Imagine if you were bullied constantly at school and all you wanted to do every day was go home and escape but the bullying continued online and through social media. Where would you turn then? Bullying is a serious issue, whether it takes place at home, school, a public place, or online. Bullying originally started out the traditional way, as in the school bully threatening a student for his lunch money at school or on the playground. Although this type of bullying is still a major issue, online bullying has surpassed the amount of kids and teens that it affects than traditional bullying. Online bullying, known as cyber bullying, is a way to harass someone online or through cell phones. It has been around for a while and has always been an issue since the internet was introduced. However, recently teens have found new, sneakier ways to bully peers using apps and websites such as Twitter, SnapChat, and Whisper on electronic devices. Teens must find a way to terminate this cyber bullying before it gets too out of hand.

One of the most well-known social media websites is Twitter. There are nearly 700 million active Twitter users online (Statistic Brain). More than 40% of these users are teens from the age of thirteen to seventeen (Statistic Brain). Teens are also the largest culprit to bullying. If you were to ask an adult what a ‘tweet’ was (a post made on Twitter), they would most likely be able to tell you. However, if they were asked what a ‘sub-tweet’ was they would probably be clueless unless they were an active Twitter user themselves. A sub-tweet is a tweet that doesn’t tag the person the tweet is talking about, and usually doesn’t mention any names. As you can see, this would potentially lead to people bullying others without many people knowing who they were talking about. Many teens have developed secret code names and specific hash tags such as, #oomf which means ‘one of my friends/followers’ (followed by a statement or rumor about that person) with their group of friends that only they know the meaning for them. This allows teens to continually harass others without anyone else knowing who is being targeted. There are about 15,000 bully related tweets posted each day (Huffington Post).

A popular app known as SnapChat leads to many problems regarding cyber bullying and black-mailing. SnapChat is an app where users can send pictures and short videos with captions that disappear after a few seconds. People take advantage of these disappearing items to send rude or inappropriate pictures or videos to others using this app. Users of this app may think no one can see the images after they disappear, meaning they could take advantage of this aspect, but a file still remains that can be re-opened, saved, or screen shot (picture of the screen). When these files are saved, they can be used against the person who sent them. Black-mailing can occur and cyber bullying takes place when this happens. In the past, people have sent the saved images to the senders other friends or posted the photo on a website or social media page. Once these photos are out on the internet for everyone to see, it is unlikely that they will ever be deleted.

Another popular app that teens often use is Whisper. Whisper is an app that allows users to anonymously post a picture with an overlaying text revealing a secret about them or others. There is no username or account for Whisper, only an area to post and to look at other posts. People often post rude and displeasing images and secrets using this app that may upset others. This app is also known to be used against people by others posting a secret about them. Users of this app may think that it is completely anonymous and that they can post whatever they want about whoever they want, but there are still ways to find out who has posted something. Whisper has a location spot where you can see posts from people around you and by doing so, will allow the user to see only posts nearby. This will help to track someone who posts things about others.

Teens using websites and apps such as Twitter, SnapChat, and Whisper have allowed them to think that bullying is an okay thing to do. They seem to think that these websites and apps are completely anonymous and that they can post whatever they want and be able to get away with it. Teens do not realize that they can be tracked if they are posting rude or hurtful things to others online or using an app.

Consequences like shutting down accounts and banning people from a website can be issued if users continue to harass others on social media. In serious cases, there are some laws that have been passed to prevent cyber bullying that can be issued. Users of these websites and apps need to start realizing that there are always consequences for every action, and they will be enforced if need be. If teens do not end the cyber bullying now, it will be taken to a whole new level of things that adults might not be able to control.