Bullying has been around for generations, and with the advances in technology its getting increasingly difficult to put a stop to it. Children and teens are now able to bully others from home over a wide variety of platforms. These platforms include but are no limited to Xbox Live, social media, computer games, and apps. This new type of bullying is called "cyber bullying", and due to the anonymity of the internet, its very hard to combat.
Schools have a duty to look after their students even after the final bell rings. They should reward kids who bring cyber bullying to light, and punish the bully based on the severity of their actions. Parents need to educate their kids on the effect cyber bullying can have on others. Of course, it's not possible to monitor what your kids do on the internet 24/7 (nor do I think kids need to be monitored 24/7), but they do need to have a real understanding of what cyber bullying is prior to using these devices.
I think everyone should have an initial right to anonymity on the internet, however with the anonymity also comes a certain level of responsibility. There are many positives for example, the kid who gets bullied at school can freely play Xbox Live with his online friends as an escape from reality for a couple hours. There are also many negatives too however, a kid who had rough day a school, might log into his online game and take his frustrations out on others.
The next step we need to take is to hold these different developers or platforms responsible. Platforms like Xbox Live, PlayStation, Google Play, or Apple allow an avenue for people to cyber bully. They need to develop programs to combat this kind of behavior.
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