The 4 Major Causes Of Cyberbullying In Grades K-8

 

As we come close to wrapping up 2023 (just another two weeks away), the Cyber pundits are already making their predictions of what the top Cyber trends and threats will be for next year.  When the time comes closer, I will write about it.  But, there is one thing for sure:  AI will still most likely dominate the news headlines, and especially its impacts on Cybersecurity.

As I have written about before, AI does bring its strategic advantages to the table, as well as its shortcomings.  The biggest one here is that it can be turned around 180 degrees, and used for nefarious purposes.  A good example of this is when a Cyberattacker uses ChatGPT to create some kind of malicious script that can be inserted through a backdoor of a web application.

But yet, there is another horrible aspect to it:  Cyberbullying.  Of course the traditional bullying has existed for who knows how long, but the digital aspect of it didn’t really fully escalate until when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

It’s now called Cyberbullying, and it can happen across age groups, all walks of life, and really just about anywhere else where you can get an Internet connection, and log into somewhere.

But unfortunately, it seems like that it is our youngsters in school now are a primary target, along with their teachers and supervisors.  In fact, back in 2022, it was documented that there were over 1,436 instances of reported Cyberbullying cases across the United States public school systems.  (SOURCE:  https://www.sophos.com/en-us/press/press-releases/2023/07/the-state-of-ransomware-in-education).

So you might be asking why are the schools and these innocent kids so heavily targeted?  Here are some key thoughts:

*The IT and Network Infrastructures of our nation’s schools is totally outdated and archaic.  Yes, the kids may have their smartphones with them, but the underlying  technological process to keep the kids safe and deliver them a high-quality education is severely lacking.  Because of this, there are many backdoors that are present, thus allowing the Cyberattacker to penetrate into, and launch their reign of terror.

*The lack of transparency.  Schools by law are required to all key parties of any security breaches that have occurred, even including Cyberbullying ones.  But the schools are often reluctant to do this, so they often hire an outside third party to disclose all of this information to the public.  Thus in the end, the people (who are the parents) often told last and given the least amount of information.

*The Cyberattacker is becoming much more sophisticated.  As stated earlier in this blog, given the advent growth of AI, it is now far easier for a Cyberattacker to imitate real life people using Deepfakes, and even launch extremely convincing Social Engineering attacks as well.

*Children are doused with technology.  When I was a kid, I was lucky even to get a remote-controlled car that I always wanted.  Smartphones were not even conceived back then.  Heck, Google didn’t even exist either.  To do any research, we had to go to the brick-and-mortar library, and use the good old-fashioned encyclopedias.  But now, it seems like that kids have everything that is technology related, and worst yet, they are all interconnected with one another, which makes Cyberbullying even easier to do against them.

My Thoughts On This:

Of course, Cyberbullying is much more complex than this.  But when it comes to kids, this nation’s most precious asset, parents have to really law down the law when it comes to using and possessing electronic devices, such as Smartphones.  But you can’t tell people what to do, it all differs with parenting style.  But IMHO, kids should not even be given Smartphones until they hit college level age. 

Cyberbullying is a topic that not only I am not just passionate about, but take very seriously.  Over the course of this year, I have written numerous blogs and newsletters about it.  Heck, I even have a book I will be writing about next year (the contact for this has been signed).  So stay tuned for this content, and learn how not to become a victim of Cyberbullying!!!