CyberBullying

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Cyber-Bullying

• Matthew Younis
• EIST 5100
• July 22, 2008

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Table of Contents

• What Is Cyber-Bullying
• Cyber-Bullying
• Statistics
• Closer Look
• Important to Note
• Part of Life
• Places it Happens
• To the Masses
• Example
• Play Ground Bullies
• Why is it Different?
• Not Your Dads Bully
• Who Are You?

• Tips
• More Tips
• Signs
• Advice to Give Kids
• Government Help?
• How Do We Deal With it
• How Do We Deal With it (cont)
• How Do We Deal With it (cont)
• Activity
• Helpful Sites
• Brief Citations
• The End

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What is Cyber-Bullying?

• It is not defined by Webster-Merriam
• Seems to show that is new phenomenon
• Cyber of, relating to, or involving computers or
  computer networks (as the Internet)
• Bullying to treat abusively to affect by means
  of force or coercion.

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Cyber-Bullying

• Explained in an encyclopedia as
• Cyber-bullying occurs when a child, preteen or
  teenager is bullied, harassed, humiliated,
  threatened, embarrassed, or targeted in someway
  by another child, preteen or teenager through the
  use of internet, cell phones and other forms of
  digital technology In order for it to be
  cyber-bullying, the intent must be to cause
  emotional distress, and there must be no
  legitimate purpose to the communication.
• Leaves out adults Can effect adults too.

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Statistics

• 13 million children in the USA between the ages
  of 6-17, are victims of cyber- bullying.
• 33 of 12-17 year olds claim to have been a
  victim at sometime.
• 17 of 6-11 year olds claim to have been a
  victim at sometime.
• (From) Fight Crime Invest in Kids

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Closer Look

• September 06 ABC News produced a survey (by
  I-Safe.Org) of 2004 survey of 1,500 students
  between grades 4-8. The results were as followed
• 42 percent of kids have been bullied while
  online.
• One in four have had it happen more than once
• 35 percent of kids have been threatened online.
• Nearly one in five had had it happen more than
  once.
• 21 percent of kids have received mean or
  threatening e-mails or other messages.
• 58 percent of kids admit someone has said mean or
  hurtful things to them online. More than four out
  of ten say it has happened more than once.
• 58 percent have not told their parents or an
  adult about something mean or hurtful that
  happened to them online.

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Important to Note

• Looking at early explanation of cyber-bullying
  it is not limited to internet use, but is used on
  cell phones.

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Part of Life

• Internet more and more part of everyday life.
• 93 of United States teens use the internet.
• 61 use it daily.
• These cites are not only more central to their
  everyday life, but more public.

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Places it Happens

• Internet
• MySpace
• Email
• Instant Message
• YouTube
• Others?

• Cell Phones
• Text Messaging
• Pictures Sent

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To the Masses

• The Internet and Cell phones make it easy to send
  things to large groups at once. Causing a normal
  embarrassing moment caught by one person to be
  photographed or filmed and sent to numerous
  people at once.

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Example

• Star Wars Kid 2002 a slightly overweight,
  kind of awkward teen makes a video of himself
  pretending to be fighting with a light sabre.
  Somebody got a hold of the video and posted it
  online as a joke. As it got around the school he
  became so upset he checked into a psychiatric
  ward. The video was not only seen by just a few
  people, it some how made its way to YouTube and
  (according to one source) it was the most
  downloaded video of 2006.

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Play Ground Bullies

• Play Ground bullying ended when you went back
  inside after recess or at least when you went
  home.
• You know who was ridiculing you and you may be
  able to something about it.

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Why is it Different?

• Many students feel cyber-bullying is worse then
  physically being bullied.
• One reason is the number of people who can see it
  (Like Star Wars Kid).
• Bullying is hard to avoid because kids these days
  live in world that the internet and cell phones
  are a necessity.
• No Refuge It can go on and on 24 hours a day,
  365 days a year.

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Not Your Dads Bully

• Students remain anonymous when on line by using
  pseudonyms.
• This lack of face to face contact makes it easier
  for bullies to be more cruel.
• Students who normally would not be involved get
  involved in cyber-bullying.
• Students go to extremes
• Students feel that it not really them doing this
  when in cyberspace.

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Who Are You?

• Nearly half of children say they dont know who
  their cyber-bully was/is.
• This is very difficult on bullied kids
  psychologically.
• It could be a friend, sibling, or anybody else.

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Tips

• Teach kids to tell adult
• School should have a anti-bullying program
• Schools should work with local law enforcement
• Parents should discuss cyber-bullying with their
  children
• Keep computers in a common area of the home

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More Tips

• Save any evidence posted by bullies
• Remind kids of privacy rules Dont use full
  name, passwords, address ext.
• File a compliant with internet or phone service
  provider. It is often a violation of the
  companies terms and use policies.
• Keep tabs Use parental controls provided by
  internet service, check out their MySpace
  accounts, Google your childs name, address to
  see if anything negative pops up.

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Signs

• Parents need to look for signs
• Nightmares
• Suddenly not wanting to go to school
• Acting sad or withdrawn
• Suddenly showing disinterest in computers

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Advice to Give to Kids

• Dont respond
• If messages continue, take a break and reply
  telling the person to stop,
• Block or filter all further messages,
• If necessary, change email address, phone number,
  passwords ext.

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Government Help?

• January 2006 Congress passed a law making it a
  federal crime to annoy, abuse, threaten or
  harass another person over the internet.
• Many states have enacted similar legislation.
• Often, the police dont have time to investigate,
  they are dealing with real crime.
• Jurisdictions dont want to prosecute (Time, )

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How Do We Deal With it as Teachers and
Administrators?

• Educate your students, teachers, and other staff
  members about cyber bullying, its dangers, and
  what to do if someone is cyber-bullied.
• Be sure that your schools anti-bullying rules
  and policies address cyber bullying.
• Closely monitor students use of computers at
  school.
• Use filtering and tracking software on all
  computers, but dont rely solely on this software
  to screen out cyber bullying and other
  problematic on-line behavior.

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How Do We Deal With it as Teachers and
Administrators (cont)?

• Investigate reports of cyber bullying
  immediately. If cyber bullying occurs through the
  school districts Internet system, you are
  obligated to take action. If the cyber bullying
  occurs off-campus, consider what actions you
  might take to help address the bullying
• Notify parents of victims and parents of
  cyber-bullies of known or suspected cyber
  bullying.
• Notify the police if the known or suspected cyber
  bullying involves a threat.
• Closely monitor the behavior of the affected
  students at school for possible bullying.
• Talk with all students about the harms caused by
  cyber bullying. Remember cyber bullying that
  occurs off-campus can travel like wildfire among
  your students and can affect how they behave and
  relate to each other at school.

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How Do We Deal With it as Teachers and
Administrators (cont)?

• Investigate to see if the victim(s) of cyber
  bullying could use some support from a school
  counselor or school-based mental health
  professional.
• Contact the police immediately if known or
  suspected cyber bullying involves acts such as
• Threats of violence
• Extortion
• Obscene or harassing phone calls or text messages
  
• Harassment, stalking, or hate crimes
• Child pornography

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Activity

• The address below is a case study that deals with
  a child who is dealing with a cyber-bullying
  situation.
• http//www.bamaed.ua.edu/edtechcases/case5.html

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Helpful Sites

• Adina's Deck- Cyber Bullying DVD Teacher's
  Guide created by Master's Student at Stanford
  University
• WiredSafety - Help, Information and Education to
  Internet Users of all ages.
• Teenangels - Group of 13-18 year-old volunteers
  trained by the local law enforcement.
• Cyberbully411
• Cyberbullying Research and Response
• BullyDB.com Online CyberBully database, check and
  report CyberBullies
• StopCyberBullying.Org
• ISafe.Org

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Brief Citations

• http//stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/adult/indexAdult.a
  sp?Areacyberbullying
• http//www.bamaed.ua.edu/edtechcases/case5.html
• http//www.reference.com/search?r13qCyber20Bul
  lying
• http//www.fightcrime.org/
• The Rise of Cyberbullying, by Phil McKenna
• Cyber-bullying What It Is and How to Prevent It,
  by Laura Johnson Hummel

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The End

• Other suggestions
• Questions