One of the many famous online websites is Youtube. Over the years, Youtube has grown a big community and a wide variety of different types of Youtubers. Vloggers, gamers, review channels, etc. Youtubers these days have started talking about some problems. One of the biggest problems brought out on Youtube is cyberbullying. One youtuber, named JackSepticEye, has a gaming channel. He saw an abundant amount of comments in the comment section that were deconstructive and hurtful. He wanted to help. He has created a lot of videos and spread a lot of awareness for this topic. He has also built off of that topic and created something called PMA, which stands for Positive Mental Attitude. It tells subscribers and viewers to be kind to one another, and stay positive. Look on the bright side of things and help others that might not have a positive mental attitude. Cyberbullying is a problem. It is a big issue in our society today and we need to cut down on it and try to stop it. Some points are how cyberbullying starts, how we can identify cyberbullying, how it affects kids in school, and how we can stop cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying can start in many ways. Something that most people don’t tend to recognize when trying to stop Cyberbullying is the bully’s intentions. He/She may bully kids from power, actually bully kids at school, or bully kids from rage/stress of video games. Sherri Gordon from Verywellfamily on July 29th, 2017 said, ”Cyberbullying can be a manifestation of social status. Kids who are popular often make fun of kids who are less popular. Likewise, kids who are attractive might single out others they feel are unattractive. They use the Internet to perpetuate relational aggression and mean girl behavior. They also will spread rumors and gossip and may even ostracize others through cyberbullying.” This is a big way kids like to bully others. When physical bullying happens, bullies will want to hurt the kid more outside of school. They will then go on the internet and harass them. Another reason why bullies decide to use the internet is so that the bully can hide behind the screen because they are scared. They don’t want anyone to find out who they are. Video games can be a problem these days, especially with online co-op. One thing players can do is talk over a microphone if they are playing the same game, and that’s where they can say mean things or threaten them. Things like that are said if they are mad, angry, or stressed out because of what happened with the game. Susan Scuttl on February 22, 2018 from CNN said, “Both the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics take a firm stance against children and teens playing violent video games. The psychological group reports that more than 90% of children in the United States play video games. Among kids between the ages of 12 and 17, the number rises to 97%. More important, 85% or more of video games on the market contain some form of violence. The titles seem to say it all: "Manhunt," "Thrill Kill," "Gears of War" and "Mortal Kombat." The American Psychological Association observed in an August 2015 policy statement that research demonstrated a link "between violent video game use and both increases in aggressive behavior ... and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral engagement." In its July 2016 guideline on media violence, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned that violent media set a poor example for kids. Video games, the academy noted, "should not use human or other living targets or award points for killing, because this teaches children to associate pleasure and success with their ability to cause pain and suffering to others."Overall, the academy's summary of the results from more than 400 studies revealed a "significant" link between being exposed to violent media (in general) and aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts and angry feelings.” The violence is promoted with these types of games and it influences kids because they think it’s right. When a kid has changed, someone needs to find out if they are being bullied.

Identifying the cyberbullying can happen in many different ways, but there are some uncommon ones. The one I would like to start with is lack of appetite. This is something that parents should pick up on. If a child, friend, or parent is eating less than they should, someone needs to talk to them about it. It may not be cyberbullying, but it could be something else that could impact their life. Another way to identify the problem is emotional withdrawal. This is when someone may leave the room to cry or isolate themselves. That person may also want some alone time to themselves, and this could have nothing to do with cyberbullying, but that’s where someone needs to ask how much do they isolate themselves. If they didn’t isolate themselves that much, but now they do a significant amount, talk to them. It’s all about time and time changes. The last way to identify cyberbullying that I will mention is the sudden dislike of social media. This one is kind of tough for parents because they may not monitor their child’s social media account. This one is more set on friends. If a friend drops all of their social media accounts or doesn’t post as much anymore, talk to them about it. Tell them that they can always chat. They will need friends to help them in these tough times because school might not be going well for them. 

Cyberbullying has had some major effects to not only the person’s life outside of school, but inside of their school life too. One story from NBCNews from Kalhan Rosenblatt on August 1st, 2017 talked about a 12 year old girl named Mallory Grossman. She had been cyberbullied by her own classmates. She even tried to approach one of the bully’s moms, but the mom said it was all a joke and that they shouldn’t worry about it.  School is supposed to come off as a safe environment for everyone. Others see it as a place of torture. Some students get bullied so bad they completely want to avoid school because they can barely contain the bullying from online. In school, some side effects of cyberbullying are grades dropping, losing friends, and less extra curricular activity. Grades mean a lot in school. They determine the future of academics. This can change a child’s life. If they do poorly in school, they won’t be seen as a good kid to others. Friends can be beneficial. They can always be there if someone needs some advice or feedback, or even if they don’t want to talk to their parents. The victim wouldn’t have anyone to hang out with at school. This will also drive them away from sports teams and extracurricular activities. Extra curricular activity is a big part of health. If a student just goes home without going to their usual practice for a sport, that can damage their body. They may have lost interest in the sport because of the bullying, but that’s when a friend needs to step in and encourage them and push them to strive for more. Then when someone helps out the victim, they need to stop the bully from continuing.

Stopping cyberbullying can be difficult. Parents may not have access to social media, so they won't help unless a voice is heard. This helps out a lot and can go a long ways. Parents can then take it from there and stop the source. Speak up and make sure a trusted adult knows. The next way to stop cyberbullying is by going into the settings of a social media account and change the privacy settings. Steve Lee from tfsloans.co.uk on January 25, 2018 said, “Check the settings on all of your social media accounts. Make sure that only those you want to, can see your profile and posts. Even then you can’t be sure someone won’t share your information, so always bear in mind who you ‘friend’ ‘follow’ or allow yourself to be ‘followed by’. You can make up information in your profile to make it hard for you to be defrauded e.g. don’t use your real date of birth, or your kids names. Especially if you use this information in your passwords. Just because a link is on a social media site, doesn’t mean that it’s safe to tap on. Social media sites are notoriously poor at checking what people / companies are posting.” This makes sure that no one can follow or talk to the account without permission. One social media app that can do that is Instagram. There is a privacy settings to make an account private or public. Then it allows the user to accept or reject incoming direct messages from non-followers. Another cool tool is that the user also block and/or report someone if necessary. Another way to stop cyberbullying is to be aware of the environment. Now, I know that sounds vague, but it’s so true and most people don’t even care about their surroundings. They may not even realize that they are bullying someone online too. Be kind to one another. Some compliments can go a long way to make someone feel better.

With cyberbullying comes some points to remember. Start out by finding out why the bullying started. Then after that, identify whether the kid is being bullied or not. This can affect kids in school. To cyberbullying comes physical problems too.  Lastly, stop the cyberbullying. Make sure a trusted adult knows. Speak up and spread awareness. This topic is often dismissed beneath real bullying, when in reality it can be just as bad. Be that youtuber that gives the community a positive mental attitude to spread around. Be a role model to others as well. cyberbullying all starts with a click of a button, but a person can end it faster.