In a world where a large portion of the population has mostly unfettered access to others through technological devices, the opportunity for people to be harassed and bullied has become more and more prevalent. Cyber bullying has been an issue with the internet since the early days of its conception and has become worse with the rise of social media and other communication applications. All you have to do is scroll through one of the popular social media apps and you will quickly run into some form of cyber bullying quickly. It is estimated that 1 of every 4 kids experiences some form of cyber bullying or harassment. Unfortunately, with lack of updated laws and continuity across states, it can be hard for victims of this type of harassment to avoid these interactions or receive proper justice.  

The issue of cyber harassment is the difficulty to pinpoint the perpetrator, avoid the perpetrator across all the forms of communication they can use to continue the behavior, and to get law enforcement to take any meaningful action to put a stop to the harassment. Social media companies in particular need far better options to protect users than the current “block” options available on most sites. Instagram and Meta have implemented new blocking features that allow you to block an account and in turn also block any new accounts created by their email addresses, which is a good start, but also is still an easy work around for a determined perpetrator. 

 Unfortunately, like individual cyber security itself, relies on the victim to take the most action to avoid the harassment. Users of these social type sites have to be careful of what they post and who they allow to access what they’re posting online, but still having any type of online presence allows for the possibility of cyber bullying/harassment/stalking.