IndividualEssay buinguyenphuongdung AEnT321WSB07 21000708

Topic: Cyberbullying in online classroom in the recent global shift towards e-learning
Under the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the education around the globe has transferred
from official classes into the online ones. According to UNICEF (2020a), millions of children may be
exposed to the increased risk of cyberbullying due to the rise in time spent on online platforms.
Cyberbullying is defined as a form of bullying using technology to harass, threaten or embarrass
another person (Ben-Joseph, 2018). While traditional bullying can affect the victims physically,
cyberbullying may cause impacts on their psychology. It includes sending or posting personal
information, pictures or videos to hurt or embarrass someone else. This kind of bullying takes place
most commonly on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile phones
(UNICEF, 2020b). Although cyber-harassment is less physical, its effects are more devastating and last
longer than the traditional forms of bullying (Meech, 2007). As a result, researches are made to find out
the causes, effects as well as solutions to ensure a safe and positive online environment during Covid19.

To begin with, there are a variety of reasons leading to cyberbullying involving lack of
empathy, herd behavior, and mental issue. Firstly, empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone
else’s position to understand their feeling or experiencing (Young, 2018). Therefore, the bullies who are
unable to put themselves into others’ shoes may not see the pain they bring about. According to Gordon
(2013), students who engaged in online bullying said that they felt little or nothing for their actions to
the victims. Some of them even reported that cyber-harassment made them feel entertained. Moreover,
studies show that online bullies feel less remorse than physical bullies because they cannot see the
reactions of the victims (Peebles, 2014). Secondly, it appears to be obvious that bullies usually bully in
groups of two or more to one victim. This may come from herd behavior, which causes people to join


cyberbullying. Compared with herd behavior in economics, which is caused by different factors such as
fear (Economou et al., 2018), uncertainty (Lin, 2018), or a shared identity of decision-makers (Berger
et al., 2018), the fear of being victims, lack of certainty, or tendency to follow people sharing the same
identity may lead more people to participate in online bullying. While some people do not have their
own purposes to bully the victim, they might be affected by the influence of the bullies, who cause
nervousness to others witnessing cyberbullying. This may make them join the bullies so as not to be
bullied. Because online bullying occurs in a virtual environment, people who are uncertain or know

little about the issue can misunderstand that cyberbullying is not a big deal and take part in
embarrassing others unconsciously. In addition, herd behavior in cyber-harassment is also caused by
the similarity in identity such as interest, hatred, or character, which is the most common reason for
people to found a team of two or more to do something together. Last but not least, mental issue is
another reason that leads a person to a bully or a bully victim. According to Björkqvist et al. (1982), the
domination feeling of bullies is so concerningly high that they think this is what social norms require.
This is due to their psychological impulsiveness and lack of self-control. On the other hand, depression,
the felt of lacking intelligence and personal attractiveness as well as inferiority are the reasons making
a person be a bully victim. In some cases, mental issues caused by bullying can lead a victim to be a
bully due to the thought of avenging with a desire that the bullies should experience their feelings. In
conclusion, lack of empathy, herd behavior, and mental issue are the reasons leading to online bullying.

There are many ways that cyberbullying can affect a person. Being an online bullying victim
can cause long-lasting impacts on the victims mentally, emotionally, and even physically as it makes
the victims always feel they are likely to be attacked everywhere (UNICEF, 2020b). According to
Mann (2010), both victims and cyberbullies reported that they have difficulties in emotions,


concentration, and behavioral issues. These people also revealed that they usually have trouble with
getting along with their peers. To the people who get bullied, this may be the reason they tend to not
share their thoughts and problems with others. Therefore, it is hard to identify a cyberbullying victim
until they get upset, fearful, angry, helpless, and despondent. Emotionally, victims may have low selfesteem after experiencing harassment and humiliation. As a result, they gradually lose interest in the
things they once loved, spend less time with family and friends as well as self-harm and have a
tendency to think of suicide (Gordon, 2020). Besides, Gordon (2020) also said that kids who suffer
from cyber harassment can have physical health matters such as digestive issues, disordered eating, or
sleep disturbances. These symptoms may happen to teenagers and adults as mental and emotional
problems sustain for a long time as well. However, they can overcome those issues to regain their
confidence and health if they can get suitable treatment (UNICEF, 2020b). In summary, people who are
victims of cyber harassment can face a lot of problems such as mental, emotional, and physical issues.
Although these consequences can be cured, the victim should be treated as earliest as possible so that

they can reintegrate into the community to continue their study and work.

Due to the impacts of cyberbullying, research has been carried out to find effective methods for
preventing online bullying thus creating a healthy cyber environment for people, especially schoolaged children, during the recent lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, cyberbullying has
some features making it hard to avoid or stop since it is persistent, permanent, and difficult to notice
(UNICEF, 2020b). While there is one of the various solutions that victims can do, which is to announce
their friends and adults to get help. They can also choose to make all copies of all contact with the
bullies for reporting to the (Dr. Sylvia). However, according to ReachOut (2019), only 10% of young
adult victims said that they would inform their parents or trusted people about their problems due to


mental and emotional issues. In these cases, adult attention is very essential to recognize their
children’s changes to help them. First of all, parents should try to persuade their children to tell out
their problems and listen to their feelings. Give them the advice that it is not their fault and there are
many people who can help them overcome the issues such as close family, teachers or their close
friends. If the victims seem distressed about online bullying and likely have signals of self-harm or
thoughts of suicide, ask a mental health professional for a favor or encourage them to counseling
services. Therefore, these cyber victims may recover from bad experiences with the effective advocate
of these experts. Nevertheless, the best way is to be well-prepared as well as self-educate about
cyberbullying and find ways to address it because they will help the victims a lot if the harassment
occurs (ReachOut, 2019). It is also significant that the educators such as teachers and administrators
should greatly understand the nature of cyberbullying and what they can do to solve this issue (Beale &
Hall, 2007). Students should be taught to be careful while sharing personal information, reacting to any
posts, or making friends with strange online people. Although internet companies have a responsibility
to protect their users particularly young people and everyone can accuse them if they do not take their
responsibility (UNICEF, 2020b), they cannot always save cyber users from all negative factors. That is
the reason why people should learn how to protect themselves. For instance, blocking the bullies or
stopping using the recent accounts to sign up new ones, which are easily available on plenty of social
media platforms, are some solutions for victims to self-defense from cyber-harassment. Conclusively,
there are a variety of solutions that can help to prevent or stop online bullying with supports of family,

friends, experts, schools as well as internet companies and the victims themselves can avoid this with
adequate knowledge about the problem.


To sum up, cyberbullying is caused by a lack of empathy, herd behavior, and psychological
issues. And the effects of it may make the victims especially young people suffer from mental,
emotional, and physical illness. However, there are various solutions with the help of trusted people
and the victims can also protect themselves from online harassment. Hence, students can be assured to
have a safe and positive environment to study online during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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