Finding the Feathers: Citing the Cyberbully

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Finding the Feathers Citing the Cyberbully

• Dr. Julie Jochum Gartrell
• Dr. Charlotte Knoche
• Concordia University
• St. Paul, MN

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This presentation will share

• critical information about cyberbullying
• and resources for schools and parents for
  defusing the cyber-bully.

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CB Its many forms

• Flaming Heated, short-lived argument
• Harassment Ongoing, offensive messages
• Denigration Hurtful speech posted or sent out
• Impersonation Hurtful messages sent by one
  person posing as someone else
• Outing, Trickery Posting or sending intimate or
  embarrassing information

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CB Its many forms

• Exclusion Perceived as ultimate rejection
  occurring in gaming, blogging, etc.
• Cyberstalking Ongoing threatening, intimidating,
  or offensive messages
• Cyberthreats Direct threat Reveal intent to
  hurt someone or commit suicide
• Distressing material Reveal clues that
  someone is considering the above.

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Students need to realize

• Report all threats or distressing material to a
  responsible adult.
• Posting anything online that might be perceived
  as threatening or dangerous is a serious offense
  with serious consequences
• Suspension
• Expulsion
• Arrest

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Bullying/Cyberbulling Contrasts

• CB Not always the more powerful person doing the
  attacking
• CB Less powerful more comfortable being the
  aggressor

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Two Phenomena

• Students not involved in bullying as either bully
  or victim are becoming involved in cyberbullying,
  both as cyberbullies victims.
• Some roll switching evident. Some students who
  were victims at school but had not bullied were
  engaging in CB. Some students who had bullied,
  but not been victims, were victims of CB.
• (Kowalski Limber, 2005)

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Some statistics Fight Crime, 2006

• 1/3 of all teens, 1/6 of all children experienced
  mean, threatening, or embarrassing things said
  about them online
• 10 of teens, 4 of children threatened with
  physical harm
• About 50 of children told their parents, but
  only 30 of teens
• 45 of children, 30 of teens reported that CB
  happened at school

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Crimes against Children Research Cen. 2006
Survey of youth, 10 17 years

• 9 had been harassed online
• 58 of victims were girls
• 68 of these girls rec. distressing harassment
• 72 of harassment happened to teenagers
• 50 of harassers were known to be male
• 21 of harassers were known to be female
• 44 of harassers were friend or acquaintances
• 3 of incidences happened during school

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CB - Last 2 Months. Kowalski Limber

• Cyberbulling
• 25 girls, 11 boys were CB victims at least once
  in last 2 months
• 13 girls, 8.6 boys CB someone at least once
• Bullying
• 12.3 girls, 14.1 boys were bullied at least 2-3
  times in last 2 months
• 5 girls, 8 boys bullied someone at least 2-3
  times in the last 2 months

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Bully Characteristics

• Impulsive, hot-headed, dominant, good or inflated
  self-esteem, feel little/no responsibility for
  their actions
• Easily frustrated, difficulty conforming to rules
• Expect to get picked on, see threats where none
  exist
• Antisocial, defiant towards adults
• Lack empathy

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• Positive attitude towards violence
• May have psychiatric disorder contributing to
  aggressive behavior, e.g. antisocial personality
  disorder or adhd
• May experience peer rejection or social
  isolation, contributing to increased depression,
  suicide, antisocial personality disorder
• May experience or witness violence or abuse at
  home by parents or caretakers

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• May experience lack of parent involvement,
  supervision, and nurturing during childhood
• An increased risk for school failure dropout
  and for future problems with violence,
  delinquency, and substance abuse in boys,
  increased for multiple criminal convictions in
  adulthood.

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Victim Characteristics

• Quiet, cautious, sensitive, insecure may have
  difficulty asserting themselves appear to do
  nothing to provoke attacks and are unlikely to
  retaliate if attacked or insulted
• May be perceived as being different or weak
• May be insolated socially and report feeling sad
  or lonely

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• May experience psychosomatic symptoms, e.g.
  sleep disturbances, enuresis, unexplained
  abdominal discomfort or headaches
• If bullied chronically, may have problems with
  social and emotional development academic
  performance
• May become cynical if they think authority
  figures allow bullying to persist

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• May accept that they deserve to be bullied and
  harassed (similarly to victims of domestic
  violence)
• In rare cases, may consider suicide or
  self-inflicted harm rather than endure continued
  harassment and humiliation
• At risk for depression and poor self-esteem later
  in life

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Bully/Victim Characteristics

• Targets of bullying and also bully younger or
  weaker children
• May be difficult to identify because they seem to
  be victims of other bullies a reactive bully
  may provoke a bully into action, fight back, then
  claim self-defense

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• Hyperactive, quick-tempered, and emotionally
  reactive prone to irritating and teasing others
  to create tension attempt to fight back when
  insulted or attacked.
• At particular risk for persistent social and
  behavior problems, including social isolation,
  failure in school, smoking, and drinking

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Social Climber Bullies

• Do not bear much similarity to Family Physicians
  description of a bully.
• Belong to the in-crowd, e.g. jocks, preps, etc.
• Activities occur within the context of the
  interrelationships between the in-crowd, the
  wannabes, and the losers (as defined by the
  in-crowd)

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Social Climber Bullies, cont.

• Can be very sophisticated subtle in the school
  environment
• Perpetrators are often school leaders their
  aggressive behavior is not recognized as harmful
• Wannabes rarely report tattling would hurt their
  chances of gaining admission to the group

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Social Climber Bullies, cont.

• Wannabes know these school leaders are admired by
  the school staff
• Wannabes fear they will not be taken seriously
  due to the subtle nature of the harassment and
  the social position of the perpetrators.
• Wannabes fear retaliation by the perptrators if
  their complaints are taken seriously.

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Example Columbine

• Eric Harris Dylan Klebold were bullied by
  school leaders. Many adults in the school
  community refused to believe that school leaders
  acclaimed athletes were inflicting cruelty upon
  them.

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Bullying within the dominance structure of the
school

• Bullying as deliberate aggression to achieve high
  status in the peer group
• Bullying in creases as students move from
  elementary to middle school
• Bullying then decreases as stable social status
  patterns are established within middle school.
• (Pellegrini Long, 2002)

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Typical School Social Groups

• 30 Popular group
• Popular group drives the climate of the school
• Wannabes 10 They have their own circle of
  friends, but desire entry into the popular group.
• 50 Operate on their own, are generally
  accepting, and usually do not desire to be in the
  popular group.
• 10 Isolated, outcasts. Lack support even
  tend to reject one another.
• (Adler Adler, 1998)

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Cautions

• Data suggests that cyberbullying may represent a
  qualitatively different phenomenon from school
  bullying.
• Insufficient research devoted to activities of
  social climber bullies at school.
• School officials are often in a state of denial
  that good students top athletes could be
  involved in bullying.

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Girls vs. Boys

• Both boys and girls report that boys bully at
  higher rates that girls.
• Boys tend to engage in direct physical or verbal
  aggression.
• Male bullies have positive reactions to the use
  of violence to solve problems
• Tend to be impulsive, have a need to dominate,
  display little empathy, and demonstrate
  aggressive emotional reactions if teased or
  taunted. (Crick Grotpeter, 1995)

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Boys vs. Girls

• Girls tend to engage more in indirect bullying
• (also called relational aggression).
• Girls tend to assume the role of leader in a core
  group of peers.
• Girls tend to be socially cruel and manipulative.
• Girls tend to ostracize targets through
  backbiting, spreading rumors, trashing
  reputations, and rewarding others if they avoid
  the target subject.

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Bullying vs. Cyberbullying

• In-school bullying
• 5 girls engaged in in-school bullying
• 8 boys engaged in in-school bullying
• Cyberbullying
• 13 girls engaged in cyberbullying
• 8.6 of boys engaged in cyberbullying

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Communication Primary Activity

• Boys Most popular online activity Gaming
• Girls Most popular online activity
  Communication
• Since cyberbullying is primarily a communication
  activity, it is logical that there is a high
  probability of greater involvement by girls than
  boys.

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Boys vs. Girls

• Anecdotal reports from educators, counselors,
  psychologists indicate that girls are more
  actively engaged in cyberbullying
• These reports also note that boys may be more
  likly to engage in threats of violence and
  significant denigration activities, which are
  more likely to draw attention.
• (Kowalski Limber, 2005)

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Retaliation as motive

• 2/3 of school shooters have been victims of
  bullying.
• Cyberbulling as retaliation needs to be studied,
  but clearly has some advantages.
• Advantages of Cyberbulling
• Physical size not a factor
• Group of friends coming to targets aid not a
  factor

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Two different types of CB

• Put-down material created by a higher social
  status bully (power bully), either an aggressive
  bully or a social climber bully.
• Get-back-at material created by a lower social
  status target attempting to retaliate on a higher
  social status bully.

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Analysis of CB Activity

• Obtain information about the overall
  relationships between the involved students.
  Determine who has a higher social status or level
  of power.
• Close evaluation the substance of the online
  material. Tend to fall into 2 types.

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Analysis of CB Activity

• Power Bully Likely to reflect communications
  from a person in a position of dominance, power,
  or control against a person who is perceived as
  inferior. Reflects strength power.
• Retaliator Bully Likely to reflect emotional
  anguish of a person who has been demeaned.
  Get-back-at material likely to be extremely
  emotional, moving towards threats.

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Sexual Harassment Relationship Issues

• Harassment and bullying of students who are
  lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transsexual (LGBT) is
  extremely commonplace.
• 84 such students report being harassed.
• 82.9 of students reported that faculty never or
  rarely intervened.

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Sexual Harassment Relationship Issues Types

• Offensive sexual propositioning or harassment
• Harassment related to a failed relationship.
• Harassment of youth perceived to be LGBT.
• Dissemination of rumors about sexual activities.
• Tricking a student into revealing sexual interest
  in someone, then broadcasting this.

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Sexual Harassment Relationship Issues Types

• Establishment of websites or web-based rating
  systems focusing on sexual attractivness.
• Relationship-based fights, e.g. who can go out
  with whom.
• Disseminating sexually explicit images that were
  provided privately.
• Creating defamatory sexually explicit images by
  incorporating the face of a student on a
  pornographic image.

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CB Motivated by Hate Bias

• 25.8 reported that they had been bullied on the
  basis of religion or race.
• 8.08 reported that harassment occurred one or
  more times/week.
• It is probably that some youth engaged in CB are
  also involved in online hate groups.
• This is a crime in may jurisdictions they are
  classified as hate crimes.

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Role of Bystanders

• The reinforcing attention provided by bystanders
  plans a significant role in encouraging bullying
  behavior.
• Influencing bystanders to intervene in
  face-to-face bullying by expressing disapproval,
  providing support to the target, or reporting
  such bullying to responsible adults is a
  critically important prevention strategy.

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Role of Bystanders

• Less is understood in the online environment.
• Role of group bullying, active participants, and
  passive bystanders within the online environment
  needs to be studied.
• Influencing bystanders to respond appropriately
  to denounce CB, provide support for online
  targets, or report concerns to adults is even
  more important since most CB occurs in online
  environments where no adult is present.

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Role of Family Dynamics

• Families that use bullying as a relationship tool
  teach children that bullying is an appropriate
  way to relate to others.
• Domestic violence teaches children that the world
  is hostile and the way to survive is to strike
  first.

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At-Risk Children tend to

• Lack warmth involvement from their parents.
• Were raised by overly permissive parenting.
• Lack supervision by parents.
• Receive harsh physical discipline.
• Come from families that serve as a role model for
  bullying behavior.

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Social Climber Bullies

• The environment of the Social Climber Bully
  likely is not described by the previous
  description of the family conditions of
  aggressive bullies and bully/victims.

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Impacts of Cyberbullying

• Possible that CB is more emotionally damaging
  than traditional bullying.
• Online communications can be extremely vicious
  and cruel.
• CB allows no respite it can occur 24/7
• Degrading incidents can be broadcast worldwide
  and difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve.

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Impacts of Cyberbullying

• Oftentimes, cyberbullies are anonymous, so the
  target does not know whom to trust. It can
  appear that everyone has turned into an enemy.
• Since social norms tolerate and support a certain
  amount of CB, there is the expectation that
  targets should consider such harm to be no big
  deal.

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Impact on Aggressive Bullies

• Youth who bully are more likely to be involved in
  other problem behaviors, e.g. smoking drinking.
• They show poorer school adjustment.
• They are not socially isolated.
• They tend to make friends easily.
• Unfortunately, they likely garner support for
  their bullying activities opportunities for
  mutual reinforcement of such behavior.

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Reasons why CB is not reported

• Victims believe adults do not understand the
  internet and their new online word and they
  believe the adults will not know how to respond.
• They believe that adults will overreact to
  reports of incidents and respond by limiting
  their internet access.

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Reasons why CB is not reported

• They adhere to the norm What happens online
  stays online.
• They believe On the internet, you have a
  free-speech right to say what ever you want
  without regard for the harm it might cause to
  another.
• They fear retaliation.
• Some teens have engaged in risky behavior and are
  thereby held hostage.

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Teachers bullying students

• Abuse of power
• Tends to be chronic
• Often expressed in a public manner
• Is humiliating and degrading
• Is deliberate
• Distresses the victim
• Is usually not repremanded

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Teachers bullying students

• At least one or more teachers can be identified
  as abusive towards students
• Students responses tend to agree on which
  teachers are abusive.
• Teachers also tend to agree on which teachers are
  high rate offenders.
• Faculty and students tend to be in agreement and
  express frustration and feel powerless to stop
  the problematic behavior.

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Distressing Material

• This raises concerns that a young person is
  suffering emotionally and is possibly on the
  verge of taking a drastic and harmful step.
• Leakage, either intentional or unintentional,
  reveals clues to feelings, thoughts, fantasies,
  attitudes, or intentions that may signal
  impending violence.

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• Do we want more on the signs that violence might
  be on the horizon?
• This would be pp.53 - 56