Introduction
Cybercrime is an issue about which all the countries in the world are too much concerned. Any activity or a criminal act which is done by using a computer or any other electronic device is called cybercrime. Practitioners and computer experts are always trying to control and investigate all the illegal activities that are being happened in the virtual world. All the countries differ in their economic and social patterns. Every country has its own culture and thus criminal activities, and its consequences and the reasons behind those criminal acts differ from country to country. There rises a question that ” What are the major causes of cybercrime and what steps the government should take to prevent from cybercrime?
Computers can be used as a basic tool to commit a crime. Data stored in the computers can be easily accessible by the hackers or criminals that are expert in the computer field (Paternoster, 2011). With the theft of this extensive data, various criminal activities can be done.
Discussion
Cybercrime is a name given to the crimes in which there is an involvement of internet, computers or any other electronic machines as a primary tool. Dispersion of viruses, fraud, hacking, theft are some of the crime that are used to be called as cybercrimes. On the other hand, cyberbullying refers to one particular online crime, bullying. It occurs when someone is bullied online by any other person (Ford, 2006). Although, as per the harassment laws we can say that cyberbullying is not different from cybercrime. But the fact is, it cannot be taken int the courts until unless it is considered to be a very serious issue.
So what is the difference between cybercrime and cyberbullying? Any illegal activity that happens online is known as cybercrime. Hacking, identity theft, identity fraud, illegally copying copyright material and different online scams are known as cybercrimes. Whereas, abusing or harassing someone or hurting someone emotionally online is called cyberbullying (Peter et al., 2006).
Cyberbullying and cybercrimes are very serious issues and s soon as they are discovered, its everyone’s responsibility to report them so that necessary action can be taken against these crimes. If we opt no tolerance policy against the crimes that are happening online, we can build a community that will be safe for everyone, i.e., in real life as well as in the digital world (Tapaswini, 2013). Although different countries are working on the implementation of the policies through which they can stop cyberbullying and cybercrimes, this has to be done quickly in the fast-moving world so that we can stop cyberbullying from converting into cybercrime.
Causes of cyberbullying
A comprehensive study shows that the bullies sitting online have their intentions and their motives. Basic reasons behind why they are doing bullying are power, retaliation, anonymity, jealousy, attention, the pleasure of pain and boredom.
Effects of cyberbullying
People from any age are affected by cyberbullying. You can feel devastating because of cyberbullying due to which you will feel embarrassed while going to the public. Especially for children, cyberbullying affects their daily routine life and make them a patient of stress. It lowers the self-esteem of the one who is being bullied. The person who is being bullied withdraws himself from going to the public and starts to spend most of the time alone.Cybercrimes/ cyberbullying is a negative thing, and serious actions should be taken against these so that no one becomes a victim of this anymore.
Conclusions
Cybercrime is an act of stealing assets, monetary or stealing information, in short anything that has some value over the internet. These type of crimes are done by the people who are experts in the computer field and can easily hack any computer or any system. Cyberbullying is an attempt at forcing the victim online so that he can develop the sense of inferiority in the way the other person is trying to do.
Works Cited
Das, Sumanjit, and Tapaswini Nayak. “Impact of cybercrime: issues and challenges.” International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Emerging Technologies 6.2 (2013): 142-153.
Gordon, Sarah, and Richard Ford. “On the definition and classification of cybercrime.” Journal in Computer Virology 2.1 (2006): 13-20.
Ngo, Fawn T., and Raymond Paternoster. “Cybercrime victimization: An examination of individual and situational level factors.” International Journal of Cyber Criminology 5.1 (2011): 773.
Smith, Peter K., et al. “An investigation into cyberbullying, its forms, awareness and impact, and the relationship between age and gender in cyberbullying.” Research Brief No. RBX03-06. London: DfES (2006).
