Cyberbullying

Internet Bullying – New Technologies, New Techniques

The ease with which most young people use the Internet today has opened up a new playground for bullies – a playground where the traditional measures of size and physical appearance mean little.

The anonymity of the Internet provides both a layer of protection and insulation from seeing the consequences of actions.

And since few adults have the same facility with technology like cell phones and computers, there are no teachers or adults to help draw the line between acceptable behavior and bullying. The end result is a new frontier where it is far too easy for one child with a grudge to turn life into a living hell for another student.

What Is Internet Bullying / Cyber Bullying?

“One night when I was on AIM (an instant messenger) with some friends, I started getting these creepy IMs from a screen name I didn’t know. They said they saw me in class and talked about where I lived and said they were watching me. It really creeped me out. When I blocked that screen name, another one started.”

Nicole, 19

“Some girl thought that her boyfriend liked me and she started with the trash talking and telling other girls that I was talking about them behind their backs. When I ignored that, I started getting text messages on my cell phone. Once someone sent me a picture of a doll with its head ripped off and a text message that said ‘you’re next’. ”

Emilee, 15

“I used to go out with this girl that was really into dead journal (an online journal/blogging site that’s popular with teens). We put together a couple of pages together and we each had our own. When we broke up, her and her new boyfriend started spamming my journal with death threats and all kinds of other garbage.

John, 16

Cyberbullying or Internet Bullying is using the Internet in the form of email, text messaging, discussion forums, web sites, instant messengers and other kinds of communication media to intentionally hurt, threaten or intimidate another person or persons. A bully may use any of the following alone or in combination to bully others through cyberspace.

• Using email, instant messenger or phone text messaging to send threats, insults or derogatory messages to another person.

• Posting messages on a discussion board making fun of or threatening another person

• Posting derogatory comments to another person’s blog or journal and encouraging others to do the same

• Creating a web site deliberately to insult another person or group of persons with the intent of harming them

• Posting personal information or photographs on public web sites to humiliate, intimidate or damage someone’s reputation

• Assuming the identity of another student by using their email address or IM name to send messages to other people with the intent of getting them in trouble

• Putting up a web site with embarrassing photos for others to see or circulating embarrassing photos via cell phones

Why do bullies turn to cyber?

Like any other bully, cyber bullies are motivated by the power that bullying gives them over others. Bullying in cyberspace also allows the bully to hide behind a screen name or an assumed identity, lessening their perceived risk and the consequences of being caught.

Because the Internet is such ‘unexplored territory’ for most adults, teens have an unusual sense of freedom from authority in cyberspace. They feel safe and powerful carrying out their attacks on others from the privacy of their own bedroom or cell phone. There’s a very small perceived risk of being caught, and the havoc that can be caused is enormous.

The anonymity factors in in another way. Because the bully – and bystanders – aren’t faced with the immediate results of their actions, there’s a detachment from the act of bullying. In face to face bullying, empathy sometimes motivates teens and others to step in and intervene.

When a cyberbully posts a snide remark about a classmate on a web site, the reaction from others is far more likely to be admiration of the wit or cleverness of the remark than sympathy for the victim.

Because physical size and strength don’t matter on the Internet, girls are as likely to be cyberbullies as boys. They also seem to be equally victimized by cyberbullying, unless the harassment or bullying is specifically sexual. In that case, girls are twice as likely to be the victims as boys.

Without the personal contact, cyber-attacks can be far more vicious than personal attacks. The sense of disconnect between the actions online and the person in real life are sometimes so strong that students will insist that it wasn’t them that posted derogatory statements, it was their screen name.

Perhaps one of the most difficult types of cyber-bullying to deal with is that of assuming another’s identity to cause problems. Especially when school computers are used, it can be difficult to establish who actually used an email account to send threats or insults.

What’s The Harm?

While cyberbullying makes bullying less personal on one end, it makes it far more personal for the victim. In face to face bullying, there is an escape – a safe zone. When the threats and taunts come over the computer or the cell phone, they invade the victim’s safe zone, and make their personal space as uncomfortable and dangerous as the rest of the world.

“Cyberbullying?” exclaimed one parent at a conference on bullying. “No one ever got a black eye over the computer. I’ll tell you how to stop cyberbullying – just turn off the computer.”

The victim of a cyberbully is denied one of the most basic defenses against bullying – it’s almost impossible for the victim to control the situation by walking away. While well-meaning teachers and parents counsel victims to ‘just turn off the computer’, they are missing one of the key factors in cyber-bullying.

The bully does not need the presence of the victim to harm them. In face to face bullying, the fun for the bully effectively ends when the victim walks away. In cyber-bullying, the bully doesn’t know if the victim has turned off the computer. Even if they do turn off the computer, in the morning, they still have to face a whole school full of students who may have seen the messages sent.

While cyberbullying may not carry the same risks of physical harm that other types of bullying do, the harm is very definite.

• Cyberbullying / Internet Bullying invades personal safety space

• Cyberbullying / Internet Bullying can happen at any time of the day or night.

• Cyberbullies / Internet Bullies are anonymous. It’s far more frightening to have a faceless enemy.

• Because cyberbullying / Internet Bullying is seen as something not harmful, victims of cyber-bullying feel they have nowhere to turn for assistance with their problem.

Strategies to Stop Internet Bullying

For Parents:

• Stress the safe-surfing rules. While internett bullying is a distinct problem from other types of victimization via the Internet, it’s important for children and teens to remember never to post personal information on the internet.

• If they follow no other rule, drill into students that they should never ever share their passwords for email and other services with anyone.

• Put computers with Internet access in open areas of the house. It will be much easier for you to gauge what’s going on, and be available to intervene if needed.

• Watch for changes in the way your teen or child uses the computer. Either avoiding the computer or a sudden increase in computer use can signal a cyber-bullying problem.

• Educate yourself. This can’t be stressed enough. Learn how to use instant messengers and email – and learn common internet terms and language.

• If you suspect your teen or child is bullying another via the internet or email, make sure that they understand the possible consequences. Restrict access to the computer if necessary.

• Learn to read and use the browser’s history and cache of web pages. Learn to read email headers and trace email to the originating IP.

• Be as tech-savvy as your kids if you possibly can.

• If your child is being bullied over the internet DO take it seriously. Read, understand and follow the instructions and hints in the section on stopping internet bullies below.

For Teachers:

• If your school isn’t addressing cyberbullying / Internet Bullying, get it on the agenda. Discuss the problem with principals, guidance counselors and school department officials. Make sure that they understand how damaging it can be.

• Survey the students to find out if there’s a problem with cyber-bullying in your school or with your students. You’ll find an excellent survey tool at www.cyberbully.org/docs/cbsurvey.pdf.

• Open the discussion with your class. Talk to them about cyberbullying. You’ll find lesson plans to get you started at www.cybersmartcurriculum.org.

• Set clear guidelines for use of the internet at school. Have a set of consequences for misuse and enforce them.

• Make sure that your students understand that nothing is truly anonymous. For many, the lure of cyber-bullying is the anonymity. By showing them how easy it is to trace email and discussion board posts to their source, you can take erode the cloak of anonymity and let possible bullies know that they CAN get caught.

• Make it clear that sending threats of physical harm via communications media is a crime, and they can go to jail for it. Internet bullying is not ‘just a prank’.

• Open a discussion of online bullying and ask questions like:

• How would you feel if this happened to you?

• What would your mother think if she knew you were doing this?

• How would you feel if you posted a web page like that, and the newspapers reported that you did it?

• Give students an easy way to report incidents of cyberbullying without fear of retaliation.

• Send home literature to parents explaining what cyberbullying is and how to safeguard children from it

• Teach students what to do if they are being harassed by instant messenger, email or any other internet forum.

What To Do If You’re Being Cyberbullied:

• Save all messages. No matter how good it would feel to delete threats or nasty insults, it’s important to keep the messages as evidence.

• If you are being harassed via email:

  • Use the email header to find out the ISP used by the sender.

  • Go to the ISP web site to find out where to report abuse. Most have a department that handles cases of customers who use their mail servers to threaten or intimidate others.

  • Follow the instructions on the web site. If there are no specific instructions, forward the mail that you received (using ‘forward’ NOT ‘forward as attachment’) to the ISP’s abuse report email address.

  • If the emails make physical threats, or if they are part of a wider bullying pattern, inform the police.

• If you are being harassed via instant messenger:

  • Use ‘Block User’ to block all further contact from that screen name.

  • Use ‘Report Abuse’ on your IM to report the harassment.

  • If harassment continues from multiple screen names, change your screen name, and only share it with trusted friends.

• If you are being harassed by SMS via cell phone:

  • Save all threatening or harassing SMS messages.

  • Forward them to your cell phone provider’s complaint or abuse department.

  • Block incoming SMS text messages if necessary.

• If you are being harassed by comments and/or attacks on your blog or livejournal:

  • Password protect entries

  • Do not write anything in your livejournal or blog that you would be embarrassed to have others know.

  • Enable spam filtering and ‘approve comments’ on your blog, or disallow comments altogether.

• If someone has posted rumors, derogatory comments or personal information about you to a web site:

  • Assess the damage realistically. If the personal information that’s posted poses a danger to you – for instance, your address and/or phone number posted on a web site that solicits personal encounters – write to the web site owners IMMEDIATELY and request that it be removed. If they do not respond, threaten legal action.

  • Tell a parent or trusted adult about the web site. It may be possible to trace the person who created the web site, and in some cases, take legal action against them.