Cyber Bullying- How

does it affect teenagers

and young adults?
By Erin Hopwood

Introduction
My Name is Erin Hopwood, I am a freelance researcher on Cyber Bullying
and I am creating a documentary for this subject. I will be researching how
cyber bullying is affected by young people across the UK. Once I have
gathered all of my primary and secondary research I will contact Channel 4
about this pitch. I will discuss with them about a time and show slot and a
date for airing my documentary. I chose Cyber Bullying as it is on the rise
and as technology is improving, more young people fall victim of this so I
wanted to make more people aware of cyber bullying and hopefully give a
message out to both victims and the culprits. I hope my documentary will
encourage teenagers and young people to speak out if they are suffering
from this and to get some help. The reason I am doing this is because now it
is on the rise I believe more teenagers should be made aware of what
Cyber Bullying consists of because quite frankly, too many young lives are
lost due to this and I would like to change that. I will set a budget of 40,000
for the whole documentary.

Why does bullying happen?

Bullying is happening all over the world and is on the rise in the UK.
Whereas bullying would be done in school, on the park, in the street etc. it
is now made a lot easier for people to reach using social media sites.
Many young people are now using sites such as Facebook, Twitter &
Instagram and these are all used to connect with others and sometimes,
not for the right reasons. Young people sometimes feel when it is online it is
not easy to escape this torture and so dont tell anyone but more
importantly do not understand the concept properly. I think young people
also find it easier to bully someone online because they can say what
they want or be who they want but sometimes online bullying is
anonymous so it could even be your closest friends. The victims get
blackmailed or threatened and so become scared to go out or to do
certain things and so it is a mental torture. People also feel that online they
can get away with doing these things because nobody can see them,
they bully people into believing they are not worth anything and so that is
why so many lives are lost.

Statistics
25 percent of teenagers report that they have experienced
repeated bullying via their cell phone or on the internet.
Over half (52 percent) off young people report being cyber bullied.
Embarrassing or damaging photographs taken without the
knowledge or consent of the subject has been reported by 11
percent of adolescents and teens.
Of the young people who reported cyber bullying incidents against
them, one-third (33 percent) of them reported that their bullies
issued online threats.
Cyberbullying found to have catastrophic effects upon the selfesteem and social lives of up to 70% of young people.
An estimated 5.43 million young people in the UK have experienced
cyberbullying, with 1.26 million subjected to extreme cyberbullying
on a daily basis.

Primary Sources
A primary source is when information you use has already
been collected or gathered by the user.
Ways to collect this information is by doing questionnaires.
Questionnaires are a good source for this as it is sent
directly to the audience and so you can get a clear
focused answer from them and get real data.
Interviews are also a good way, if not the best way to
conduct this as you can get long and detailed answers
from the person you are interviewing because it would be
a one to one and they can explain their answers properly.

Secondary Research
Secondary research is where information has previously been
collected and broadcasted. Sources you can use to find this
type of research is in Magazines, Books, Television, Online and
so on. The advantage to this is that you will save a lot more
time to get the information than researching it all by yourself.
The downside is that information you see and statistics for
example 20,000 teenagers died last year from Cyber Bullying
may not be a correct fact and so you have to check and be
sure that the information you are to present to the audience is
all from a reliable source. For this subject however, I would use
reputable pages such as NSPCC and other Cyber bully support
sites.

Research Techniques
I used two types of research to gather my information. One of these
was Quantitive Research and this can be done in the forms of
surveys, questionnaires, readership circulation figures and
programme ratings. This is a way to collect peoples opinions and
views on different things so in my case, Cyber Bullying. This tends to
be labelled as primary research to quantitive research. Qualitive
research is market research so forms of research that would come
under this category would be interviews, phone calls, emails, videos
and notes.

Who is to blame?
Personally I think that those to blame are the ones who perform this
kind of act on others. It however, has been made much more easier
for people to target others now that technology is becoming so
advanced. With Facebook being one of the most popular social
networking sites people as young as 13 can use it. This whilst being
fun and an easy way to connect with friends and family can also be
a horror for those who get bullied online. Because it isnt face to
face people find it easier to say hurtful things to others and can
pressurize people into things they dont want to do. Whilst bullying
has been around for years I definitely believe and statistics show me
that since social media has been around cyber bullying has
occurred, increasing the amount of young people to commit
suicide. So if anyone is to blame it is online social networking sites,
they should have stricter rules for those using them and should be
checked regularly for bullying.

Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato is an American singer/songwriter and is known
worldwide for her music. As a young adult and once starring in
the Disney Channel show Sonny with a chance she is known
well by young people. She has suffered cyber bullying herself
and bullying when she was younger and she plays her part in
raising awareness for this through videos she shares online. She
explained her experience from Cyber Bullying and said how
everyone should get help. I think this would be great influence
on those watching it especially young teenage girls as she is
seen as a role model to most. I think her video will help
persuade young people that they should seek help if they are
falling victim to this. It may also make those pursuing the cyber
bullying think twice about what they are doing and hopefully
stop.

Qualitive and Quantitive

There are two types of research and these are quantitive
and qualitive. Qualitive research is the equivalent to
primary research, the aim and the purpose being to
underlie reasons and opinions, in addition to gaining
insight into the publics opinions. Quantitive research
however is used to quantify opinions and behaviours; all of
these can be transformed into different kinds of statistics.
Examples of these include; face to face interviews, surveys
and questionnaires, email surveys, and also online polls.

Survey Statistics
Statistics show the amount and rate of certain things so cyber bullying
will show how many people or the percentage of people to suffer from
this this year.

Program Structure
Intro
What is cyber bullying?
Case study
Break
The effects of cyber bullying
Why is cyber bullying increasing?
Break
Case study
Interview with Demi Lovato
Break
Who is to blame?
What can be done to reduce cyber bullying?
Credits

Budget

Talent Demi Lovato = 14,000

Staff = 4,000
Set = 1,400 (28 day duration)
Location I will choose public locations to film interviews and
questionnaires, therefore free or minimal cost
Editing suites = 1,000
Camera hire (5) = 9,000
Snacks = 300
Permission and copyright fees = 450
Man with a van (2 week production) = 500
Interviewer = (Erin Hopwood) 2,000

Channel 4
Channel 4 is a UK based television channel, which was
established in 1982. Despite being self funded, it can to an
extent be publically owned. C4 is operated by the Channel 4
television corporation, which first arose in 1993, as a public
body. They are well known for their 4 on demand website, and
sister channels More4, E4, Film4 and 4Music. Their television
shows are usually based around the subjects of political issues,
ethical, social and racial issues they air series based on real
life problems, and is the perfect platform for my program
about cyber bullying because this is a topical issue, and
relatable for many. Channel 4 has recently lost viewers, as
statistics show the decline in the viewing shares. I feel however,
that airing my documentary will enable Channel 4 to reach
higher viewing figures, providing my show is a success.

Conclusion
After reviewing all of my research methods and data, I
hope you have gained a higher understanding of cyber
bullying and what it really is. I hope that after seeing the
statistics within my presentation, you will consider the
seriousness of this matter, and its widespread effects. We
are currently living in a social epidemic of cyber bullying,
and if more awareness isnt raised, this issue will fail to be
resolved, only growing as a result. In conclusion, I hope
that I can raise awareness amongst teenagers of cyber
bullying, and persuade them to seek help. Thank you for
listening.