The World Is Finally Speaking Up

Even though bullying and cyberbullying are growing rapidly in our society, the amount of effort put into educating the society about these issue and trying to stop them is either little, or too late only after the damage has been done. There are organizations and groups that are fighting to put an end to bullying in general, for instance “Thinkb4youspeak.com” is a group sponsored by GLSEN to fight to put an end to the bullying of people who are gay and lesbians. In other words, “the group fights to put an end to the word ‘That’s so gay!’ and similar phrases that target gays and lesbians in a negative way” (Burrell). But that is not enough, today parents and schools are being instructed to teach their kids to fight against bullying and report them whenever they see someone else is being bullied or even if they happen to become the victim of this vicious issue. Another recent change that is becoming big are the social media and entertainment companies such as Hollywood, TV networks, and news agencies [as they] have begun to raise awareness of this issue by creating movies and TV shows that show how bad bullying can go. Not too long ago, “ABC Family worked with Seventeen magazine to make [Cyberbully], in hopes that it will try and fight this issue ” leading to ABC Family launching a campaign called “Delete Digital Drama” which gained over 75,000 supporters nationwide in order to raise awareness to stop cyberbullying.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently in the last few years has launched new website, stopbullying.gov and has continued to put out advertisements and infomercials to educate kids, teenagers and parents about the issues of bullying and cyberbullying. Stopbullying.gov recommends that parents should “Help them be smart about what they post or say. Tell them not to share anything that could hurt or embarrass themselves or others. Once something is posted, it is out of their control whether someone else will forward it” (StopBullying) and they make a very good point. It is the parent’s responsibility to educate their child well enough about the uses of internet and the ethics behind it; how misuse of it can really affect and harm someone.

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Source: StopBullying.gov. "Prevent Cyberbullying." StopBullying.gov. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/prevention/index.html>.

Burrell, Ian. "Lies, Damned Lies and New Media: Is Online Gossip Out of Control?" SIRS 

Issues Researcher. The Independent, 12 May 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. <http:// 

sks.sirs.com/>.