Cyberbullying Is An Invisible Sword

By Crystal Soh Fei Faye

SELANGOR: Many Malaysians engage in cyberbullying without disclosing their actions; some choose to target people based on physical characteristics such as skin color, body size etc, and they generally target those who are different in general.

Bullying other netizens over the Internet with verbal attacks or other techniques is known as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying and other events are all too common, especially on social media.

When a controversial incident happens, netizens will leave comments on the people involved in the incident.

Netizens will go to search for the identity, work and family background of the people involved. These excessive behaviors have seriously violated personal privacy rights.

Before the matter has been further confirmed, netizens have been transformed into justice demons and judges. They will post irresponsible messages and attacks in the online world to vent their dissatisfaction.

In today’s world, the spread of news has become faster, leading to the growth of cyberbullying. Since bullies can quickly gather with other people who have the same opinion, they can continue to oppose each other.

Chan Jia Hui, 21, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) student in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) said that cyberbullying happens frequently and perhaps at least one to two cases per day.

“I think the increased usage of social media has caused cyberbullying to happen more commonly in society. The users might be influenced by the cyberbullying contents that spread virally in the social media more easily if they are able to view the similar contents every day.” said Chan.

Chan also added that the social influencers have to be more aware of their speech and posts as they might influence their followers.

Chan mentioned social influencers must acknowledge that they have the ability to influence some of their supporters

Kong Kei Xuen, 22, a Media and Creative Studies student in UTAR mentioned that she has not really seen any occurrences around her, but she has seen many news about cyberbullying and many times it does not end nicely. There is a lot of harassment when cyberbullies humiliate and group up on someone.

“Social influencers have a great number of followers, and we can see how their followers worship them. If the social influencer starts inciting hate or dislike towards a person, it will seem like they are trying to fan the flames for their followers to convey their dislike toward the other party.” said Kong.

Kong mentioned that social influencers should not abuse their authority to use their followers to do their bidding for them.

Lee Jaslyn, 21, a Corporate Communication student in UTAR mentioned that cyberbullying can happen every time on the internet due to frequent usage of social media, as the social media applications allow the user to remain anonymous and comment everything without constraint.

“Social media has a big impact on how people interact with others. As people tend to believe in someone who has high influences and power, users might go with the flow.” said Lee.

Lee said that the more people spend their time on social media; they will likely engage in cyberbullying behaviors

Pheene Lim, 25, a Project Lead at Digital Marketing Agency Company mentioned that cyberbullying happens very often and thinks that students who are facing these issues will feel sad and confused.

“People are not aware of the impacts of what they are responding to on the internet as they can leave their comment anonymous, no one can know their identity.” said Lim.

Lim stated that if the social media influencers really did take the lead to cyberbullying others, it might be like an abuse of power.

Annie Lim, 25, a counsellor from Partner in Counselling (PIC) mentioned that cyberbullying happens all around the world no matter what age group and any background they have it will still happen so in Malaysia, the proportion is almost like 3 in 10 young people cyberbullying everyday. Most of this happens through Online games and private messaging and social media apps including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube.

“Cyberbullying is considered one of the psychological abuses that hurts people emotionally and also psychologically.” said Lim. “The victim will feel embarrassed, hurt, isolated, and some of them might blame themselves.”

Lim also mentioned that we all know that when something is out there it will definitely always be there. When cyberbullying occurs the nasty post, messages or text can be shared with hundreds or thousands of people and this is not only limited to the place that you stayed in your surroundings.

“The victim will find it is very difficult for them to feel safe or secure, they can do nothing and have no place to escape, but not everyone will have the same reaction. Some of the victims might feel very angry and aggressive, they feel that they are being defended so they want to do something to get revenge.” said Lim.

“They will engage in a reparation aside from the trouble they could get into. This approach is also very dangerous because this will keep them locked in the bully victim circle. The victim may try to bully others in the same way in the future and this will lead to more cyberbullying cases in the future.” Lim added.

When asked about how to help the students who experienced cyberbullying, Lim mentioned that the counsellors will go through the situation with the student together, so in the sharing sessions, they will try to build the whole situation from the victim’s perspective and try to reframe the whole situation.

They will try to categorize things into things that they can control and things that they cannot control. Counsellors will also provide emotional support as it is a great feeling to know that they are not alone and can help to increase their confidence level.

Lim mentioned that some of the children might engage in cyberbullying because they are trying to seek attention.