Essays About Cyberbullying: Top 5 Examples and Prompts

Cyberbullying is a serious issue; if you’re writing essays about cyberbullying, these examples should give you inspiration for your assignment.

Cyberbullying is the public harassment, intimidation, and humiliation of others over the internet. It could include posting, sending, or streaming negative content to hurt and ridicule someone. 

With the internet’s power to spread information like wildfire to millions of netizens, coupled with its anonymity that empowers people to say things they wouldn’t otherwise say in person, cyberbullying has created alarming negative effects such as broad mistrust in the online space, a range of mental health issues and increasing suicide incidents.

Cyberbullying is a relevant subject as more people spend their time online. As a result, several institutions and groups have been stepping up efforts to combat bullying on multiple fronts. Here are a few essay examples on bullying: 

1. Support for Cyberbullying Victims Should Start at School by Ben Jackson

“Bullying will always exist in one form or another. Instead of calling for websites to be deleted, let’s modernize our schools so they meet the needs of their pupils.” 

The student-author – himself a victim of bullying – raises concerns on how cyberbullying has become a more dangerous form of bullying, with its ubiquity online and, therefore, seeming inescapability. However, instead of lobbying for take-downs of harmful websites, which could be instantly replaced, Jackson calls for more proactive policies at school that could sufficiently stamp out the culture of bullying. You may also like these essays about cyber crime.

2. Cancel Culture: Just Another Form of Bullying? by DRM

“Their cause may indeed be right and just; we’re not talking about the issues of outrage in this article. What we are talking about is whether or not calling-out individuals online is really social activism, or whether it’s just cyberbullying.”

Cancel culture is publicly calling out someone for a misdeed or misaligned morals or social behavior with the intent to change society for the better. DRM says that social media has “exponentially amplified” cancel or outrage culture, with the “canceled” facing the consequences as grave as a job layoff. However, the author does not see public humiliation effectively driving social change but only promoting a new form of cyberbullying. You might be interested in these articles about racism in schools.

3. What is Cyberbullying and How Does It Impact Work Productivity? by Georgi Mamajanyan

“As workplace cyberbullying is a relatively new area of bullying, there isn’t a significant amount of research and clear data available around the topic. However, there is enough evidence of cyberbullying impacting the performance of employees in the long run​​.”

Cyberbullying threatens workplace productivity, and several companies are doubling down on anti-cyberbullying efforts. The author suggests a list of measures a company can adopt to be more capable of preventing and handling cyberbullying cases.  

4. Bullying, Suicide, Punishment by John Schwartz

“What should the punishment be for acts like cyberbullying and online humiliation? That question is as difficult to answer as how to integrate our values with all the things in our lives made of bits, balancing a right to privacy with the urge to text, tweet, stream and post.”

The writer recounts recent cases of cyberbullying that end in suicide and finds that state statutes “seem ill-fit” to give justice to these lives lost. Through interviews with lawyers and cybersecurity experts, Schwartz finds that imposing a harsher punishment against cyberbullying remains restrained by considerations of personal responsibility and constitutional freedoms. 

5. Can This Technology Put an End to Bullying by Sarah Griffiths

“Bullying can cast a dark shadow over people’s lives and leave permanent scars, but artificial intelligence may provide new ways of stamping our harassment and discrimination.”

Griffiths shows how artificial intelligence (AI) offers promising results in actively detecting and taking down bullying content online. The author dives into the efforts social media giants are taking to expand their platforms’ AI features to more accurately filter harmful content and even attempt to interpret suicidal signals.

10 Prompts on Essays About Cyberbullying

To help narrow down your topic choices, here is a list of prompts with suggestions on how you could build your story:

1. How Are Cyberbullies Made?

Research has found that some bullies are victims of abuse and emotional trauma. But of course, no one’s hurt is a justification for bad behavior, significantly if it harms others. Find the latest research studies that dwell on factors that make a bully. Examine how the internet stimulates their urge to embarrass other people at the expense of “looking good.”

2. What Are The Effects Of Cyberbullying?

Victims of cyberbullying could develop anxiety, depression, and other stress-related illnesses. It would be great to interview cyberbullying victims for this essay. Allowing them to talk about their struggles could also empower them. Ask them what forms of support they think should be available in the future in schools or offices and how other victims can be encouraged to speak out.  

3. Do Existing Laws Respond To Cyberbullying?

Examine existing anti-cyberbullying laws in your state and weigh in on how much people are satisfied or dissatisfied with them. Then, discuss ongoing proposals to amend these laws, if any, and find a state to compare them against – preferably one with laws touted to be a model for institutionalizing effective measures against online bullying. 

4. When Does A Joke Go Too Far? 

This is the digital counterpart of the question, “When does teasing become bullying?” Sharing a funny post about someone could be harmless and even nurture friendships. Dive deep into the fine lines that make online activities abusive. Are they frequent? Are they making other people look bad? Provide more questions that people can ask themselves to assess the situation better. 

You can also expand this by providing psychology experts’ tips on how to stop “playful” teasing kids from becoming full-blown bullies.

5. How Can Parent Protect Their Kids From Cyberbullying?

Kids are highly susceptible to cyberbullying. Everywhere, governments and non-profit organizations have been launching campaigns to support parents in setting up tech boundaries for their kids. Lay down these recommendations and discuss how each one can be effective. If you want to go the extra mile, interview some parents and find out what they are doing to enable their children to protect and defend themselves from online shamers. 

6. How Can Victims Stand Up Against A Cyberbully?

The bystander effect can further perpetuate the culture of bullying. Discuss the importance of encouraging victims to hold bullies accountable. Provide a step-by-step guide on the proper reporting of a cyberbullying incident either at school or directly via online platforms. Help them know what pieces of evidence they should gather that would suffice to take down posts. You may encourage them to get involved in campaigns and use their horrible experience to further anti-cyberbullying advocacy.

7. Policy Recommendations To Counter Cyberbullying. 

Research emerging policy recommendations to counter cyberbullying and enumerate how they can effectively weed out cyberbullies. Discuss how they are making headway in the legislative agenda and share your thoughts about them. Why do you think these bills are urgent and should be prioritized as urgent? 

To focus on policies protecting victims, you may want to navigate how the healthcare system responds to their mental health needs. 

8. How To Prevent Cyberbullying Victim Suicide 

You can explore how suicide helplines support cyberbullying victims. Gather data to see how many of their callers are cyberbullying victims and if there is an upward trend over the years.

Aside from helplines, what can family members and friends do to reach out to someone who may be suffering from online shaming? This is a challenge as most victims are too scared to go into the details of the incident, let alone mention it. Research what psychology experts say and build on their recommendations to encourage families, friends, and the larger society to take action. 

9. Privacy Settings, Why They Matter

The most common cyberbullying tactic is the sharing of photos and posts online that are spread and made fun of. Suppressing the supply of personal information, photos, and videos that reach bullies is an excellent tactic to keep cyberbullying at bay. Lay down tips that could help people set up their privacy settings for protection. You can even discuss tips specific to social media platforms, given their different security vulnerabilities.  

10. Cyberbullying Prevention Programs 

Describe the programs and initiatives at your school, company, or community to combat cyberbullying. How are they cultivating awareness and enabling you to protect yourself in the digital space better? Interview relevant resource persons about the plans to continue stamping out power imbalances across the organization.

If you’re looking for more ideas, check out our essays about bullying. You might find an interesting topic that also relates to cyberbullying. 

Once you’ve found an exciting prompt to work on, check out our essay writing tips to ensure your essay will be understandable and impressively analytical.