Cyberbullying is Killing Kids

Cyberbullying is claiming the lives of kids across America, and this is a serious problem that has to be addressed. The New York Times put out an article about a 16-year-old boy that killed himself after being outed as bisexual on social media.

Channing Smith was a student at Coffee County Central High School in Tennessee. He took his life on September 26, 2019 after “explicit texts” were put on social media that he had sent to another male classmate. Channing’s older brother said that, ‘” There was no way he could have gone to school afterward.”’ The student that Channing had sent the messages to had shared the exchange that they had. A few hours later, Channing took his life by shooting himself. Channing should not have felt that suicide was the only option that he had in that situation. 

Channing Smith died by suicide on Sept. 23. He was 16. Credit...via Josh Smith

Social media has “become a part of individual lives nowadays,” and plays a large role in bullying. Social media has allowed people to portray themselves in a different manner online than they typically would in person.

Younger kids are staring to use social media like Facebook and Twitter and it poses, “a threat to their mental health.” This is important because it is allowing these young children to be more vulnerable to bullying on these social media platforms.

While there can be some benefits of social media helping kid’s mental health, it is also putting an extreme amount of pressure on them, causing their mental health to suffer as a result. Social media has caused rates of depression, poor self-confidence, and suicidal thoughts to increase, and “people under the age of 25 who are victims of online bullying, their risk of suicide attempts is doubled.”  

Social media has become such a huge aspect of our day to day lives, that you do not think of it as possibly being that bad to our mental health, or you just do not want to admit it. People see bullying as being made out as not as big of a deal that it really is. Everyone see on social media that bullies are being referred to as “haters” or someone is “hating on you”, but this needs to stop.

Bullying is being desensitized to society and this is a serious problem. Kids need to know that if they are experiencing any form of bullying there are resources out there for them. They need to know that they can talk to people and there are ways for other people to help.

All people need to be aware of the signs that someone is being bullied, and each person shows different signs of this. Some signs include destroying personal items, headaches, stomach aches, faking sick, changes in eating habits, trouble sleeping and nightmares, not wanting to go to school, loss of friends, and many more. It is imperative that everyone know these warning signs so that they can help when someone needs it.

 People that are being bullied are very vulnerable and that is one of the reasons that they do not try to seek help. They can also have the fear of the “backlash from the kid who bullied them” and they may feel like no one would care even if they did say something.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MAKOTO FUNATSU

Social media does not help with the problems associated with cyberbullying either. Social media platforms all have terms and conditions that everyone has to agree to before they are allowed to start using the apps. There are rules that we are all supposed to follow on these apps but no one really ever reads these agreements when they accept them. Part of these conditions is you, as a user, agreeing to behaving appropriately and treating other with respect. By agreeing to these conditions, you are accepting the consequences of your actions online while using these apps.

On pretty much all social media platforms there is somewhere to report another user. For some apps this is more effective than others but none of them really have a way of making sure this will not happen again. For some apps like Facebook, it can take many people to report the user profile before there is any change, and even after their profile is removed there is no way for the platform to stop the user form making another account. This is a problem because the user can create another account and go right back to doing what they were doing with the previous account.

Social media platforms are changing so quickly each day and there is not just one way of preventing bullying on these sites. For now, everyone just has to do their best to see the warning signs early, know that there are ways to help, and that there are resources for people out there if they are being bullied at all. If anyone is being bullied and feels like they have no one to go to they can call the Suicide Hotline number and talk to someone there to seek help, and they need to know that there is nothing wrong with doing this. 

If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)