Misuse Technology: Cyberbullying And Sexting

As technology becomes more advanced, the amount of communication possibilities are limitless for millions of individuals world wide. However, not everyone has the same motives when it comes to “day to day” use of social media. Two dilemmas that can occur when individuals choose to misuse technology is cyberbullying and sexting. These problems have affected minors physically, mentally, and have led to suicides for over a decade. I believe that although we can never ensure that no minor will ever misuse technology, we can take precautions to lower the amount of these problems. As a result of social media, over one thousand suicides occur due to cyber bullying (BULLYINGSTATISTIC.org, 2015) every year. Cyber bullying comes in many forms but all …show more content…
However, certain actions could be made to prevent minors into cyberbullying and sexting. I believe that if all the devices owned by the minors connected with their parents, then it would be much easier to prevent negative actions. For example, if the daughter of a family decided to send a nude photo to her boyfriend, the parents would be able to look back at everything that she has sent and take immediate action; rather than allowing more damage to occur. The same idea goes for if a son of a family is bullying a classmate of his, the parents would be able to stop the situation immediately and stop him from ruining another kid’s life. These precautions might not completely stop minors from cyberbullying and texting due to bad parenting, but I believe it is an effective way to decrease the amount of these actions. Another solution that pertains mostly towards sexting is giving your child a phone that is not only not capable of sending photos, connecting to social media apps, and above all, only being capable of communicating with people permitted by the parents. This phone will only be able to be used for business purposes, thus preventing the minor from having a device capable of …show more content…
A minor should never be given a device capable of social media without having full trust in how they’ll choose to use it. The use of social media isn't a right for any minor, parents must emphasize the great privilege and dangers when it comes to online communications. As a society we are capable of great things through the use of technology, but only if used correctly. If we choose to discriminate and participate in unnecessary explicit actions, then extra precautions must be taken and laws enforced. We can not grow as a society if minors are raised with the idea of prioritizing social media over the real world. Parents teach their kids not to steal, whine, bully, and hate but in today's society, parents must be sure to teach their kids the do’s and dont’s of social