Bullying. Unfortunately it is one of America’s oldest pasttimes. In grammar school, you either belonged to one of three groups, the bullies, the bullied, or the just plain lucky. Well, in the 21st century, bullying has gone high tech and morphed itself into cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying includes such acts as harrassment, making threats, spreading rumors and insults via social networking sites, instant messaging, email, photoshop, and blogs. Cyberbullying is usually carried out by minors but some adults have been known to participate. Cyberbullying is a serious problem and can have traumatic and sometimes deadly consequences.
This brings me to my research topic and how you all can “Help Kell Get an A on Her Research Paper Project!”
Social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook in particular are the most popular method offenders use to cyberbully their peers.
You all may be wondering how you can help me get an A. Well, I want your feedback, your comments, and your ideas on how I can shape my research. Talk to your kids and your kids’ friends. Talk to your nieces and nephews. Teenagers! I need to hear from teenagers!
Think about the following questions and post some comments! Join me in the blogosphere!
- Do you know anyone that has been a victim of cyberbullying?
- How was the issue resolved?
- If so, what was the digital method of choice? MySpace, Facebook, email, instant messaging?
- As far as you know, have social networking sites (i.e. MySpace, Facebook) implemented adequate privacy and safety controls to reduce cyberbullying?
- Are our schools doing enough to educate and prevent cyberbullying among children?
- Are parents doing enough to monitor their children’s computer use?
Your answers to these questions will aid me in my research and help shape my hypothesis. So, get busy, give this some serious thought, and post your comments on this blog!
Kell's Think Tank 
I hope I did this right. I am a member of Facebook and you have to accept the people you want to be friends with. I have declined some because I did not really know them in high school and so why start now. I think it is a big problem though. I think we have started to do good educating in our schools for the older kids but just like sex education it will continue to get younger and younger unless we did teach our kids that you should tell an adult about it or someone you trust. I think it should also be talked about in peer groups. I do not know anyone personally who has been cyberbullied. If it is anytjing like these tellamarketers than help. I am on the do not call list and they still call.
If one is the recipient of bullying in the formative years, the impact can stunt one’s development into adulthood. A lack of confidence and making friends for the wrong reasons can result. A Bully has traditionally been able too hide, but Facebook and Myspace can in many ways bring the bully out in the open. Attempts at Cyber bullying are documented for all too see. Once they are identified, then the next step is to confront the bully.
Cyber bullying has grown by leaps and bounds. I have found that people who under normal circumstances are sedate or even passive find a new boldness and say things they would never say face to face. Hiding behind a screen name allows a person to have multiple personalities they wouldn’t exhibit in every day life.
I worked for a small communciations company that distributed an anti-bullying CD ROM for SAMHSA. Cyber-bullying had just started to come to light in the public. They have some great resources on their website. I don’t know anyone who has been a victim of cyber-bullying, but this is a great topic.
Do you know anyone that has been a victim of cyberbullying?
I myself had once been a victim of cyberbullying while during my freshman year of college.
How was the issue resolved?
If so, what was the digital method of choice? MySpace, Facebook, email, instant messaging?
It was plain old email at the time. I dont think Myspace or facebook was out then. It was 2000.
As far as you know, have social networking sites (i.e. MySpace, Facebook) implemented adequate privacy and safety controls to reduce cyberbullying?
I think there are ways to protect yourself on social networking sites. I’m a member of both websites you mentioned and my profiles are private so that you have to know me to request friendship. You have to enter my email address or know my first and last name. However, most people doing the bullying know this information. I dont know too many individuals who will stalk, harrass, or bully someone they do not know. Yet, someone can request friendship all they want you have to approve the request. I think a lot of issues that teenagers run into are “well we were friends last week and now this person is harrassing me this week.” Where as, when you are not in that age bracket you dont deal with these issues.
Are our schools doing enough to educate and prevent cyberbullying among children?
Our schools are lacking in most areas and this is one. Education is important for prevention. Kids have killed themselves because they could not withstand the namecalling. We are all told that “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” Well thats cliche because names do hurt and being in middle and high school was not always easy. If schools could have assemblies to educate on this matter students may understand that “wow I better not do this, how would i feel” Most teenagers do not realize the repercussions their actions can result in. I think its also important to promote more inclusive activities to eliminate isolation and try to break up the cliques. This cyber-bullying is only going to lead to more Columbine cases.
Are parents doing enough to monitor their children’s computer use? Ha! No way! The computer has become the 21st century babysitter. It has replaced the TV and video games. During the 80’s the TV watched the kids, during the 90’s the Video games babysat the kids, and now the computer monitors our teens. Most parents don’t know until its too late. I personally dont even think kids should have myspace accounts. I have seen various accounts of bullying through blackplanet.com, and various blogs. I once emailed a girl who spread some nasty things about my friend whom she dated on a blog. She said she did it because it was a way to get things off her chest. Hmmm makes you wonder what ever happened to writing in journals?
I don’t know anyone that has been a victim of cyberbullying. However, I can see from my own children’s (under age 8) use of the internet that they are able to link directly through to friends through even benign sites such as webkinz and internet checkers.
In speaking with parents of teens, I was surprised to find out that very few have access to their kids facebook or my space pages. When I asked one mother why she didn’t require access, she said that it would be useless becasue the kids will often have multiple pages, one for their parents to see and the one that their friends all know about. Another parent that I know, a dad, does have access to his daughters Facebook. He said that his daughter was comfortable giving him access as long as he promises never to post.
The parents I know feel that Facebook is safer for their teen than My Space becasue it can be more easily restircted. The concern seems to be more for safety than for cyber bullying. The parents that I spoke to were not particularly concerned about bullying: I’m not sure if that means that their child would be the bully?
I have written a lot about cyberbullying on my blog (blog.pcpandora.com). It is the worst thing that kids have to face today – and the majority is dealing with it. Parents aren’t doing enough, specifically, the parents of the bullies. They are complacent and don’t care — unless their child is the victim. The complete idiocracy, ignorance and arrogance of parents that think their child could never be mean to another kid is unreal. We like to preach that all parents need to be monitoring Internet activity of their kids (we make PC Pandora monitoring software), but it does little good if you aren’t going to act upon what you find. If your child is a bully, you need to stop it – the same way you would step in if your child was a victim… or talking to a suspicious person online. Until we get rid of the complacency, monitoring wont matter. Check us out at http://www.pcpandpora.com and check out the guys at http://www.responsiblecybercitizen.com... They have an interesting take on how the internet could be a whole better place, if people just gave a sh*t. 🙂
Kelly, a very interesting topic! Cyberbullying is so anamorphous that it’s sometimes hard to identify, and yet, it’s a very real online phenomenon. I personally think your examples of cyberbullying should also include unwanted contact. It goes along the lines of harassment, but when someone tries to dig you out from decades of digital dust, isn’t that a form of bullying? They may not be trying to take your lunch money, but they’re trying to reveal your anonymity on the ‘net.
My reaction is mixed when considering having awareness programs in school for teens. It’s a very difficult age, no matter where interactions take place. I don’t really know what the benefit of informing teens and young adults about cyberbullying would be. The real benefit would be to fine those who do bully others online. It’s not too difficult to find out who the real person behind “tankarms16” is anymore. Let’s reprimand the bullies and not make the bullied more afraid than they may already be.
No, I do not know anyone who has been bullied this way. It is not something that very many know about since school staff and parents are still trying to deal with verbal bullying. Personally I have been warned about cyber bullying but it was never enough to prevent it from happening. However privacy is something that can be prevented for those who use different ways of talking to each other. Those who are aware of this form of bullying prevent it by blocking those who can be a threat to them and their friends. Cyber bullying can be from anyone whether they know the person or not. Sometimes it can be a form of blackmail by giving trying not to give personal information on the internet. My friends play around with each other on the computer by name calling and play blackmailing just to make their lives a little more humerous. Cyber bullying is only interpreted by the people who know they are being bullied, but trying to do something about it without a huge collision can be prevented by the persons common sense.
As far as I know there seem to be privacy and safety controls to prevent cyberbullying on Facebook. Users have the option of reporting scams, comments, etc offensive remarks. I use Facebook and MySpace and have never had a problem with cyberbullying.
Someone did send me a MySpace message from jail, which I declined to reply to, but that’s not really cyberbullying. Social networking sites can only do so much, I ended up placing controls on my profile to limit the types of users who can access my page, which helped.
We need to not depend on websites, TV, radio, celebrities to control what goes on with our kids. Parents need to police what their children are doing on the Internet, they need to become tech savvy and get engaged in the “digital revolution” because it affects them just as much as younger people.
If they don’t, they run the risk of not knowing what their kids are doing and then when a child molester starts talking to their child, they’ll claim they knew nothing about it and thought Jonny was playing with his toys upstairs.
Hey Kel
A really interesting topic, here are some thoughts/comments.
Teenagers live in a different world, we all know this, right? Well their world is now MySpace and Facebook and all of these social network sites. They are so comfortable with expressing their every word, thought, innermost feeling online to everyone (who can see their page). Gone are the days of diaries and journals, now its about postings, writing on walls etc. I think this makes teenagers more vulnerable to bullies and hurtful comments. Teenagers fall in and out of friendships so someone who had access to your site last week and was your friend may no longer be your friend the following week. Also, these online social network sites seem to be a bully’s paradise. The worst nightmare for a bully is to be confronted and brought out into the limelight, but that cannot happen online, there is an anonymity in cyberbulling that aids the bully. Which begs the question, are these social networks creating super-bullies, allowing individuals who may never have considered doing this in the school yard to now bully from the comfort of their bedroom behind their PC?
I asked my teenage son if he and his friends talk about cyberbulling. His reply was that it is a girl thing, guys confront each other and get it out there, girls backstab, go behind each other’s back, bully each other. I’m not sure that I would agree 100% that cyberbulling is a girls thing but it would be interesting to see statistics (if any exist) on how often the bully is female versus male.
Hi Kelly,
As someone who didn’t even have e-mail or a cell-phone until I went to college (I know, I know) this subject really fascinates me. It seems that social networking, with all of its benefits, can compound the problems of teens. I believe it is difficult for parents to intervene, especially because they don’t fully understand the technology themselves. It is impossible for parents to protect kids from things they don’t realize are a threat.
I would be interested to see if schools do any outreach for educating parents (as well as students). This might be more beneficial in the long run!
Kell:
I am the parent of three boys; one is 15 and the other two are 24 and 29. I am also a former Detective that investigated harassment cases that emanated from the web. On the personal side, my middle son experienced a situation about 2 years ago where his girlfriend’s picture (she was scantily clothed)was posted to a bogus MySpace account that was asking boys to call her. The person who did it was someone who was jealous of my son and who wanted his GF. Hmmm, embarass the girl and she will go with me. NOT! Wow, Crazy Logic. Anyway, MySpace removed the page upon request from my son and blocked the poster’s username. The same person did it again on MySpace. Again, the page was removed, but this time a threat of prosecution was leveled against the phantom poster (who could easily be identified through his IP address). No fighting or screaming, just digital warfare.
In my official role as a Detective in NYC, I came across incidents where HS kids (mostly girls) were being maligned on MySpace. The investigations led to classmates who had a beef with the target while others came out of left field. No apparent cause for the bullying. The ones perpetrating the bogus pages or posting threatening remarks, were mostly known to the victim, had some interaction face-to-face prior to the incident, or were, in one case, a relative. The bullying was meant to tarnish the victim’s reputation or sway them from a particular action–talking to a BF, joining a team, or something similar. The web service always cooperated with the police when officially contacted, which lead to arrests in some cases (threats). The bullying came back to the real world after the police arrested someone. The perpetrators were suspended from school and/or put on some type of educational probation.
I hope this helped. I forwarded the ABC email to my son who is away at St George’s School (HS) in Rhode Island.
Best of Luck,
Gary
While I don’t directly experience much cyber-bullying I can’t help but notice the incredible downward spiral of intellect and consideration among participants in online communities. I think it reflects X things: 1) Absence of responsible and involved parents – potentially caused by their own inexperience, naivete, and luddite tendencies when it comes to rapid growth; 2) Years of teaching children how “special” they are, which appears to have been translated into “better than everyone else”; and 3) Relative lack of “hard times” that you would expect to humble people over time. Overarching all of this is the inherent “anonymity”, “empowerment” and “simplicity” of online social activity. Essentially, there are no controls. On its own that would probably be fine, but here’s a simple equation: Lack of control + immature community that has no self control = Out of Control.
In response to your specific questions:
1) Do you know anyone that has been a victim of cyberbullying? Nope.
2) How was the issue resolved? Not applicable
3) If so, what was the digital method of choice? MySpace, Facebook, email, instant messaging? Not applicable
4) As far as you know, have social networking sites (i.e. MySpace, Facebook) implemented adequate privacy and safety controls to reduce cyberbullying? Yes, I believe they have because I don’t think it’s their obligation to provide “adequate” privacy. If people want privacy, don’t put your life story online.
5) Are our schools doing enough to educate and prevent cyberbullying among children? Probably not, but I say that because I think they also do a horrible job in preventing ANY kind of bullying. Is it their fault? Not directly. We don’t manage education adequately in this country to ensure we hire the people with the requisite skills to care for this. Let’s face it: Teaching is a tough job and we apparently do that very poorly. But… we get what we pay for.
6) Are parents doing enough to monitor their children’s computer use? Probably not in most cases. Why would parents do more to monitor online than they do to monitor in-home or after-school behaviors?
Generally… it’s probably no worse than it was long before the Internet. It’s just different. The main difference was – in the past: If parents were concerned they could find out what their children did and where they did it. It’s not any harder online – in fact, it’s probably easier to monitor and manage online activity – but it requires a different type of effort than I think most parents are prepared for.
Hey Kelly,
No I do not know anyone that has been a victim but I could see how facebook etc. could be used for cyberbullying purposes. Facebook and Myspace may have some kind of privacy. Sure you can go through the strains of locking your page which permits only a selected few to be able to view but this still doesnt block one from leaving threatening messages once they know your name. For instance, you attend the same school as someone who has one of these digital methods so clearly if they know your name they will be able to find you. Schools cannot really do anything other than tell a child to close their page. They can hardly control what occurs within a school compound muchless on the world wide web. They may advise a child not to give into these threats and thus making their jobs easier by not having to deal with the situation once it escalates past the computer and into the classroom. Depending on the personality of the child they give this advice to then it may or may not work. Parents are trying to monitor their children’s computer use but eventually it comes down to the relationship they have.Depending on the relationship parents have with their children telling them to be mindful of their computer habits may go in one ear and out the other. Simply banning them from participating in facebook or myspace will not work as they can always go elsewhere to use a computer.
I do know many people who have been victims of cyberbullying. Many people take this lightly, but I think it’s very serious. Bullying- in any form or fashion- is extremely hurtful. Facebook, MySpace, and instant messaging may be able to filter some things but bullying is not one of them. Anyone who knows your name and/or screen name has the ability to message you even if they are “your friend”. Not only do they not have to be “your friend” but they can also be anonymous, so the victim may not even know who the person is saying these hurtful things. As far as the parenting goes, I don’t really think parents can do much to stop cyberbullying. They might be able to monitor when their child is on the computer, but they can’t completely know what goes on during the time they’re on the computer. Unless they are standing over their child’s shoulder, they can be totally absent in this whole process.
Kell,
I don’t know anyone who has been the victim of cyberbullying, but can only imagine the devastation a child faces when confronted. As with so many other facets in life, I believe parents are the key. Unfortunately, many parents never faced this issue and are probably ignorant when it comes to this matter, and completely lost when trying to come up with a solution. Similar to the good old days when a bully would confront a kid in the playground, parents need to fortify their children to face or avoid whatever may come their way.
Hopefully my comments will not come too late. I think part of the reason why cyber bullying is so rampant among school aged children is because the laws have not caught up with criminal activity.
Cyber bullying to some teens may appear to seems to be a techy progression of spreading school rumors. Such activity has always been frowned upon, but not considered serious as parents have given students the advice years ago to ignore such ignorance. Today though, those rumors can come with photos, can go beyond school halls and can “float” in cyber space for almost an infinite period of time, causing all kinds of damage. The law needs to enforce tougher penalties for such acivity.
I once read a group of students took cell cam photos of a school mate changing in the locker room and forwarded it to other classmates and the student was tramatized. Behavior such as this should be considered criminal
Hi Kell,
While practically everyone I know uses MySpace and Facebook, I am not aware of situations involving cyberbullying. The biggest complaint I hear from my own young adult son involves users releaving entirely too much information about oneself through photos or simply day-to-day activities; They totally make their personal lives an open book for perfect strangers to view. Based on my limited experience and knowledge, I believe there is a form of intimidation centered around the inability to access or view someone’s page unless you; yourself have a page. That’s probably the biggest reason I have decided not to participate – – the desire to view without being identified.
I believe schools have probably done what can be done to eliminate cyberbullying. Unfortunately, cyber communication promotes illiteracy and bad manners. Because we’ve developed an extremely casual mind-set that basically says anything goes. Most young people don’t take the time to properly form a sentence or build a vocabulary. Parents have the primary responsibility to limit computer use. And probably the vast majority has failed in that regard. Among other things, young people should be made to realize that potential employers, universities, churchs etc. use these sites to make assumptions about one’s character, judgement and lifestyle.