Threats to Today’s Youth- Cyberbullying

A growing threat to today’s youth would be the access of technology and social media.  Today’s generation face a whole variety of dangers that past generations did not have the opportunity to have.  As technology grows so does its potential threat to the youth. Kids now have an easier time to accessing websites and social apps that can aid in negative influential behavior.  This became more evident to me when I started to babysit my younger cousin. She was a smart pretty sixth grader who had a lot going for her. She had just gotten her first phone and started using social media sites like twitter and Instagram. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that she started watching girl fights. I began to see her demeanor change with the more videos she watched and the more she became involved with social media.

Technology also created a new form bullying titled cyber bullying. This is a form of bullying that uses electronic communication to bully, threaten and intimidate others. Kids and young adults find it hard to escape cyberbullying because it can happen 24 hours 7 days a week. According to cyberbullying.gov what makes cyber bullying worst is the fact that deleting inappropriate messages and pictures is extremely difficult to delete.

Cyber bullying can impact my educator journey in an innumerable ways. Kids who are cyberbullied are likely to be bullied in person, skip school, be unwilling to attend school, receive poor grades. (cyberbullying.gov). As a teacher it would be my job to identify any characteristics that might indicate cyberbullying. I think students need to know how to properly utilize technology and social media. I feel that I should implement classrooms rules regarding cell phones and computers. According to the cyberbullying.gov I should always be preventive when allowing my students to use technology. I think that there will be a constant struggle between protecting younger generations from the harmful influences of technology.