People do not realize the lasting effect their words can have on others, especially those who are young.

Parents who degrade and talk down at their children every time they mess up often leave their children feeling unworthy and a failure. They feel as if nothing they do is ever enough, and try their hardest to please their parents in everything they do, though they never seem to succeed.

But the worst of all are children who bully each other, both online and in person, with results that can even end in suicide. Young kids do not know the power of the words they are using, and forget that the words they say can have an impact on who they are speaking to.

The best example I can provide is the movie Cyberbully (2011), in which Emily Osmet and Kay Panabaker star, which tells the story of a young girl who gets constantly cyberbullied to the point of attempted suicide by overdosing after posting a video online of her saying that she could no longer live with herself.

This movie hits close to home with most viewers, because seeing a beautiful, young girl with so much potential severely struggling with self-confidence and body image in any capacity is disheartening. Anyone with a younger brother or sister can attest to the fact that seeing them upset and mentally and emotionally beating themselves up can ignite your protectiveness as an older sibling. You want nothing more than for them to be able to see their goodness for themselves, and to see how successful they are with all their accomplishments, no matter how small.

Having gone through middle school myself at one point in my life, I know how easy it is for kids to get bullied, both in person and behind a screen. I have had friends who resorted to self-harm based on the things others said to them, because eventually they lost themselves and began to believe everything that everyone else was saying about them.

People, both young and old, do not realize the danger that foul words can have. Foul words can cause damage, so speak at your own risk, or else you might never know the negative affects you are having on someone else’s life. Avoid causing others distress by simply building people up, not constantly tearing them down, and maybe even save a life by intervening when you see it happening to others.