With technology and social media becoming a part of almost everyone’s lives in the current day and age, a new kind of bullying has emerged – cyber bullying. It occurs online, usually anonymously and can be devastating to a person’s mental health.

In order to understand the impact of such cyberbullying on a person’s mental health, a survey was conducted by our team. Additionally, two sessions conducted for an NGO helped us understand younger audiences’ perspective on cyber bullying. All this data was analysed to understand how severely cyberbullying can affect a person.

Introduction

The internet is an extraordinary piece of technology, but it can also be used in nefarious ways. Cyberbullying has been at an all-time high since the invention of technology. With the use of cell phones and the internet, it is now easier than ever for adolescents to bully one another through text messages, social media, and email.

Cyberbullying is the use of technology to taunt, harm or shame another using the internet or text messaging. Some bullies resort to bullying others online as it is easier to hide behind a screen and they often indulge in such behaviour to humiliate or harm another person. Such cyberbullying can be directly linked to suicide in teens. Additionally, cyberbullying causes mental health issues among people at a young age which can affect them later in life as well. Issues like depression, low self-esteem and stress are just among the many issues that can affect a victim of cyberbullying. Bauman, Toomey, & Walker in 2013 said, “Studies have shown a higher number of suicides among those who are victims of cyberbullying. Moreover, several studies have found higher incidence of suicidality among victims of cyberbullying”

In cases of offline bullying, the bully and the victim must be in contact with one another. However, this is not the case with cyberbullying. A cyberbully can reach their victim regardless of where they live. When young people come home from school and shut their front doors, they are still available to become victims of cyberbullying, via text messages, internet chat rooms and an indefinable myriad of constantly evolving social media platforms.

Research Methodology

As a part of our primary research to understand the effect of cyberbullying on a person’s mental health, we undertook two methodologies:

Questionnaire

A set of questions based on how cyberbullying impacts people were sent to a wide range of respondents, ranging from parents to students in order to gain a better knowledge of how cyberbullying spreads and what are peoples views on it.

Workshops with an NGO

We conducted two workshops with an NGO about cyber bullying, and gained a better understanding of how children view and are impacted by cyberbullying.

Data Analysis

Data collected from the questionnaire showed that a majority of the respondents (75%) were not cyberbullied, which is rare, keeping in mind the growth of the issue ever since the pervasive usage of technology since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey also showed that less than half of the victims of cyberbullying had reported it to someone they knew.

Additionally, a majority of the respondents reported the bullies to be people who they thought were their friends, people they connected with on social media platforms, as well as strangers. This goes to show that a cyberbully can be any person around you, known or unknown.

The research results also showed us that a majority of those bullied felt angry, stressed out, depressed, and could not focus in school as a result of being cyberbullied. As shown in the image below, the majority of respondents were between the ages of 14-16.

The results below show that cyberbullying affects a person’s mental health to a great extent and sometimes even affects their social lives, leading them to cut themselves off engaging on social media platforms.

According to our survey and the sessions we conducted for the NGOs Shakti Foundation and Pratyek, most people seem to be aware of what cyberbullying is and what measures to undertake if they are on the receiving end of such bullying. However, they seem to be unable to put it into practice when posed with a situation that involves such cyber bullying. The children were already aware of what cyberbullying was, but they weren’t sure of how to prevent and deal with it. This shows us that greater awareness needs to be created on how to handle such situations.

Conclusion

Comparing various opinions about mental health and the stigma around it helped us delve deeper and understand common speculations.  India is no different from countries around the world with over 82.5% of people still afraid to share when they have been cyberbullied and being anxious about reporting it.

However, contrary to our beliefs, the children in the workshops we conducted for the NGOs had evolved perspectives about mental health and cyberbullying. Statements such as, “You’re not alone in this” concluded that society’s stigma behind mental health is at least being acknowledged; and thus are hopefully likely to disappear someday.

Mental health has always been regarded as taboo in India, which causes additional stress and problems for people with mental health issues.  People need to change the way they think about mental health issues. Mental health should be treated the same way as physical health. Mental health should be thought of as treating a wound that needs constant tending.

Recommendations

Cyberbullying often manifests as hate accounts, hurtful social media posts, online rumors and gossip, and mean comments while gaming. Given below are some recommendations for different groups to prevent cyberbullying:

Recommendations for the person being cyberbullied

• Protect your password and other private information online
• Do not post excessively on social media platforms
• Raise awareness on cyberbullying in your networks
• Set up privacy controls for your social media accounts
• Never open messages from people you do not personally know
• Log out of your accounts if you use public computers
• Manage Location Sharing on your smartphones and other devices
• Refuse to respond to cyberbullies and try to take screenshots of the harassment if possible which will enable taking legal recourse

Recommendations for Parents

• Discuss what cyberbullying looks like with your children 
• Educate yourself about how different social media platforms work
• Discourage children from posting hurtful things online
• Ensure ‘In Real Life’ Meetings with Online Friends Occur With A Parent around
• Report cyberbullies to the concerned authorities

Recommendations for Schools

• Create an environment of mutual respect and tolerance in the classroom.
• Incorporate the internet and social media into lesson plans to teach students how to be respectful to others online.
• Work closely with parents so they understand cyberbullying.
• Implement anti-cyberbullying policies in the classroom.

Authors: Aanya Shroff, Aditri, Peter, Jia Sarah Jai, Vaansh, Sohan, Yash Kamble, Zehn Kashyap

Bibliography

• https://www.momsteam.com
• https://www.verywellfamily.com
• https://www.teachthought.com
• https://www.webpurify.com
• https://www.accreditedschoolsonline.org
• https://www.cram.com/essay/Bullying-What-Are-The-Effects-Of-Cyberbullying/FCUC6W6AV6
• https://papersowl.com/examples/how-cyberbullying-impact-on-mental-health/#:~:text=Cyberbullying%20can%20be%20directly%20linked,for%20a%20victim%20of%20cyberbu