What is Cyberbullying? | How its done | Online Harassment

India is facing the most number of Cyberbullying Cases in India. Cyberbullying Cases with women and Children have increased at a very high rate. 90 % of Cyberbullying Cases are not reported in India.

What is Cyberbullying in simple words?

When a person utilizes the features of the internet for fulfilling some ill purposes like harassment, threatening, embarrassing somebody, or targeting some other person leaving bad uses of the technology is generally considered Cyberbullying. Nonetheless, cyberbullying generally preys on teenagers, however, it has been seen in some cases, that adults too fall prey to some kinds of cyberbullying and public shaming in front of the world or a closed group of known ones which leads to an immense amount of social as well as mental pressure.

What is cyberbullying and why is it a problem?

It has also been seen in widespread viral messages that people delete some kind of activity on the internet like a mean post or a story but it still encircles the inboxes of varied users in the form of screenshots or some shared contexts. In the worst-case scenario, some targeted cyberbullying users even do not know who the person is bullying them using the ill effects of the internet which makes it even tougher to bring the cyberbullying to an end.

Types of Cyberbullying

Kids, generally teenagers are now socializing themselves more than any other person as they do possess the maximum time than anyone else. On a daily basis, they immerse themselves in the usage of social media handles to socialize with their friends, family, and relatives. This particular scenario gives them a perfect opportunity to make others trapped in cyberbullying or fall prey to other persons’ cyberbullying.

Whereas there are a number of ways a person can make online harassment to other users on the internet, we have given the following mentioned 5 types of cyberbullying such as:

Harassment,
Impersonation,
Inappropriate Photograph,
Website Creation, and
Video Shaming.

Moreover, we have briefed all 5 types of cyberbullying techniques for the persons who are dedicated to searching for “What is cyberbullying means?” in the following paragraphs:

Harassment

Using some tactics to harass somebody is a standard method of cyberbullying where one oppresses another person for fulfilling one’s personal intention. One of the famous methods to tease somebody online is to Report one’s videos or profile as if it has some wrong content in the video whether it does not anything wrong in reality.

Another method of the same harassment is doing unusual ‘Texting’. Kids usually come into written fights with a target kid in either one-to-one or in groups to harass a particular child which will lead to utmost social as well as mental pressure due to sudden insulation in front of fellow kids. Sometimes it also costs the parents as everyone does not have an unlimited amount of internet or SMS packages in their subscription.

Impersonation

It is a highly famous method of cyberbullying where one person impersonates the other person and starts chatting as the legitimate one which can ultimately cause monetary losses and time loss. Not only kids, even adults too these kinds of embarrassing activities to one-another just to make fun of the other person and humiliate them in front of fellow persons or somebody special.

According to a survey conducted by Facebook, about 5% of profiles on social media are fake ones despite removing billions of fake profiles created every year on a very massive index.

There are many procedures to do this impersonation such as for kids, they hack the account or steal the password by peeping into the credentials of a target from any blind spot and make some form of changes to the target’s profile that will ultimately lead to humiliation and fun of the target in front of everyone in online presence. In addition, if someone does not catch the credentials of social media accounts, kids use to create fake profiles with identical names and the same photos and post indecent and hurtful messages in the name of the profile bearer which will certainly lead to the suicide of the actual kids in some cases.

Moreover, Catfishing is also a very famous practice of luring someone to fall into a pseudo profile of the opposite gender to fall another person into infatuation and later mocking them along with the teasing due to the communication that happened between the two persons who are in a so-called relationship.

Inappropriate Photographs

People who search for “What is cyberbullying on social media?” should know that this is the worst method by which a lot of people commit suicide each year. Photos taken without the permission of the actual person in any private place such as a locker room, a bathroom, or a dressing room can be used to bully a person or shame them in front of fellow people.

As per the bulk of cases, most cases come of females where their indecent or nude photographs have been encircling social media accounts or the WhatsApp inboxes of everyone due to some naughtiness of some wicked boys or even girls. These degrading photographs go to everyone on the internet which makes these types of incidents pretty hard to stop and delete the source photographs on everyone’s mobile phones.

However, some boys even send these types of photos as weapons and send them in mass emails or text messages to all the acquainted persons of the target. There is another case where two persons who are in a so-called relationship expose their private parts on online live streaming to one another that is being recorded by a person on one side and later distributed on porn sites or social media channels that are nearly impossible to alter. This particular type of activity is also penalized with both fines and jail in many nations termed under the category of ‘Sexting’.

As you all have seen a lot of bad indecent comments coming on the viral posts of girls on their bodies revealing photographs as slut shaming due to the short dresses they carry or the way they dance or talk on the social media channels. This also comes in cyberbullying category.

Website Creation

It is a less-used method as it costs someone to bully the target by creating a website, blog, or poll to harass in a massive way. E.g., they might create a website on either a free or paid portal to generate an internet poll about a target or a bulk of targets. In these polls, many hurtful or unsentimental questions are being asked such as the target’s looks, color, race, ethnicity, weight, or other aspects that may lead to sudden chaos in the life of the target.

Video Shaming

Nowadays, videos are being seen on social media platforms so widely. Moreover, there are some specialized apps also circulating in the market that is solely running on dispersing video content widely. In the same regard, cyberbullying is also happening in this culture to shame and embarrass the targets for their personal fun or benefits. For example, it has also been reported that a person is cyberbullying others with the usage of video in which someone is humiliating the target in whatsoever manner that is fully live on YouTube or has been viral to mobile to mobile via WhatsApp or any other communication app.

In addition, these humiliation videos might also be shared by the cyberbullying offender via mass e-mail or text message. Moreover, the mischievous elements record an incident where a person is getting humiliated in any manner in front of a crowd and later posts it on the internet via social media means for the same reason – cyberbullying.

With the above-mentioned examples, we have tried to give answers to the widely asked question, “What is cyberbullying examples?” Now, let’s go further and understand its impacts.

Impact of Cyberbullying

Whenever cyberbullying incidents occur with somebody, the person who has been targeted feels a variety of physical, psychological, and emotional consequences. In addition, they may complain of anything due from fear and anxiety to depression, and low self-esteem they feel due to cyberbullying incidents. Even some of them also feel hypertension, stress, and trauma due to the oppression that occurs to them during the insulation of cyberbullying.

In addition, some of the victims of cyberbullying also feel unsecured to go outside alone as they feel isolated from society due to humiliation happening by some anti-social elements. It has also been reported that they feel a lot of sadness, hopelessness, and powerlessness.

How to Respond to Cyberbullying?

If you or any of your known near-dear ones have witnessed the feeling of cyberbullying, it is very much important that you should be aware of how to respond to cyberbullying. However, every victim’s situation is different and the cyberbullying that happened with the one is also distinguished but we have tried our level best to elaborate on how you can sincerely retaliate against cyberbullying successfully by the following mentioned steps:

Reporting the Incident Accurately
Document the Incidents
Involve the Police and the School
Be Aware of the Effects
Don’t Halt Their Social Connection

Moreover, we have described the above-mentioned option briefly one-by-one in the following paragraphs:

Reporting the Incident Accurately

It is the primary mistake that a target does to not reporting the cyberbullying incident to the one whom the target may trust and gives utmost response to the cyberbullying post to fight back or give an explanation to the incident to stop one’s humiliation. In general cases, the person or the group is expecting the exact response from the victim to tease the one with utmost pleasure.

However, one who has faced such a type of cyberbullying incident can also report it to school, college, university, employers, police, cyber cell, or any other higher authority that the one can reach to take appropriate actions against such happenings rather than giving responses.

You might have been thinking, “What is cyberbullying law?” There are certain strict laws against cyberbullying in almost every nation of the world. One may report to the police or cyber cell of any cyberbullying incident.

Document the Incidents

In most cases, the culprit(s) deletes the profile once he suspects that the target is taking some strict actions against him in the eyes of law. Hence, in those cases, the culprits use to delete the post or any other media from any space where he posted them for cyberbullying the target. One needs to take screenshots after downloading the media to show them as proof to the concerned authorities in order to take serious action against the culprits. However, it is strictly advised to retain a copy of the proof to your side so that you can show them whenever needed to the enquiring officers.

Involve the Police and the School

One should always report the cyberbullying incidents to the police and any higher management of the victim, whether it is a school, college, university, or any office management before taking it to the police. However, it is also your responsibility as well as your primary duty to always keep police and the higher authorities posted about the advancement of the case.

Further, if there are some heinous crimes like threats of death, threats of physical violence, some significant signs of stalking, and even hints that your kid should commit suicide should be reported immediately to the police. Any time of online harassment could lead to physical molestation if not stopped in a due period of time. However, there are some other types of harassment also there such as harassment based on race, religion, or disability.

Be Aware of the Effects

One should also be aware of the consequences that might happen when somebody is bullied online including various experiences such as feeling highly vulnerable of being alone, hypertension, stress, depression, and even suicidal. Hence, do not hesitate to knock on the doors of some counselors, doctors, or psychiatrists for some counseling sessions to help your ward in need apart from going to the police and higher authorities. Moreover, a proper amount of time should be given to the victim to heal from those humiliating incidents.

Don’t Halt Their Social Connection

Permanently shutting their social media accounts as if they have done anything criminal or something that is against the social communities is pretty much wrong. Instead, give them a break and try to let them come again and regain their lost honor on social media by posting some good things and spending some quality time with them. That will certainly help them in recovering from those inner wounds in a better way that occurred due to some cyberbullying incidents.

What is Cyberbullying Law?

There are n number of incidents that we have heard so far that somebody has made a fake profile of someone else and sent some degrading or vulgar texts to other persons in order to humiliate them in front of a specialized person or a group of people. In India, the cyberbullying incident first came to light in the eyes of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the landmark case of Vishaka Vs. the State of Rajasthan in which the Supreme Court laid some guidelines for online bullying to safeguarding women in India from any sexual harassment or any other form of online harassment by cyberbullying.

What is Cyberbullying Law in India?

For getting a decent understanding of cyber law in India, it is highly required for us to put some valuable laws with strict actions and punishments to put cyberbullying criminals behind bars within the shortest possible time.

Furthermore, there is no specified legislation that offers some specific cyberbullying laws in India, however, some provisions like Section 67 of the Information Technology Act are coherent with cyberbullying in a particular way. In addition, Section 67 of the act describes the punishment for posting or sharing obscene media in e-form for a period that may be extended to 5 years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine that may extend to ₹10,00,000/-.

Apart from Section 67 of the Indian Penal Code which resembles the IT Act, the following are some of the provisions of the cyberbullying laws in India that are being implemented by the Government of India:

Section 507 IPC: In this law, if any person receives a criminal threat by any known or anonymous message, then the person who is responsible for giving such intimidations shall be punished with imprisonment for up to 2 years if proven guilty.
Section 66 E of IT Act: In this section of law from the constitution of IPC, it describes the punishment for infringement of privacy. Moreover, it prescribes that any person who willingly breaches the privacy of a person(s) by sharing, capturing, or posting private photos shall be punished with up to 3 years of imprisonment with a fine up to ₹3,00,000/-.

Conclusion

In the bottom line, we would like to comment about the heinous incidents of cyberbullying are like a curse to our society in this technological world where some anti-social elements are taking leverage of the technology and teasing others as per their own will. Moreover, we have tried to put a decent light on all the measures to stop cyberbullying, and methods you can use in the eyes of laws to take strict measures against cyberbullying. This particular blog is for the enlightenment of the people by Craw Security – the best cyber security institution in Pan India as an awareness program against cyberbullying issued in the public interest.

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