Types of Online Bullying and Their Results
Since people are online and on social networking websites and apps more than ever, cyberbullying has become more prevalent. Cyberbullying is just like regular bullying, except it is behind a computer screen or cellular device. Typical instances of cyberbullying usually are harassing, threatening, or embarrassing an individual online. Another form of cyberbullying is revenge porn.
Revenge porn is when a person sends a nude image or video of themselves to their partner and it gets posted online without the person's permission. Some people may think this does not happen much, but these situations happen often.
Revenge porn is against the law, and, luckily, there is a group of volunteers that are working together with the victims to get the pictures and videos removed from the internet and convicting the people who are responsible for uploading them without consent.
Revenge Porn Laws
Revenge porn usually ends up on the internet from an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend or sometimes someone who hacked your device and posted them. Sometimes you may not even realize that nude photos of you have been posted on the internet by hackers. No matter who posted the photos or videos or what their reason may be, this is against the law and the person could spend time in jail.
In 46 of the 50 states in the United States, there are revenge porn laws. These laws are still being updated every day to prohibit and include more types of revenge porn, such as Virginia adding to their revenge porn law that manipulated pictures and videos produced by machine learning are also against the law. Photoshopped images are included in this definition of manipulated photos because posting fake pornographic photos is as harmful as posting real pornographic photos.
Other Forms of Cyberbullying
The most common types of cyberbullying are harassing, impersonating, creating websites or blogs about someone, video shaming, and tweeting or posting negatively on Facebook about a person. If an individual uses any type of internet or technological device to target another person in a harmful way, they are participating in cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can affect anyone, but it tends to be most common with younger people.
Examples of ways cyberbullying usually occurs are: posting rumors or embarrassing someone on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram; stealing an individuals password and hacking into their account pretending to be them and chatting with people; creating a website or blog that contains private and embarrassing information about a person; or recording a person being hit or punched and posting the video online or sending it out as a text message chain to multiple people.
Effects of Cyberbullying
The effects of cyberbullying are psychologically damaging to a person. Cyberbullying and revenge porn can cause anxiety, depression, serious mental health issues, and even P.T.S.D. to a person. Unfortunately, once something is shared online, it is technically on the internet forever. Therefore, the person has to live in fear even long after the information was posted. They worry about anyone seeing it or coming across it in the future, such as future partners, friends, employers, children or family members.
Who Can Help Fight Revenge Porn?
Most people think there are no resources or anyone who can help them when they experience an issue dealing with cyberbullying or revenge porn. However, this is not the case. There is an amazing group called BADASS Army. BADASS stands for "Battling Against Demeaning and Abusive Selfie Sharing."
The BADASS Army group is there to help you figure out your legal options if you are going through this situation. This group will guide you through the process of subpoenaing the website that you are posted on and determining the IP address, and they will aid in collecting evidence and information to build a case against the perpetrator. The BADASS Army group also has lawyers that can walk you through the legal system and answer any questions you may have on how to move forward with the legal process.
Annually, this incredible organization of volunteers helps around 2,500 individuals and removes about 10,000 revenge porn photos and videos from the internet. Additionally, they helped the state of Ohio pass their first revenge porn bill that made it illegal in Ohio for anyone to commit any revenge porn acts. The BADASS Army group will help you gain your power and take your life and dignity back.
Conclusion
Being a victim of any form of cyberbullying or revenge porn is daunting to one's psychological and physical well-being. Most individuals do not want to deal with it and shut down while feeling so alone. There may seem to be no answers as to how to get out of this dark place, but there are a growing number of resources available to assist you. As these issues become widespread, people are reaching out for more help. Therefore, more laws are forming against cyberbullying and revenge porn, and you can seek help from the BADASS Army group or theCyber Civil Rights Initiative, which is dedicated to giving people a voice to stand up to cyberbullying.