Social issue of cyber bulling in Australia

Introduction

This study is focused on the social issue of cyber bulling in Australia. In order to understand the social issue and the psychology of the individual facing the issue, the essay sheds light on a particular cyber bulling case which was reported in April 2015. The case is about a teenage girl named Jessica Cleland who tragically killed herself as a result of bullies that filled up her social media accounts with horrible messages. This particular study discusses the social issue of cyber bullying with respect to this case and further identifies the hypothesis that is tested in the case and the methods used to justify the validity of the hypothesis considered in the case. In addition to that paper further discusses the results reported so as to evaluate whether the results that has been considered in the paper is valid or not.

Body

The case states that Jessica Cleland, a resident of Wallan, Victoria, aged 19, committed suicide on the Easter Saturday of 2014. The girl took such a drastic step because of two teenage boys bullying her over Facebook by sending her horrible sentimental messages and stating that they hated her. Such incidents caused huge psychological impact on Jessica which led to cause depression to a huge level and finally cost her life. There have been a number of cases identified all over the year in different parts of the world where cyber bullying has been problematic causing mental illness and even taking away the lives. Cyber bullying has been reported to be highest among teenagers and the people who are highly addicted to social media. This paper identifies the hypothesis whether the laws in Australia takes appropriate steps towards the social issues caused by cyber bullying or not. Whether or not the government of Australia passes law that seeks to provide justice to the sufferers and punishment to the ones who are engaged in the crime. Such steps of the government can reduce the crimes like cyber bullying in Australia and other parts of the world too.

Michael and Jane Cleland, the parents of the victim stated that their daughter had been the victim of the cyber crime and lost her life due to it as Jessica never showed any symptoms of depression or mental illness before her two of the teenage friends started bullying her over social media. The parents mentioned that they would take up any action to get the two boys hold account of their action under the cyber bullying laws. The family considered the release of the coroners report and following that the family took up campaigns to see whether the government and the people as well looked seriously towards the cyber bullying matters or not.

It is to be noted that there is a law in Victoria known as Brodie’s law concerning the anti-bullying legislation that came into force in the year 2011 after the suicide of Brodie Panlock because of the relentless bullying in her workplace. As per the law the criminal is subjected to ten years of jail and applies to cyber bullying along with psychological, physical and verbal bullying. Regardless of these laws, and the finding of a criminal examiner named the two adolescent young men, there were no charges and no examination concerning the demise of Jessica, which Cleland depicted as disappointment (Smith et al., 2018). The police likewise neglected to issue a notice to connect with Jessica and cut her from Facebook and Snapchat. Cleland said they were disillusioned with the Victorian police for neglecting to examine and needed to see adolescents responsible for their activities.

It can be thus opined that from the case study it is clear that the hypothesis regarding the ignorance of the government is relevant. Though there are certain laws in the country, yet they are not enforceable and therefore do not bring huge difference within the country (Wright, 2018). For this particular case even, although the parents of Jessica fought for the justice of their dead daughter who was bullied by her two male friends, the law of Victoria, Australia failed to take up any action against the two boys who indirectly murdered Jessica.

Casualties of cyber bullying are truly offended in a worldwide place that can happen 24 hours per day. At the point when terrorizing is along these lines, regardless of whether content or picture, it is for all intents and purposes difficult to expel everything from the internet. 'The fanatic spreads data on the Internet to be seen by anybody and can influence a man's social life, particularly how other kids take a gander at the school.' This can likewise influence the individual scholastically in light of the fact that doubt will keep them from contributing and making inquiries in className. It has been accounted for that roughly at least 61% youngsters have a person to person communication webpage and numerous sites occur off-grounds altogether off grounds as destinations like MySpace.com, Xanga.com, or Facebook.com; and without Supervision or control of grown-ups (Mishna et al., 2018). At such locales, despise messages show up, private email messages are sent, humiliating pictures caught on mobile phones are distributed, and humiliating reviews are performed.

Conclusion

From the above report and the case study it can be stated that there is a huge psychological impact of cyber bully that can lead to taking away the lives of people. From the tested hypothesis it can be stated that the government of Victoria and Australia do not take appropriate steps towards the social issues caused by cyber bullying or not. Nor does the government of Australia passes law that seeks to provide justice to the sufferers and punishment to the ones who are engaged in the crime. It is thus important to consider approaches to battle inappropriate behavior connected to secure understudies and staff, and in addition quick and dependable examinations concerning protestations is excellent, however is not any more adequate.

References

Mishna, F., Schwan, K. J., Birze, A., Van Wert, M., Lacombe-Duncan, A., McInroy, L., & Attar-Schwartz, S. (2018). Gendered and Sexualized Bullying and Cyber Bullying: Spotlighting Girls and Making Boys Invisible. Youth & Society, 0044118X18757150.

Parents demand greater protection for kids after daughter's death. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3043651/Parents-teen-committed-suicide-suffering-vicious-bullying-Facebook-demand-greater-protection-kids-online.html

Smith, P. K., Görzig, A., & Robinson, S. (2018). Issues of cross-cultural variations in cyber bullying across Europe and beyond.

Wright, M. F. (2018). The Nature, Extent, Causes, and Consequences of Cyberbullying. In Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition (pp. 1723-1733). IGI Global.