The word bullying pertains to any extent of belligerent and unfriendly behaviour, which is typically an intentional and voluntary act to harm someone mentally, emotionally, or physically. In bullying, the involved parties are the bully, victims, and bystanders. As the human race goes further into research and invention, we have developed a common engine or technology for sharing, evolving, and creating information via the Internet. But there are certain things that are unpleasant about the use of the internet. Cyberbullying, cyberharassment, and cybercrimes encompass social online barbarity, which is expressing a voluntary aggressive act that is carried out by an individual or group of individuals against a victim. A victim could be bullied repeatedly over a long period of time via social media platforms. There could be a worse aftermath of cyberbullying, cyberharassment, and cyberstalking. In this essay, we will take a profound view of cyberbullying and its emotional, physical, and psychological aftermath for children, teenagers, and adults. We will also learn and comprehend the steps that can be taken to prevent cyberbullying.

What is Cyberbullying

Bullying has done a significant amount of damage to one’s mind and body. Bullying comes in various forms to dominate the idea of superiority and hooliganism in many aspects of society. Nowadays, one of the most prevalent crimes with fatal consequences is cyberbullying.
According to psychology, there are many reasons why some people bully others. Some do it for power or to feel superior. Others do this because they are insecure or have low self-esteem, and others bully others because they have been bullied somewhere in the past (Bullying Psychology, Sadiq 2023). Cyberbullying has taken many lives and broken many individuals psychologically and emotionally. It is very common among pre-teens, teenagers, and children to indulge in social media and refer to the act of cyberbullying. Remember that anyone of any age, race,caste, or creed can be a victim of cyberbullying. When one is threatened, embarrassed, humiliated, or harassed by digital and interactive technologies, the internet, or mobile phones, their life is threatened with impediments in daily work, and it is tailored to give birth to less productivity and impoverishment. Cyberbullying can take different forms to harm the victim, which may include one or a number of the following acts:

Cyberbullying involves sending unguarded, private, or sexual information to harass, harm, and embarrass the victim via any form of Social Media platform.

Example, sharing child pornography with or without your permission to harass you mentally; sharing sensitive information about someone you know to grasp you into their web of crime, sharing private moments or videos that have been taken without your consent to embarrass or threaten you with sharing them in public.
• Cyberbullies can create an online or duplicate identity similar to the victim’s, and they can hack or steal their account and social credentials and impersonate the victim’s account for their benefit or to create malice. They use these accounts to do things that are meant to damage the victim’s identity and reputation.
• Cyberbullies who are experts in technology and hacking the system can damage or harass victims directly by sending email, text, SMS, instant messages, or MMS. They can import viruses and malware through link messages to hack their system for money or personal information. They can also post fake rumors about the victim on social media.
• Among teenagers who are in high schools and colleges, cyberbullying can be present via making fun of, teasing someone, and defamation in social media groups. It can be present as making memes about the victims by using their pictures or private moments to humiliate them in school and college with revenge p o r n or memes. Cyberbullying can be more pervasive than traditional bullying. While traditional bullying is generally limited to school and home as a reprieve, victims of cyberbullying can be reached anywhere at any time, and the potential audience is huge. This is compounded by the fact that there is a lack of supervision. With traditional bullying, teachers are regarded as enforcers. With cyberbullying, there is no clear authority (NLM, Erin Peebles).
In recent years, cyberbullying has become so prevalent, dilute in nature, and an honor crime for several reasons. One of the reasons is that cyberbullying usually remains anonymous and incognito with their information. And it has become easy to be cyberbully without the risk of getting caught by officials.

Effects of Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying has serious consequences for both the bully and the person who is being bullied. It has a tremendous fatal outcome, which can affect everyone who is using technology engines, the Internet, and social media for their personal and other work. It creates an imbalance, an insurgency of crime, and fearin public. If we talk about psychological, physical, and mental health issues caused by the effects of cyberbullying, a person who got bullied has shame or fear of facing humiliation in public because of private, sensitive, or rumored information shared by cyberbullies. It can create low self-esteem in the victim, a surge in acts of self-sabotage, homicide, or getting into bad habits such as alcohol drinking to overcome fear or avoid reality. Therefore, continuous dilemmas lead to social anxiety, depression, and mental health disorders. Jumping into another consequence of cyberbullying is that the victim begins to terrorize by interacting with the public. The victim starts to avoid their friends and many vital activities as they start seeing other people as enemies, especially in cases where the victim does not know who the bully is. This entails an enormous amount of mental and emotional damage. If we take a profound look at understanding physical damage, The persistent stress fed by cyberbullying interferes with multiple hormonenormal functions in our body. The long exposure to cyberbullying gives birth to phobias associated with facing the public, insomnia, and poor performance at work. The following victim got into a state of fear and anxiety for a long time. Eventually, it leads to an increase in cortisol level and blood pressure in the body. According to medical science, the stressors and concerns we talked about lead to many physical diseases and disorders.

What is the present condition of cyber bullying?

We’re currently on the edge of a cyberbullying pandemic. Over 60% of children and 40% of adults have been targeted by cyberbullies (Josh Howarth, 2023). And, if you look at the news, trends, and registered and unregistered cases, those numbers are likely to keep going up in the future.Today, bullies can reach their targets 24/7 through social media platforms, text messaging, fraudulent. notifications, email, and online gaming. If we talk about India, the present condition of cyberbullying is worse in our country. There has been a rapid increase in the number of cyberbullying cases in India. The McAfee report titled ‘Cyberbullying in Plain Sight’ revealed that 85 percent of surveyed children in India (ages 10 to 18) have been victims of cyberbullying, the highest in the world. The survey also found that three out of four children in India have engaged in cyberbullying. According to Child Rights and You (CRY), one in three adults is bullied every day. Most of them are between 13 and 18 years old. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, there has been a 36% increase in cyberbullying and cyberstalking in India.

How to stop cyber bullying:

Cyberbullying can be stopped through different measures. Given the flexibility, compatibility, and accessibility of technology and the Internet today,.
Although we can’t fully vanquish cyberbullying crimes, there are many ways to decrease the insurgency of cybercrime.
The Indian government has authorized IPC and IT technology laws through which we can file a complaint against cyberbullying.

The Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act are mentioned in the following points:

Section 499 of the IPC defines defamation; Section 292A defines printing matter intended to blackmail; Section 354A describes sexual harassment; Section 354D defines stalking; and Section 509 defines any word or act intended to insult a woman. Breaching any of the following penal codes leads to punishment with imprisonment, a fine, or both.

The IT Amendment Act also gives remedies for cyberbullying. Section 66A of the Information Technology Act defines punishment for a person for sending an offensive message through a communicating device. Section 66E provides punishments for invading privacy. Section 67 provides punishment for publishing any obscene picture. Secondly, to save oneself or loved ones from cyberbullying. Parents must build a warm connection and have open communication with their children. Parents and their children should interact daily about their day and the environment at work and school. It can create good feedback and a delightful connection. Children should not keep quiet about the problems they face in their schools from bullies
So that it won’t turn into cyberbullying or take any other form of it. Children should not respond to messages or texts from bullies. In addition, they should not read them or engage in any challenging activity, as this would encourage their cyberbully to continue with his or her threat, manipulation, or gaslighting. If text or messages are from instant messages or through a chat system, the victim should block the bully instantly, as it would not feed the cyberbully more hate and crime. Lastly, in any case, if a child or person is threatened with death, violence, or harm, It is crucial to inform the local police or cyber police so that action can be taken. early enough before it becomes too late.

Conclusion
In conclusion, cyberbullying has become an expanding pandemic, and it has menacing consequences for individuals. It interferes with someone’s ability to work, think, and form hurdles in the way they perceive society. One individual can’t vanquish the dilemma completely. But awareness, precautions, and building a warm connection with people who support you can make society stronger and more prejudice-free. Therefore, this will lead to a decrease in incidents of cyberbullying or any other kind of harm to victims. We must keep in mind that we use technology responsibly. School and college management should have measures to prevent and identify cyber crimes in their institutions. There should be a campaign run by the government to educate and make every citizen aware of cyberbullying. A good example can be taken from the “Swachh Bharat Mission,” launched by the Indian government on October 2, 2014. Newspapers, TV news channels, and social media. platforms like Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram should take precautionary measures to prevent cyberbullying and cybercrimes.