Cyberbullying 

What is cyberbullying?

With the development of technology, the internet has become an indispensable part of people's lives. This internet, on the other hand, has provided many innovations and benefits, as well as made radical changes in our lives. However, in addition to these innovations, the unconscious and abusive use of the internet and social media has threatened people. With the development of communication technology, communication between people has moved to the virtual world. Social sharing networks in this virtual environment are spread all over the world. With this virtual communication, people can now meet each other, communicate and discuss certain issues. This method of communication has brought dangers and threats with it over time.

One of the most important dangers brought by communication technologies is "cyberbullying." The definition of cyberbullying is: "Shameful rude behavior, abusive speech, hostile online messaging against others, threats, harassment, negative comments, and unauthorized photo sharing is the deliberate perpetration through any social network." 1Briefly; "the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature." 2 These actions performed in the internet environment are defined as "electronic bullying", "virtual bullying" or "cyberbullying". The most commonly used of these words is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying covers all of the posts that can harm any user. For this reason, it is one of the most common social problems of our day. Undoubtedly, children and young people are the most affected by this bullying. The main reason why children are most affected by cyberbullying is the fact that the behavior of people on social media is different from real life. Users have their own virtual identities created on the internet. Because in this environment, they can express their feelings and thoughts without fear of recognition and without hesitation. Therefore, people in the virtual environment; post many gossip, threats, and inappropriate content. Those who commit these actions are called "cyberbullies", while those affected by these actions are called "cyber victims". People who are subjected to this cyberbullying suffer great psychological harm. The most common forms of this bullying that cause people to be deeply affected are; harassment, sharing personal information, threats, fraud, and gossip.

It is necessary to be conscious of the use of the internet in order to be protected from this cyber bullying that can happen to everyone today. If this is conscious use; Making our passwords difficult, not accepting messages from people we do not know, not sharing our personal information with others, using antivirus software, and being skeptical while browsing the web environment. Apart from these measures, the most important thing we need to know is that cyberbullying is a crime. Someone who is subjected to cyberbullying can seek his rights through legal means. The victim has the right to file a criminal complaint and initiate legal proceedings against the cyberbully. If they see a profile containing cyberbullying in a social media application, the user can report these profiles.

Finally, the main conclusion from this research on the subject of cyberbullying; is that we can be cyberbullied at any time. We, the new generation of young people, were born and raised in this technology. For this reason, cyberbullying has now become a normal situation for us. However, it is completely wrong for us to normalize such a great crime affecting human psychology. Providing mitigating reasons for this crime will not make the victims feel better. We know that in any post or photo we post on the Internet people can hurt us with their words. Apart from this, most of our personal information is stored on our phones, computers, and applications, and we must oppose people who threaten us with information arising from this information or collected from our social media posts. Failure to impose any sanctions on people who commit cyberbullying will cause the number of these people to increase on the internet. Therefore, we must be aware of how to deal with it and know our rights. I think we need to educate children especially well on this issue. This is because most people don't know how to deal with cyberbullies right now. However, if we can teach children to use the internet consciously from the moment they start using the internet, at least in the future, these problems may be experienced less.