Cyberbullying is defined as the sending or posting of damaging or cruel text or images using the Internet or other digital communication devices.
Following the recent remark made by the popular musician, Nameless, he discouraged people from using the social media platform to bully others for the sake of future commitments.
Nameless positively responded to a fan who commented negatively and tried to trash him on a post he recently uploaded.
Here are some forms of cyberbullying that are either directly or indirectly experienced:
1. Harrassment
Repeatedly sending cruel, vicious and/or threatening messages.
The messages are generally unkind or malicious, and can impact the victims self-esteem and confidence.
It can even make them fearful. The constant messaging means that there is no respite from the cyberbully.
The cyberbully makes an extreme effort to cause fear and pain.
2. Impersonation
Another common form of cyber bullying is impersonation, where one person impersonates another person online.
One of the most common someone may accomplish this is to hack the account or steal the password and make changes to the target's profile.
Once they have access, they might post sexual, racist, or other inappropriate things to ruin the target's social standing and reputation.
They might also chat with other people while pretending to be the victim.
They will say mean things with the purpose of offending and angering the target's friends or acquaintances.
If they cannot access the person's account, another tactic commonly used is to develop a screen name or social media account that is similar to the target’s screen name.
Actual photos of the victim may be used to make the account look authentic.
Cat fishing is another form of impersonation commonly seen in cyber bullying incidents.
In these situations, kids pretend to be someone else in order to lure an unsuspecting person into a fake relationship.
3. Video Shaming
Videos are frequently used for online bullying and are used to shame and embarrass the targets.
For instance, the person cyberbullying others might upload a video of something humiliating that happened to the target and post it on social media.
In other situations, people who cyberbully others might create an incident that causes the target to become upset or emotional and then record the incident.
This type of activity is often referred to as cyberbaiting.
Other times, they will record and later share a bullying incident.
These situations may include slapping, hitting, kicking, or punching the target.
Even embarrassing moments that occur in the community can be recorded and shared to embarrass and bully the target.
4. Flaming
Flaming refers to an online fight or heated controversy that takes place through email, instant messaging, or chat rooms.
A person is viewed as flaming when they make statements, inciting anonymity with the sole purpose of deflecting an online chat or provoking other participants in the discussion.
This is a type of openly online bullying that adds harsh, more brutal images and language to add emotion to messages being conveyed or possibly make an individual feel bad by constantly leaving negative comments on social media posts to hurt their emotions.
4. Exclusion
This occurs whenever someone is forced out of an online chat group for some reason.
The rest of the group will then do whatever they can to ridicule the excluded person through annoying messages, comments, and emails.
Every time a group member is added or removed on an online group chat , a notification is displayed as part of the group chat announcing their departure, leaving behind the results of exclusion and a sense of hurt.
5. Website creation.
Sometimes, those who cyberbully others will create a website, blog, or poll to harass another person.
For instance, they might conduct an internet poll about a target or several targets.
Questions in the poll may include extremely hurtful questions like asking people to rank others by their looks or their weight.
Other times, cyberbullies will create a website or a blog about the target that is embarrassing, insulting, or humiliating.
They might even post the target's personal information and pictures putting them in danger of being contacted by predators, or they will spread rumors, tell lies, or gossip about the victim online through websites or blogs.
6. Pseudonym
This involves using fictitious names such as nicknames, aliases or pseudonyms to haunt others online.
This is aimed at hiding anonymity and creating another online bullying so that the victim is more vulnerable to not knowing who the bully is.
7. Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking includes a multitude of different forms of online harassment.
It can be in the form of text messages, emails, direct messages (DM), and comments on social media posts.
It can even take the form of personal attacks from the bully’s own social media profiles.
Bully, for example, frequently sends out offensive and malicious messages that target an individual or a group.
These messages are sent at strange times of day and even at night for personal harassment.
Typically, Cyber stalking can include threats of physical harm, such as “I’ll shoot you”.
Cyber stalking can also refer to the practice of adults using the Internet to contact and attempt to meet with young people for sexual purposes.
8. Outing
Outing is when a bully publicly displays or sends or forwards personal information, such as a person’s home address, phone number or other personal data and private information such as photos and video as well as chats such as text messages, emails, or instant messages.
Most of this information is quite sensitive, sexually related.
Sharing private, confidential, or embarrassing photos can be devastating and potentially damaging, especially in a world where digital information can be instantly shared with thousands of people.
9. Trolling
Trolling is the deliberate act of provoking a response through the use of insults or bad language on online forums and social networking sites.
The troll will personally someone in order to put them down. Their main aim is to make them angry enough to act in the same way.
Trolls spend their time looking for vulnerable people to put down.
Usually they are looking to make themselves feel good by making others feel bad.
10. Trickery
Trickery is the act of gaining your child’s trust so that they reveal secrets or embarrassing information that the cyberbully then shares publicly online.
The cyberbully will ‘befriend’ your child and lead them into a false sense of security before breaking their trust and sending their private information to a third party.
