of possible external involvement in the case, nor did they produce any previous social media records to be held as evidence, forcing the lawyer representing the victim to file a case under Section 156 of the Criminal Procedure Court which allowed the court to order the police to extensively monitor the case after registration.

It is quite easy to consider that cyberbullying may be prevented without any sort of obstruction with the developments of technology advancing with each year, yet what has not been realised is that such developments are instead opening shortcuts for perpetrators to advance on their victims with less resilience.

By Tarini Dayal