By Emily Niebuhr

Staff Writer

Why do people sit behind a screen to judge and say mean words to someone who they may not have known anything about? It’s hard to hear about young children being bullied either at school or online then taking their own life. Does that seem right to you? We need to protect all generations from any kind of bullying, but here we are going to talk about cyberbullying.

 I have experienced a little bit of cyberbullying, so let me tell you it’s not fun and something needs to change. According to stopbullying.gov “Children with disabilities such as physical, developmental, intellectual, emotional and sensory are at an increased risk of being bullied.”

Cyberbullying is not like face-to-face bullying, instead it takes place behind a screen. Cyberbullies hide behind social media. It’s easier for them to pick their victims out to hopefully get other people to follow to bully them. Instagram has the most problems with cyberbullying. According to enough.org, 42% of youths on social media experienced bullying on Instagram while 37% did on Facebook,  31% on Snapchat and 10% on YouTube.  

Cyberbullying is when someone sends, posts or shares “negative harmful, false and mean content to someone else,” as stated on stopbullying.gov. When did it become a thing on the internet to say mean things to someone else? Cyberbullies think they have all the power since what they say is anonymous.

People shouldn’t share anything that could purposely hurt someone whether it’s mean words or a screenshot of a private conversation. A 2014 study from Cox “2014 Teen Internet Safety Survey” noted teens said they were bullied because of appearance, academic intelligence, race, sexuality, financial status and religion.

You need to realize the hateful words you say can affect someone’s mental health. Please think before you say something since you don’t know anything about that person or what’s going on in their home life.

Just like us celebrities and artists have been cyberbullied. Many have deleted social media or disabled their comments on Instagram because of some much mean comments. It’s hard to see your favorite celebrity going through bullying because they’re normal like us but get judged on every little thing. 

People think just since they are in the spotlight they are robots and don’t feel, but it hurts when they read some mean words or something about themselves that is false. 

Please think before you hit send to anyone because you don’t know how they will react to it or if the comment could send them into a dark place. The effects of cyberbullying include negative “physical, school and mental health issues,” according to Stopbullying.gov. 

Where does it end, and what can we do to help? We can make sure to get educated on it, be nice to someone, stand up for the people who are getting bullied, get help if you are struggling and report whoever is bullying you. 

I just want to spread love and not hate. We can stride to become better and be nicer to people who have different religions, sexual orientation, look like and race. As Ellen DeGeneres says after her show, “Be kind to one another.”