Cyberbullying Case Study

What follows is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people, places or situations is purely coincidental.

Nazar, a Grade 9 student, transferred to a new school halfway through the semester. He had trouble making friends until he discovered the school’s Facebook network. Most of the other students on Facebook responded to his “friend” requests and he soon began to feel more included, and made friends with some of them at school as well.

After a while, though, Nazar noticed that his friends list was shrinking as people removed him from their friends lists. He was puzzled by this at first until one of his offline friends told him that Chong Wei, a Grade 11 student, had gotten angry at Nazar because he had seen Nazar talking to Linda, Chong Wei’s ex-girlfriend. Chong Wei had begun to pressure everyone he knew to remove Nazar and Linda from their friends lists on Facebook, and to ignore them at school as well.

One afternoon in the Library, Nazar got more and more angry at Chong Wei and his friends. Since he had finished his work for the period, he decided to start a Facebook group called “Why I Hate Chong Wei,” and he invited everyone still on his friends list to join it. It turned out that there were quite a few people at the school who did not like Chong Wei and his friends, and Nazar’s group grew quickly. Whenever the message traffic on the group slowed, Nazar would try to boost it by posting some shocking accusation about Chong Wei, such as suggesting that he had cheated on Linda or that he had hit her when they were dating (Linda was not involved in the group, and had never said any such thing).

Soon other members of the group started to make their own accusations and suggestions about Chong Wei, some even saying that Chong Wei should have water balloons thrown at him when he went up the main stairway. Nazar responded to that suggestion, saying rocks should be thrown instead.

After a few weeks, one of Chong Wei’s friends discovered the group and reported it to him. Chong Wei told his parents and they decided to report it to the principal and keep him out of school until things had been worked out, as well as to report what Nazar had done to the police.

The acts of cyberbullying in this case are
- pressuring people to "unfriend" and isolate someone
- starting a "group" to promote hate against someone
- making up rumours about someone
- suggesting hurting someone

I think that b0th of them were the perpetrator and the target at some point. In the beginning when Nazar was the target; Chong Wei was the perpetrator. But at the end, Chong Wei became the target and Nazar became the perpetrator. I think this shows that some situations can cause people to act a certain way all to defend themselves or get back at someone. In the beginning, I do not think that Nazar had any intention of hurting Chong Wei, but because Chong Wei was asking people to isolate Nazar, he had to do something about it. But, Nazar is also in the wrong for making up false stories about Chong Wei. I think that if I were in Nazar's position, I would definitely find another way to get Chong Wei's attention, instead of creating rumours I would try to talk to him about it, or maybe even talk to his friends about it. This way I would not be doing anything wrong. I do think that what Chong Wei did was cyberbullying as well. If I were Chong Wei, I would probably accuse Nazar of attempting to hurt me and cause me harm. If I were Chong Wei's parents, I would take advantage of the 'group' that Nazar created against Chong Wei and say that he is the victim. If I were a teacher finding out about this case, I would tell both Chong Wei and Nazar to stop hating each other. I do not think the police should be too involved but if they had to be, they should just give both of them a warning.

Although I do not personally think that there is or will be any cyberbullying in Nexus, I still have to consider what would be done if it were to happen. I think that everyone will be very supportive of the right thing to do.