STOP CYBERBULLYING By Brandon Tremblay “Suicide does not end the chances of life getting worse, it simply eliminates the chances of it getting better”

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CYBERBULLYING  There is many different types of cyberbullying. From exclusion to harassment to flaming, all lead to someone getting hurt. Any type of cyberbullying is wrong, and will always hurt someone no matter what type.

FLAMING  Flaming is an intense online argument that takes place over IM on places such as Facebook and online Forums. "I was instant messaging my best friend, and we had an argument over a guy…The next day she printed the conversation and handed it to a group of girls, but she'd changed it. It read like I had said all these really mean things [about them all] that I never said, and they believed her.“ This is an example of a girl who was flamed by her best friend.

EXCLUSION  Exclusion often happens in cyberbullying when someone doesn’t have a cell phone. It’s mainly girls who exclude other girls, where boys resort to physical threats or violence.  An 11 year old girl reported to the newspaper how all the girls but one were invited to a sleepover, and all the girls who were there went online and taunted the other girl.

ANONYMITY  Anonymity is when someone cyberbullies you, but you have no idea who it is because they use a fake username or profile. This allows them to say what they want with almost no consequences. However, they can still be caught if they slip up, or if someone who knows who it is tells everyone who it is.

OUTING  Outing is when you send someone personal information about yourself or a secret you don’t want anyone but them to know, and they forward it to someone else, who forwards it to someone else and so on. By the time it’s done, everyone will know your secret.

CYBER STALKING  Cyber stalking is another form of harassment. The messages are normally sent through , or IM. Victims might start to believe that cyber stalking might escalate to real stalking if it goes to far.

MASQUERADING  Masquerading is an elaborate type of cyberbullying where someone will pretend to be someone they aren’t. They may use someone else’s phone or to keep their identity hidden. “A 13-year-old girl gave her password to her best friend. After they had a fight, the ex-friend used the girl's screen name to enter an adult chat room and gave out the girl's phone number. A man from the chat room called the girl's home – but was luckily intercepted by the mother.”

PSEUDONYMS  Pseudonyms is like an alias, a fake name people use to hide their identity when they bully people online. They do this so they won’t get in trouble for their actions. Unlike masquerading where they pretend to be another person, aliases are often fake or made up names with profile pictures found on Google. This is why you shouldn’t add anyone unless you know them in real life or have met them sometime before.

THE VIRUS  – Cyberbullying is a virus that can infect anyone. There is no way to prevent it, no matter how hard you try, however you can still stop it. The virus is worldwide and can be spread from something as simple as a text or a photo you post on Facebook.

ZOE’S STORY  – Zoe is a girl who was bullied after a long battle with family issues. Her parents divorced, a failed suicide attempt at 13, her father being diagnosed with cancer and shot her mother, killing her and dying himself later. She was bullied for being an “Attention Whore’’ because her story was broadcast on TV for over a month.

KRISTINA CALCO  – Kristina took her own life at the age of 15. She was athletic, artistic and even offered a scholarship to an art prep school. She was in the Grade 8 Cheerleading Squad, participated in Video announcements and more. The bullying started in the 7 th grade.

JASMINE MCCLAIN  – This 10 year old girl hung herself in her room after being bullied online. Her mother walked into her daughters bedroom and found her hanging. Jasmine took her last ever breath on this planet in her mothers arms after being forced to the point of taking her own life because of cyberbullying.

HOW TO STOP CYBERBULLYING Make sure whenever you see any form of cyberbullying you take a screenshot, print it and give it to a trusted adult or teacher. Because if you don’t it could end with someone taking their own life. If you are the person being bullied, stop responding to the bully, ignore as much as possible. Because they only continue if they know they’re getting to you. If you don’t show that they hurt you to them, they might stop because you are too strong. Be strong, fight fire with nothing. Ignore them, tell a teacher or your parents.

SOURCES  Most of my information came from this site –   All YouTube videos from the search result on YouTube ‘’Cyberbullying”