Teens Need Policing Online By Kate Parody

We all love scrolling through our social media and just entertain ourselves, but the one thing that we can’t process and admit is that the internet has a negative effect on us, especially teens. The internet is good for all sorts of things, from homework to entertainment. However, the internet is a huge distraction in our lives along with many other things like bringing our mood down. Due to the fact that using the internet frequently requires us to switch between different settings and somehow make our brains instantly shift focus to the constant stream of pop-ups, prompts, and notifications, this may actually hinder our capacity to sustain attention on a single cognitive task for long periods of time. Although social media has grown tremendously,

are online, and the vast majority access the internet on their mobile device, making it the most common medium for cyber bullying. From prior knowledge we all know how bullying or any type of hate can negatively affect someone. “Teens Need Policing Online” by Kate Fogarty reveals that, “While online, teens may be persuaded to do things that they do not want to, such as share private information, be sexually solicited, and/or experience public humiliation. Some worst-case scenarios- take, for example, Megan Meier, who committed suicide after being cyberbullied-got our attention and brought changes in the law and policy.” This exemplifies that while being on the internet teens are persuaded to do many messed up things, and get peer pressured into doing that where they are put in a tight position. Due to that, they give in and from that things go downhill, and in some cases like Megan Meier, could even end with suicide. Fogarty also highlights that, “Teens who cyberbully may feel that cyberspace is an impersonal place to vent, and, therefore,

However, cyberbullying can be very destructive.” To add on, Fogarty also states some examples of cyberbullying, “Examples include middle school teens starting a poll with their classmates, casting online votes for the ugliest girl in the school or unsolicited videos or photos taken in a locker room are posted on YouTube or forwarded by media messaging.” It is clear to us that cyberbullying is a high problem between teens and even though no one gets physically hurt, it still can drastically affect someone mentally. Not everyone takes things as a joke, some may take a “joke” very seriously which can possibly end