Cyber Bullying vs. Traditional Bullying

Everyone one can remember a childhood time when they were insulted by words or pushed around by bigger kids, or even rumors about them were made up at school. They were bullied as a kid. Bullying is still a major problem today for children. With today’s technology, traditional bullies have been able to add a new element in bullying, the internet. “Cyber bullying adds an entirely new painful dimension to making fun of each other. A cyber bully is an individual who distributes insults and harsh words over the Internet” (Feldman). Traditional bullying is worse than cyber bullying, even though cyber bullying is the newest version of bullying.

First, kids have a better chance of getting bullied by traditional bullies than cyber bullies. Cyber bullying is only seen on the computer with the help of the internet. Cyber bullying can be used through E-mails, Instant messaging, social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook. Traditional bullies are seen almost everywhere else. For example, bullies are seen at parks, school, and even local malls. Also, traditional bullies even start at a young age. Dan Olweus, founder of Olweus Bullying Prevention Program provides a crucial statistic showing that “23 percent of students in grades 4-6 had been bullied “several times” or more; 20 percent had bullied others”. Kids do not usually use the internet until they get into high school.

Next, traditional bullying is harder to stop then cyber bullying. Parents can control what their child see or use on the internet. Parents can do this by blocking or monitoring certain social networking sites and their child’s E-mails. This may drop cyber bullying dramatically or end cyber bullying all together because the parent can see that cyber bullying is taking place. Then, the parents can take action to defend their child. The child that is being bullied may help stop cyber bullying. For example, if the child is being bullied on a social networking sites, then the child has an option to delete that friend or even leave the situation altogether by signing off and going somewhere else. Traditional bullying is harder to stop because these types of bullies can be seen almost everywhere. This makes it harder because adults may not be present to stop it. Also, the child that is bullied cannot really do anything because they cannot just “sign off” and leave like they can do if they were cyber bullied.

Furthermore, traditional bullying affects the child more than cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is not confrontational. In other words, the person bullying and the child being bullied are not present together and looking at each other. Cyber bullying can only use the power of words to affect the child being bullied. So, cyber bullying can only affect the child’s emotional and mental aspect and not the physical aspect. While traditional bullying is usually confrontational and the bully and the child being bullied are looking at each other. Traditional bullies can use the power of words and actual physical force. This may cause more problems for the child being bullied because the child might take physical abuse from the bully. “282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month according to the National Institutes of Health. The child is only safe at their house, away from bullies. This may cause even more problems because the child might not want to leave his/her house. Cyber bullying can take place anywhere with the help of a computer. So all the child has to do is avoid the computer.

Finally, traditional bullying is worse than cyber bullying because traditional bullying is harder to stop, harder to avoid and affects the child being bullied more than cyber bullying. Even though traditional bullying is worse than cyber bullying, bullying in general is still a major problem today. If bullying is not stopped than it can create long term damages on the victim.