essay 4 rough draft

Jackson Barackman

RWS 200

Christopher Werry

May 13, 2015

Incivility is Only Abuse

With such a growing population and the growing demand for technology there is bound to arise issues, such as online incivility. Online incivility can be seen as freedom of speech from a positive stance, or as an abusive way to attack others without having to be face to face. Many of the younger generations may have used or heard of the word “troll”, a common term for a person trying to invoke a negative response out of a person or community. A “troll” can commonly be found on social Medias, online article, or blogs. It is the easiest way to bully someone and not feel guilty. “Chloe Madeley, the Daughter of television presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, … was trolled after she defended her mother’s remarks about the convicted rapist Ched Evans.” (Watt 1) In this essay I will be explaining the growing issue of the incivility “trolling” and what may be a possible solution to stop the outrageous acts of harm it causes.

According to a study conducted by the US Cyberbullying Research Center, as mentioned by Alexandra Gheorghe “52% [of] US students and 33% [of] teens admitted to have been cyberbullied…”, this shows the high amount of “trolling” incidents that become bullying. With such high numbers you would think that the government would want to prevent this from happening. Schools try to prevent it on campus, but can do little to prevent it on social media. Having been victim to bullying, I would want someone to step in and prevent these situations because it is hard to confront the attacker or even higher authority to stop such cruel behavior. Gheorghe, author of “What’s ‘Internet Trolling’ And How Can It Affect You?” then states that there are ways of preventing these situations. Gheorghe says to report the attacker, change passwords frequently, deactivate or delete social media, ignore comments, or at worst cases contact authorities. Why would contacting authorities not be the first on this list? Cyber bulling should not be tolerated and there should be laws placed to prevent such situations.

In an article by Nicholas Watt, “Internet trolls face four times longer in jail, chris grayling pledges” , Watt discusses the justice secretary’s plan to imprison online abusers for six months to two years. The six month plan would be extended to two years sentence for online abuse. Grayling says

These internet trolls are cowards who are poisoning our national life. No one would permit such venom in person, so there should be no place for it on social media. That is why we are determined to quadruple the six-month sentence.

Having agreed with Grayling’s statement, the best possible answer for a crime that damages many youths into their adulthood should be a jail sentence. Some may argue that the trolling is a sign of “freedom of speech”, however in America it isn’t legal to threaten the life of the President, so why should we make it legal for anyones life to be threatened. Do we not all have equal rights? Are we not all governed by the same laws? There is no room for a threat towards anyone and the problem should be dealt with immediately to protect everyone.

    Effect on the teenage mind-

    conclusioin-