Cyber Bullying - Nazar and Chong Wei (childish matters)

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 aFacebook 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.

In this case the perpetrator and the target would both me Nazar and Chong Wei. Both of them committed the offense and both of them are the victim. Chong Wei started it all by provoking Nazar, but in my opinion Nazar is the one to blame in this because he produced false accusation to the public about Chong Wei. Chong Wei only sparked hatred on Nazar internally in school but Nazar spread the false accusations about Chong Wei to the public.

In my opinion Chong Wei have applied the act of 'Excluding' to Nazar in a form of cyber bullying. Chong Wei have pressured his peers to single out Nazar in order to leave him out or exclude him in society in school. Unfortunately, Nazar had used a worse form of cyber bullying against Chong Wei, which is 'Insulting'. Nazar have provided false accusations about Chong Wei abusing his ex-girlfriend. This could lead damaging his reputation or cause him to be condemned by the public. This can lead into misinterpretation in the public as well.

As a police officer, I would follow my instinct, and throw Nazar into jail instead of Chong Wei. Chong Wei's form of cyber bullying is intended to single out Nazar, but Nazar's form of cyber bullying is intended to insult or damage Chong Wei's reputation. However both cases should not go unnoticed, as both Nazar's and Chong Wei's parents should be informed about this occasion. I personally think this occurrence is just a childish matter and could be easily avoided.