Cyber Bullying & Ethics

Cyber-bullying and Ethics, the two are so closely intertwined that I could not resist putting them together. Cyber-bullying would not be of this world if only people's code of ethics were upheld. Let us first look at what those two terms mean.

What is Cyber-Bullying?

• As per the description from the Interactive Cyber Safety interactive guide (n.d). "Cyber Bullying is the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner."

What is Ethics?

• The Oxford dictionary defines it as "Moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity."

But how do they relate?

Children know that Cyber bullying is wrong, yet....

81% say that it's much easier to bully online than in person. The screen removes a barrier, the barrier of seeing someone get hurt. It also removes their ethics, because....
Image: Cyber-bullying (2012)

It almost feels like nobody is watching

But are only the kids to be blamed?

Hardly, parents are the ones purchasing
the devices,
Allowing them to...

Have access to social media, even if they are under age. If the parents do not have ethics when it comes to social media and allowing underage access, then how can children understand the value of moral ethics if Mom & Dad figure the rules don't apply to them?

There in lies the butterfly effect so well described in the 2013 article written by Patrick Lin.

If we raise our young kids ethical awareness, will that not have a ripple effect? Hence, decreasing our current 14% suicidal rate? (onlinecollege.org, 2012) As wells as reducing our Canadian 9th ranking word wide on cyberbully? (Government of Canada, 2012)
Introducing a bill like C-13 (Mayer, 2013) may help, but only if ethics are taught along with it, as well as educating our teens about the effects that cyber bullying has and that it is not acceptable.

I believe Ethics need to be explicitly taught to our younger generation in order to gain control over current statistics of suicide due to cyberbulling

Parents, teachers and the young alike need to come together and discuss what makes one thing wrong in a certain circumstance and that it does not change because the circumstances have. A wrong is still a wrong
no matter what.

Creative Aspect
For this presentation I choose a minimalistic approach, due to the fact that cyber-bullying should not be "beautified." That would go against my ethics. I also chose green as my theme colour because green symbolizes growth; we need to ask hard ethical questions in order to personally grow. Green also represents harmony; we need to work together in order cease bullying, finaly, green has an emotional connection to safety; no one individual should feel unsafe...ever! (Colour wheel Pro, 2015)

References
Canadian Bullying statistics. (2012). Canadian institutes of health research. Government of Canada Retrieved from http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/45838.html#1

Color Wheel Pro: Color Meaning. (2015). Color-wheel-pro.com. Retrieved from http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Con'd
Cyberbullying: How Bullies Have Moved From the Playground to the Web. (2012). OnlineCollege.org. Retrieved from http://www.onlinecollege.org/cyberbullying/
Cyber Safety: An Interactive Guide To Staying Safe On The Internet. (n.d). InformED. Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/cyber-safety/

Con'd
Ethics. (n.d.). Oxford dictionalries. Retrived from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ethics

Mayer, A. (Nov 27, 2013) Cyberbullying bill needs 'better understanding' of young people. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/cyberbullying-bill-won-t-stop-online-taun...