Cyber Bullying is RIFE on Social Media

There have been various important events in the cultural and technological development of cyberspace and the Internet over the last few years.  In recent times, the Internet had tremendously influenced the way people communicate and interact with one another.  This brought about a lot of opportunities including challenges to the way people act and behave.  The endless opportunities for anyone to connect with friends, families, workmates and schoolmates would have never eventuate if there is no Internet today.  While majority of the World Wide Web users may focus on using the Internet for their development, there are others who have gone astray and used it negatively to intimidate others and these sometimes lead to severe consequences and even deaths.  

For this post, I will share some information pertaining to privacy on the web and why I think it is recommended for everyone to consider what they share on the Internet.  The focus will be on Cyber Bullying, outlining some of the practices heavily used today by the minority in cyberspace.  I will also include random other points throughout the post on Internet safety in general.  I hope this post will provide useful information to those who read it so they can protect their loved ones or possibly help to educate those that practice cyber bullying.

In cyberspace, the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically through texts messages, manipulative images with the intent to intimidate or threaten someone, is likely to pose numerous threats to our society.  One of the pioneers of antivirus protection, Eset (2015) reports that cyber bullying is increasing on the internet through the use of mobile phones and computers.  A study by Eset recorded almost 45,000 children contacted ChildLine, a counseling service in UK for help in 2014.  Cyber bullying may pose greater risks to how one interact online because within cyberspace, anyone can be anonymous unlike physical bullying where victims can identify who their bullies were.   According to a study by Eset (2015), 54 percent of parents in UK were unaware of their child being bullied.  The report highlights that majority of "parents are completely ill-equipped and under-educated in knowing how to recognize and deal with" the increasing threat to children online (Eset, 2015).  With such statistics for parents in a developed nation to be unaware, it is likely that smaller developing countries like Papua New Guinea may possibly have even higher percentage of parents to educate in order to help them be aware of the risks of cyber bullying. 

Risks of Cyber bullying:
Ohio University (n.d), reports that youths especially those that are psychologically vulnerable, are at higher risks of being affected by cyber bullying.  In some cases, the bullies themselves may also become victims of cyber bullying where they fall under any one or more of the different cyber bullying types. 

Various risks associated to cyber bullying include emotional distress such as anger, frustration, embarrassment, sadness, fear and depression.  Moreover, it may include disturbances to one's concentration with school work or job performance.  Cyber bullying victims can also end up quitting their job or if the victim is a student, the effects may force them to drop out or even switch schools.  Sometimes, cyber bullying encourages delinquency and violence, transforming victims to become aggressive.  For other victims, they may resolve to drug abuse or even cause them to bring weapons onto school grounds.  Even far worse, cyber bullying can lead to suicide (Ohio University, n.d).

Common Types of Cyber Bullying:

In my attempt to understand and identify various forms of cyber bullying practices in Papua New Guinea, I followed various posts and pages on Facebook and have seen various methods employed by regular users.  I will not go into detail of giving specific examples due to sensitivity of the topic, instead I will present the overview of the different cyber bullying types for readers to learn and possibly protect themselves.  I have placed these practices into the common types of cyber bullying known in cyberspace and these are briefly explained below.

- Anonymity
Anonymity may be one of the most common and widely used forms of cyber bullying.  Among most of the listed types of cyber bullying, the internet creates a conducive cyberspace for bullies to be anonymous hence allowing them to hide behind screen names or fake identities to intimidate others.   

- Impersonation
When a person logs into someone else' account or creates a fake account with another person’s information and pictures, then sends out messages pretending to be that user, they are in the act of impersonation. With this type of cyber bullying, it is considered a form of identity theft and is a federal crime therefore has implications based on prosecution that can last between 2 to 8 years imprisonment in most countries, and may cost fines of up to $10,000 based on inflicted harm.  

- Trickery
This type of cyber bullying involves someone being purposely tricked by a bully into sharing secretive information that may be personal or embarrassing, and then publishes that information online.

- Outing
In this type of cyber bullying, a person shares personal and private information, pictures, or videos collected from someone openly with public.  The victim is “outed” when his/her information has been distributed throughout the internet.   

- Flaming
When someone posts critical or disrespectful remarks on other webpage, through emails, instant messaging, chat rooms or social media posts, they are considered flaming.  Usually, these are fights that happen online using bad or obscene languages.  Flaming wars can mount into real-life, physical fights. 

- Denigration
Denigration involves criticizing someone in a derogatory manner, to tell them that they are worth nothing.  Examples may include spreading rumors, blackmailing and threatening someone.  In many cases, texts messages such as "I hate You" or "You are Stupid" may be sent to damage another person's esteem. 

- Harassment
In a harassment type of cyber bulling, a string of hurtful and offensive messages are sent by the bully to an individual or a group repetitively. A common type of cyber bullying that can be categorized as harassment is Cyber stalking which as mentioned, involves continual harassing and threatening messages which may also lead to physical confrontations.

- Cyber stalking
With this type of cyber bullying, the bully keeps contacting the victim on social media or other online site and drives fear and upset to the victim.  Usually messages are deliberately left on someones phone to scare them.  This may include threats or sexual comments which the stalker often uses to intimidate and scare the victim.  By law in many countries, stalking is illegal.

- Exclusion

This type of bullying involves the act of intentionally excluding and leaving a person out from any online engagement such as group chats and sites.  While doing so, the group may then subsequently leave malicious comments and harass the one that is singled out.

Some Ways to abstain from cyber bullying:

While there may not be a 100 percent method to protect yourself from possible cyber bullying, there are few tips that can help anyone prevent themselves from it.  Some of those include;

- Avoid posting personal information including photos/ images

Important: With the use of manipulation programs, people can easily manipulate your images in a way to harass you then post it online. 

- Always check the TO: field (Especially with emails, verify who you are posting the message to before sending). 

- Don't be gullible:  
Try not to be emotional so you be easily persuaded to believe something.  Seek for sources or credibility. 

- Try NOT to respond to harassing messages with anger
Usually, when you are angry, you can't control yourself and this allows the gap for the bully to use you through your frustration which can make things even worse than the initial.

- Never open messages from strangers
This is one of the important warning I warned friends and families to be mindful of. Simple rule is, if you don't know the person, NEVER click on the link sent.  Additionally, if you aren't expecting a link or file from someone, never click on that link.

- Ignore chain mails, hoaxes or long emails If you come across any mail, messages that requests you to forward it to friends, DON'T forward it because it may send your email along with your friends to the source where it came from.

- Proofread messages before posting
Always check what you wrote before posting or sending it out because the Internet in itself, is the World Wide Web and anything you release can go public.

- Beware of certain topics 
There are certain topics that may invite or expose you to cyber bullies.  If you aren't sure of the topic, abstain yourself from it.

- Again, NEVER POST anything that is very private

Final Note: 
Know that the web is a medium for sharing.  Most of what you put up on the web is meant to be shared-Not private.  Be mindful of who you want to share the information with and adjust the privacy and security settings especially on the website you are using to appropriate level of information sharing.  

Remember; If you decide to post your photos and personal information online, you accept to expose your privacy unless you have your own domain that governs itself using its terms of use.  

image source:https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/144157/width926/image-20161102-27212-1lrsqz2.jpg 

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Reference:

End Cyberbullying n.d, "A step closer to a safer and more friendly social network", accessed 23 July 2017,<http://www.endcyberbullying.org/5-different-types-of-cyberbullying/> 

ESET 2015, "Majority of parents are clueless when faced with cyber bullying", accessed 24 July 2017,<https://www.eset.com/me/about/press/articles/article/majority-of-parents-are-clueless-when-faced-with-cyber-bullying/>

Lohmann, C.R 2012,"Cyberbullying versus Traditional Bullying", accessed 23 July 2017,<https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/teen-angst/201205/cyberbullying-versus-traditional-bullying>.

The National 2014, "Some control of social media a must", accessed 23 July 2017,<http://www.thenational.com.pg/some-control-of-social-media-a-must/>Ohio University n.d,"Cyberbullying:Risk Factors", accessed 22 July 2017,<http://www.ohio.edu/people/mk931908/riskfactors.html>
O'Keeffe, S.G & Pearson, C.K & Council on Communications and Media 2011,"The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families", AAP News and Journals,viewed 24 July 2017,<http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.long>
 
Steve Harvey 2016, "New App To Stop Cyberbullying", Steve Harvey Show, viewed 6 July 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh9IEgBo3u4>.
 
 Trisha Prabhu 2014, "Rethink before you type", TEDx Talks, Viewed 6 July 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkzwHuf6C2U>.

Yapumi, C 2017,"Act will no censor social media:NICTA",accessed 24 July 2017,<http://www.looppng.com/png-news/act-will-not-censor-social-media-nicta-49630>

Social Safety 2017,"Cyberbullying",accessed 23 June 2017,<http://socialsafety.org/cyber-bullying/>.

Marbella Family Fun n.d, "Top 10 Tips on how to protect yourself from cyberbullies", accessed 23 July 2017,<http://www.marbellafamilyfun.com/avoid-cyberbullying.html>

Pollution - A Prompt to Sustainable Mindset

I have recently come across a friend's post on Facebook about "Plastic bottles Convenience at the biggest cost" and I did share some of my views pertaining to the issue.  Though that post was about plastic bottles, I found it to be as important to elaborate on because the issues relating to pollution are serious and have not been addressed much in many developing countries including Papua New Guinea.  Today's post may not capture everything however, the main issue I hope to express is associated with people's mindset, the trend in which development is taking place and what I think should be done.

There are various forms of pollution that have impacted our environment in recent times ranging from marine, air, water, soil, noise, light, radioactive and thermal pollution.  Papua New Guinea may have been affected by most of these pollution over the years and some of these are obviously evident.  For this post, I will briefly share some thoughts on how people are concerned about the product they consume and not the waste from those products, which ended up affecting the environment and eventually may affect people's life.  In many circumstances, these waste, mostly man-made, are dumped away or removed somewhere in the hope to clear the sight.  What may not have been considered is the place in which these waste are disposed.  Despite various actions taken by people to discard waste, it is utterly important to educate everyone to employ appropriate ways that will protect the environment.

Recently, many concerns associated to environmental pollution have been raised however, it seems not many people, including the government may have taken serious measures to address them.  If we travel to almost majority of the beaches, near towns and cities throughout Papua New Guinea, we may find man-made waste floating or piling up along the shores.  For those living in Port Moresby, such may sometimes be visible around Ela Beach and if we travel further towards villages like Hanuabada, plastics are a common eyesore along the beach. These plastics are hazardous and pose threat to marine life as well as children who play around the area.  Even more, the community is at high risk of contracting diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diarrhea or even malaria.  What worries me is the future of what used to be playgrounds for children and refreshing sights for adults who can sit back outside their veranda and enjoy the fresh breeze from the ocean.  The once beautiful and clear sandy beaches may soon become piling spots for many of the consumable waste.

Looking at the behavior in which people's actions are performed, I think GREED is eventually going to destroy our societies if people do not step back to see the real happenings around them. It is likely that a lot of people do not have any concern for their future generation. These days it's all about ME and NOW mentality and not US and OUR Future.  I have heard from few people who bluntly responded when asked about their future and all they answered was, "I Don't Care about Tomorrow, tomorrow has its own problems", or similar responses where tomorrow or the future doesn't really matter to them. This is purely SELFISH and reckless attitude without a single concern for what problems the future generation may face.  There are people with such careless mentalities who are contributing to harm the environment.

While we may focus our attention on developments and look abroad for models and influences to shape our nation, survival basics that our ancestors have thought us such as respect and having dignity for and over our natural environment is rapidly diminishing. There seemed to be no concern whatsoever for what may happen later.  I have, in many occasions, shared similar sentiments with those that I've talked to. It seems likely that PNG is indirectly becoming a dumping ground for the things that come into the country, in the name of development. For instance, people are so focused on satisfying themselves with whatever products they consume and do not take any notice of the waste that they produce after their consumption.  Classic examples include canned and bottled foods which people consume almost everyday.  Once the bottled/ canned food have been consumed, the waste are dumped.  All the consumer is concerned about is from the time they need the product to the time they consume the product.  What happens after the consumption is where the problem lies and in many places around the world, people are now looking at sustainable ways to protect the environment.  Back at home, processed foods, imported goods, electronics, automobile and many others entered our shores in the name of development however what people don't see is where do all the waste go to after their primary consumption.  The question we should possibly ask now is, where do all these waste go to?  The answer may lead to further questions.  Were the waste dumped under the soil?  Were they thrown into the ocean?  Were they thrown into the bushes? Were they all burnt to get them out of our sight?  These questions were derived from some of the realities of what is happening today within our societies.  It may solve one side of the problem of removing the waste from our sight but on the other hand, it creates a whole new problem to the environment and the things that depend on it, including us.  In actual fact, we are polluting our soil when dumping waste into the soil and that very soil may be the one that will feed us with fresh organic food.  We pollute our oceans, destroying the marine life which we catch to feed our families.  We pollute our bushes with man-made waste when we throw them into the bush.  We contribute to climate change through the fumes that go into the atmosphere when burning waste and even pollute the air that we breathe.

In my opinion, everyone should now look at fully adopting sustainable practices into their daily lives.  Every educational institution should promote sustainable practices in their courses to help students develop sustainable mindset before joining the industry.  All organizations, whether private or public should embed sustainable practices within their organizations and ensure everyone take ownership of what they do.  The government should also seriously make it a priority to support and openly promote awareness on sustainable living and make those available to everyone through mass media. Apart from these, recycling waste materials may be a way to save the planet since recycling will enable the use of waste to reproduce rather than demanding to extract more from the planet because much of what is created is extracted from the environment.  If most developed nations have profound ways to recycle waste to promote sustainability, I believe developing nation can also learn from them and probably introduce recycling plants or even export recycling materials overseas where they can be re-processed.