There is an intense study being carried out in U.S. on cyberbullying. It’s not the first time that research has been done on this issue. But the important thing about this study is that it’s conducted by the Social Media Giant Facebook. The peculiarity of the situation can be understood from the fact that the Facebook has donated around $180000 for the research.
Yet we need to know that Facebook isn’t just spending all the money as a gesture of charity but rather due to the creation of a lawsuit that funds online safety projects (It’s funded through Digital Trust Foundation). The research is taking on a very proactive stance with the issue. TMF team is overwhelmed at how the organization has allocated funds for researching into cyberbullying.
What’s Special?
The great thing about this study is that it’s conducted on a large scale across many states in U.S. Previous studies have confined only to a school or a few schools. With this new study, the end results would be highly accurate with minimum sample error.
The research is aimed at three core areas: Scope, prevalence and frequency of cyberbullying amongst the teens. It will be considering many other variables like Household wealth, age, gender, technology use and many other factors. The research will only use first hand data. Also, it will not only rely on data from schools only as it’s not an accurate representation of the entire population of youth.
We are really hopeful that this study would be able to spring up some important and useful information that would instigate a national action plan against cyberbullying.
For many, cyberbullying is still a novel phenomenon. Many parents still think that there isn’t much harm that others can do to their kids through the mobile screens. Experts may still need some time to explain cyberbullying completely, but the pace of the digital evolution is so rapid that researchers need to stay ahead of the online bullies and tech to prevent putting outdated results on the table.
Final Word
Cyberbullying requires a two tier effort from the parents and the government. Parents can set up rules and regulations around the use of smartphones and other electronic gadgets to limit the reach of bullies to their kids. They can install parental controls on their smartphones too to monitor their teens’ activities. The U.S. government need pass laws that can punish the bullies.
Stay with us this month for more news on cyberbullying.
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