Cyberbullying

Journal article “Bullying in the new playground: Research into cyberbullying and cyber victimization” from Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet23/li.html

At the start of this school year my school used one our in-service opportunities to have a speaker from the AIU present on bullying. It was on the level of “If you see. . .” or “If you hear…” My school, like many, has a “no cell phone” policy. The extent of what I see in my small school happens from person to person in verbal or written ways. If there is a nasty note, it can be found; if something is said, others could have overheard it. But what if bullying could occur through IM at home or through text messages after school?

I read the article “Bullying in the new playground: Research into cyberbullying and cyber victimization” from Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. The writer did a professional study to determine the factors that encourage cyberbullying. She looked at culture, gender, technology use, knowledge of cyber safety and academic achievement. She found culture to be the strongest point. Cyberbullying happens around the world. How the culture allows for it or encourages it, effects the rate in which it happens.

The author gave many helpful terms to explain cyberbullying and cyber victimization:

“Bill Belsey, developer of the award winning webpage http://www.bullying.org/, defined cyberbullying in his website http://www.cyberbullying.ca/:

Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, cell phone and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.

Different types of cyberbullying were reported ranging from flaming to cyberstalking. In her book, Nancy Willard (2004) identified seven different categories of common cyberbullying actions:

Flaming: Sending angry, rude, vulgar messages about a person to an online group or to that person via email or other text messaging.

Online harassment: Repeatedly sending offensive messages via email or other text messaging to a person.

Cyberstalking: Online harassment that includes threats of harm or is excessively intimidating.

Denigration (put-downs): Sending harmful, untrue, or cruel statements about a person to other people or posting such material online.

Masquerade: Pretending to be someone else and sending or posting material that makes that person look bad.

Outing: Sending or posting material about a person that contains sensitive, private, or embarrassing information, including forwarding private messages or images.

Exclusion: Cruelly excluding someone from an online group. “

Reading this list of terms, I fear for our students today. It is one thing to fear a bully at school, another to have threats invade your personal space on the web. As their teachers we need to be aware of these threats and plan for prevention. With any form of bullying the effects on students are the following: lack of focus, fear for their safety, and a feeling of being isolated from help. We need to stay aware of possible cyberbullying and prepare students on what to do if they are cyberbullied. As a district we need to make policies on how to handle these attacks, especially how to hand it over to official authorities.

On a final note, several years ago, a local high school fell victim to cyberbullying/harassment. High school boys rated the top girls in the school sexually. Only one student was punished. The victims felt violated, but the predators felt they had gotten away. There was not a way to prove who was involved, and no way to hold anyone accountable. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. We are teaching our students to use these new and expanded technologies; but are we prepared for the students who abuse them?