PARENT CONNECTION

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PARENT CONNECTION
25 May 2007
TOPIC CYBER BULLYING Dawn Rood CYS
Functional Technology Specialist
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DEFINITION OF CYBER BULLYING
Cyber bullying is being cruel to others by
sending or posting harmful material or engaging
in other forms of social aggression using the
Internet or other digital technologies
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CYBER BULLIES Technology

• e-mail
• blogging
• cell phone text
• cell phone images
• chat rooms and instant messages
• internet connected video game systems
• social networking sites

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• Forms of Cyber Bullying
• Flaming
• Harassment
• Denigration
• Impersonation
• Outing
• Trickery
• Exclusion

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• FLAMING
• Online fights using electronic messages with
  angry and vulgar language
• Example Joe and Alecs online exchange got
  angrier and angrier. Insults were flying. Joe
  warned Alec to watch his back in school the next
  day.

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• HARASSMENT
• Repeatedly sending nasty, mean and insulting
  messages
• Example Sara reported to the principal that
  Kayla was bullying another student. When Sara
  got home, she had 35 angry e-mail messages. The
  anonymous cruel messages kept coming, some from
  complete strangers.

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• DENEGRATION
• Dissing someone online. Sending or posting
  gossip or rumors about a person to damage his/her
  reputation or friendships.
• Example Some boys created a We hate Joe
  website where they posted jokes, cartoons, gossip
  and rumors, all dissing Joe.

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• IMPERSONATION
• Pretending to be someone else and sending or
  posting material in order to get that person in
  trouble or danger.
• Example Laura watched closely as Emma logged on
  to her account and discovered her password.
  Later Laura logged on to Emmas account and sent
  a hurtful message to Emmas boyfriend, Adam.

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• OUTING
• Sharing someones secrets or embarrassing
  information or images online.
• Example Greg, an overweight high school
  student, was changing in the locker room after
  gym class. Matt took a picture of him with his
  cell phone camera. Within seconds the picture
  was flying around the phones at school.

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• TRICKERY
• Talking someone into revealing secrets or
  embarrassing information, then sharing it online.
• Example Katie sent a message to Jessica
  pretending to be her friend and asking a lot of
  questions. Jessica responded , sharing really
  personal information. Katie forwarded the
  messages to lots of other people adding her own
  comment, Jessica is a loser.

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• EXCLUSION
• Intentionally and cruelly excluding someone from
  an online group.
• Example Millie tries hard to fit in with a
  group of girls at school. She recently got on
  the outs with a leader in the group. Now
  Millie has been blocked from the friendship links
  of all the girls.

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Signs of Cyber Bullying

• Unusually long hours on the computer
• Closes windows (computer version) when you
  enter room
• Secretive about internet activity
• Getting behind in school work
• Lack of appetite
• Stomach ache
• Fear

Individually these items are not a sure
indication of being bullied, but several taken
together are cause to open a discussion
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• CYBER BULLYING STATISTICS from I-Safe.org
• 42 of kids have been bullied while online.
  One in four have had it happen more than once.
• 35 of kids have been threatened while online.
  Nearly one in five have had it happen more than
  once.
• 21 of kids have received mean or threatening
  e-mail or other messages
• 58 of kids admit someone has said mean or
  hurtful things to them while online. More than
  four out of 10 say it has happened more than
  once.
• 58 have not told their parents or an adult
  about something mean or hurtful that has happened
  to them online.

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• Youth Solutions
• Do not respond to/engage in the abuse. No back
  and forth
• Talk to someone about it. Dont keep it to
  yourself. Ignoring bullying only leads to its
  escalation.
• Keep records/print off messages if possible, to
  help identify the bully.
• Be careful about posting personal information

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• Parent Solutions
• Make the topic a TALKABLE subject
• Place and keep the computer in an open, common
  space
• Inform Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Cell
  Phone Service Provider of the abuse
• Do not erase messages, keep for evidence
• Software help such as McAfee Parental Controls
  Filter as an example
• Chat software parental controls
• STAY INVOLVED!!!

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Web Resources cyberbully.org netsmartz.org wiredk
ids.org isafe.org mindohfoundation.org