The Internet is a space for people to share their thoughts and ideas with each other, without any limitations like distance limits, time costs, and transmission costs. Also, the intention of developing cyberspace is to construct a place where online participants could get benefits from it and experience a sense of participation on the Internet. The concept of cyberspace is quite idealistic since we do not realize that in the foreseeable future, some bad comments and behaviors might be destroying the online environment, even if the Internet is developed with laws to shape the behaviors of online participants and surveillance systems to supervise the online routines on social media. Digital platforms provide opportunities for developing a perfect world for every online participant, but some tricky problems reveal the shortage of lacking surveillance on social media. Such as cyberbullying, online trolling, spreading rumors, and slander of the individual (Machimbarrena, 2021, p.664). And these elements make cyberbullies and cyberbully victims on digital platforms
“Diccionari visual de la societat xarxa: 1) Cyberbullying” by Joan Carles Torres is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Considering various elements and factors that might cause cyberbullying and victims on social media. The main reason that leads online participants to become cyberbullies is abnormal mental health, they might suffer from their real-life situations and treat online space as emotional catharsis. The features of the Internet like anonymity, freedom of speech, and strongly transmissible. Leads people to release their negative emotions on social media but it is the wrong method to take it out on other online participants (Campbell, 2013, p.616). And the cyberbully is different from the traditional bully because of anonymity, victims do not know the real-life identity of bullies, that is the reason that bullies are getting crazy on cyberbully since they do not need to be responsible for their behaviors and the effect on the victims. Cyberbully is quite random and unplanned, most of the conflict happened on the Internet because of different perspectives and standpoints, and the way bullies deal with the various opinions is cyberbullying since they do not need to be responsible and only a few risks of being caught on social media (Peebles, 2014, p.527). It reveals that the negative effect of lacking surveillance on the Internet, most online participants do not have to be responsible for their online routines and behaviors on social media, which leads online participants to construct social media as a place to express emotion and low risks for bullies to do some negative behaviors on victims. However, it does not provide any positive feedback for those bullies, even if they give vent their emotions. Cyberbullying makes bullies and victims affected by negative feedback. Those bullies might suffer from negative emotions for a long period of time because trash talk is not a correct method to display emotion, and victims might feel depressed and anxious after being bullied by bullies (Peebles, 2014, p.527).
As shown in the video, cyberbullying is a global issue for every online participant around the world, it is not because of their nations, cultural backgrounds, or age periods. Most behaviors related to cyberbullying are nonsense, even without reason because it is an irrational and random attack on every online participant. We have to reflect on the negative behaviors that we did on digital platforms and be responsible for the comments we leave on social media. Also, social media should be responsible to manage these behaviors on their website and using surveillance as a method to construct a better online environment.
The issues of toxic content on social media are responsible for those digital companies, and in recent years they actually come up with various solutions to deal with these issues like cyberbullying, pornography, and other problematic content on social media. For example, government enhances the surveillance on social media to prevent such toxic comments to hurt innocent online participants. The government uses online research as a method to survey the posting information of online participants, if they flout the rules and laws on social media, they might receive warning messages from the government and institutions. And it actually plays an important role on manage online comments (Penney, 2017, p.11). As an online participant, every time I am trying to download and register in an application, there are a bunch of rules and laws that are required to read for users, and it shapes the boundary to standardize users’ behaviors on digital platforms and sent out a warning message about disobey the laws and rules. In recent years, online surveillance provide the government and related institutions with a method to manage the online environment and reduce negative behaviors on social media. One of the representative examples of online surveillance and how terms of service play roles in managing the online environment, Donald Trump’s Facebook account was indefinitely suspended due to posting improper speech on social media. According to terms of service on Facebook, institutions decide to indefinitely suspend Donald Trump’s personal account because of posting improper comments and activities like against Muslims and premeditated discrediting individuals (Vukčević, 2021, p.298). It reveals that government and institutions enhance the surveillance on social media to prevent improper and dangerous speech, even if Donald Trump is an ex-resident, he still be banned due to his illegitimate behaviors. On the other hand, stopping the spreading of toxic comments and content is the responsibility of every online participant. The Internet is constructed with Network ports which include online servers and personal computers, which means the transformation of messages and contents is done by online participants. And shape the network in many small actions like the re-posts message on social media, leaving comments to represent perspectives, and spreading memes. People prefer to post messages that represent their emotions. The information that might cause anxiety, depression, and anger is attractive to online participants, which leads to the transformation of toxic content and other problematic content spreading on digital platforms (Guadagno, 2013, p.2313).
“trump facebook” by Book Catalog is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
The method that effectively stops the spreading of toxic content and bad behaviors on digital platforms is revealed on various social media, in the context of terms of service, most social media construct systematic management for preventing content like cyberbullying, toxic content, pornography, and personal abuse. The methods like using IT design and enhancing education effect by using the Internet correctly. Constructing new systematic management for controlling balance theory, which reminds online participants to realize that spreading problematic content is prohibited due to it is a sort of criminal behavior. Such as online trolling, Internet scams, and the downloading and spreading of child pornography (Lowry, 2017, p.866). Many online participants do not realize that the seriousness of spreading problematic content on social media is illegal and immoral. Therefore, systematic management for greater awareness and understanding is necessary for preventing problematic content. Also, it is important to educate students to go into the net in a civilized way rather than take the Internet as play, thus education about how to properly use the Internet is developing in schools. Those young online participants who are willing to cyberbully others should be paying more attention in school, and providing psychological counseling to improve their mental health (Patchin, 2012, p.8). These methods could help online participants enhance their awareness of stop spreading problematic content on social media. Especially, for those young online participants who are students and willing to cyberbully others.
In conclusion, problematic content has been spread for decades since the development of the Internet. And many online participants are suffering from mental issues and even suicide because of cyberbullying. It is responsible for every online participant and institution to stop and delete toxic content on social media and construct a better online environment for everyone around the world. Therefore, constructing systematic management for preventing these negative behaviors is quite necessary. Some solutions help us to stop the spread of these toxic contents, like surveillance on social media, control balance theory, and providing greater awareness and understanding of problematic content. And it will help the government and institutions to construct cyberspace that is clean and friendly for every online participant.
Reference list:
Campbell, M. A., Slee, P. T., Spears, B., Butler, D., & Kift, S. (2013). Do cyberbullies suffer too? Cyberbullies’ perceptions of the harm they cause to others and to their own mental health. School psychology international, 34(6), 613-629. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034313479698
Guadagno, R. E., Rempala, D. M., Murphy, S., & Okdie, B. M. (2013). What makes a video go viral? An analysis of emotional contagion and Internet memes. Computers in human behavior, 29(6), 2312-2319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.016
Lowry, P. B., Moody, G. D., & Chatterjee, S. (2017). Using IT Design to Prevent Cyberbullying. Journal of management information systems, 34(3), 863-901. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2017.1373012
Machimbarrena, J. M., González-Cabrera, J., Montiel, I., & Ortega-Barón, J. (2021). An Exploratory Analysis of Difference Problematic Internet Use Profiles in Cybervictims, Cyberbullies, and cyberbully Victims. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 24(10), 664-672. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.0545
Peebles, E. (2014).Cyberbullying: Hiding behind the screen. Paediatrics & child health, 19(10), 527-528. https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/19.10.527
Penney, J. W. (2017). Internet surveillance, regulation, and chilling effects online: a comparative case study. Internet policy review, 6(2), 1-39. https://doi.org/10.14763/2017.2.692
Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2012). School-based efforts to prevent cyberbullying. The prevention researcher, 19(3), 7-9.
TEDx Talks. (Director). (2015, March 12). Stop Cyberbullying Before the Damage is Done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps3Cefys0Kc
Vukčević, I. (2021). Facebook Oversight Board’s decision on the indefinite suspension of Donald Trump’s account. Pravni zapisi : časopis Pravnog fakulteta Univerziteta Union u Beogradu, 12(1), 295-311. https://doi.org/10.5937/pravzap0-32521