Bullying has always existed, but what bullying can do is beyond anyone imagination. Over the years, bullying has potentially grown through the use of electronic media which is also known as Cyber Bullying. According to the US Government “Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation.” The dreadful savageries dispensed on youngsters by other kids is sickening and irritating; it never indeed leaves. There are parents, teachers, schools and different organizations who are taking crucial steps to stop bullying but the number of children who suffer from cyberbullies has sharply increased over the years. In spite of a later increase awareness and rampage, cyberbullying realities and insights demonstrate the issue is not leaving at any point shortly.
Technology these days generates both the positive and negative impact on people life. Today’s youngsters utilize innovation like never before. They have access to the fastest internet which allows them to text their friends, post on blogs and different websites, share photographs and so on. With the advancement of technology, the number of Cyber Bullies has enormously increased over the years. Therefore, today we are going to discuss in detail about two cyberbullying cases where two teenagers took their life: Brandy Vella and Tyler Clementi. Let’s take a look at both of these cases and discuss ethical issues and use principles to analyze the situation along with applications of computing artifacts better.
Just four days after Thanksgiving on November 29 of 2016, tragically, a beautiful high school student Brandy Vella deadly shot herself. She took her life in front of her family member. As everyone was so close to the holidays and were trying to get Christmas spirit back up, Brandy was going through a lot since more than a year. It all started when Brandy started receiving the text message on her phones from unknown numbers. People used to call her and ask her how much she would charge to get involved in sexual activities. The bullies used to make her fake Facebook account and post her pictures and talk about her weight and looks. Her weight was the primary target and people would allegedly create a fake Facebook account to harass her. The profiles had brandy’s name, number, and photo and said she would offer sex for free. The harassers would also post pictures saying ‘I’m a slut and I’m a hoe. Anybody hit me up’, brandy would get phone calls and text messages which kept her up all night. All of her family members were very frustrated, so they went to report this cyberbullying with police and school. But they said there is nothing they can do about it. However, brandy and her sister used to report all the fake account on Facebook but even though FB take the profile down it didn’t take too long for another one to come back up. Brandy tried everything that is possible to stay away from this bullying. She changed her numbers so many times, but harassers would find a way to reach her. She would also send screenshots to her family of cruel messages and phone numbers, but they were never able to find out who was behind all of this cyber bullying. One day Brandy thought enough is enough, she was tired of everything that she was going through all this time. She found her helpless and thought the only way to get out of this problem is to kill herself. She sent text messages to her family a few hours before killing herself: “Guys, I love you so much, please remember that, and I’m sorry for everything.” Everyone found brandy leaning against the wall and pointing a gun to her chest. Everyone yelled at her to stop and not to do it, but all their pleading could not convince her, and she shot herself to death.
The Bullies who made fake Facebook profiles and bullied an innocent girl based on her weight and looks have breached their ethical duty as a human being. According to the moral theory of Deontology: Deontological (duty-based) ethics are concerned with what people do, not with the consequences of their actions. Which means that it tells people to do the right thing and avoid the wrong things that harm the society that they live.
Technology is blessings as well as the curse, and it depends on the who is using it for what intention. The technology was used unethically in both of the cases, and the only way to solve this problem is by teaching people the ethical way to use technology. Raising awareness among people about five rules of computing artifacts so that we can mitigate the chances of all these events to occur again. Last but not the least we should also consult our youngsters that taking their life way is not the solution to the problem. If they have any problem, they need to fight against it and raise a voice against it. Suicide is not the solution to a problem. To make this happen, we need to support our youngsters, make them feel like they’re loved and cared, and their feelings matter. The government should also take strict action against those who bully others through social media or in person. Cyber Bullying is a serious problem, and it needs to be STOP.
