Running head: CYBERBULLYING: BEHIND THE KEYS

CYBERBULLYING: BEHIND THE KEYS

YVONNE LAWSON
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
SPE 417 K. BLACKSTONE
SPRING 2014
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Abstract
The world as we know it has evolved by startling measures when it comes to technology. As any
form of technology becomes mainstream, the cost declines, and the availability rises. The internet, cell
phone and all forms of digital connectivity have followed this pattern to the point that children are now
endowed with Smart phones and Facebook pages. The school systems are encouraging BYOD, (Bring
Your Own Device) so that students can have access to more information than what is housed inside of the
classroom. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "Great power involves great responsibility"
(Franklin D. Roosevelt, 2014).
1
The problem is children are being given great power and no idea how to
handle the responsibility.
This leads to an increasing occurrence of cyber bullying and little means of legally addressing the
issue, since the law has failed to keep up with technology. Furthermore, the law cannot clearly define the
point where the rights of one person begin and another's ends.
The purpose of this literature review is to understand what happens to the parties involved when
there are instances of cyber bullying. The literature of Donegan, Olweus, Madden et al. from Pew
Research Internet Project, as well as other research will attempt to define cyber bullying, the common
behaviors, and address the need for further legislation and school programs to support and protect our
youth from their digital enemies.





1
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote these words in an undelivered address prepared for Jefferson
Day, April 13, 1945. This address was later published. This quote or similar is also attributed to Voltaire. Source:
Voltaire. Jean, Adrien. Beuchot, Quentin and Miger, Pierre, Auguste. "uvres de Voltaire, Volume 48". Lefvre,
1832
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The advancements in digital technology have progressed phenomenally fast in the couple
of decades. It has provided the ability for anyone to communicate instantly with others, via text,
video and audio calls. The internet provides the ability for people to access information from
multiple sources, People can download documents, audio and video files lightning speed. It
provides current, meaningful information from a vast resource that is far greater than the
textbooks in the classroom. Students who are unable to attend school can do so with an online
program, with or without video teleconferencing (Daugherty, 1998).
The affordability of owning a home computer, laptop, tablet, and/or cell phone means
that 87% of Americans use the internet, ownership of a cell phone hit 90% and 58% of U.S.
adults own a smartphone (Health Fact Sheet, 2014). Seventy-eight percent of teens ages 12 17,
own a cell phone of any kind with nearly half of them owning a Smartphone. Seventy-four
percent of teens are accessing the internet via their cell phone or tablet. One-third of those
adolescents mainly use a cell phone for internet access. Ninety-three percent of teens either have
a computer (80% have their own computer) or have access to one at home. Teens would also
have access to public computers at the library or computers at their school. Of the 95% teens
online, 80% are users of social networking and social media sites (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan,
Cortesi, & Gasser, 2013).
This generation of adolescents have grown up in a world surrounded by technology and
digital connectivity. It is as common to them as the furniture in the house. They need not rely
upon face-to-face interaction or even telephone calls. They are using their digital devices to
instant message, chat in public or private online chat boards or forums, send a text, snap a selfie,
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upload a picture on Pinterest, update a Facebook status, tweet on Twitter, or post a video file on
Tumblr or leave a comment on ask.fm, for example.
However, with kids of nearly any age, there will be conflicts. The mild conflicts are
referred to as drama. Drama can be a very mild event where someone is bored, lives to talk about
negative events for attention, or has one problem after another. Drama can also be a simple
disagreement between two people. It can also explode by involving more people. " drama
takes place in front of an audience. Teens use the affordances of social media to gather attention,
involve themselves in others lives, and manipulate 'public' perceptions" (Marwick & boyd,
2011) The internet and cellphones are used in order to tip the scales in their favor, with the
outcome to make themselves feel victorious and the other party is decimated. When this
discourse takes place via digital means, it can escalate into cyber bullying.
"Cyber bullying refers to any harassment that occurs via the internet, cell phones, or other
devices" (Cyber Bullying Law & Legal Definition, 2014). A cyber bully mentally and
emotionally abuses their victim, tormenting them psychologically. The can cause problems for
the victim in real life, such as getting friends to shun them, shaming them into hiding, and
provoking strangers and friends to mock or insult the victim. The victims of cyber bullies can be
subjected to physical attacks on their property and persons, by the cyber bully themselves or by
others. The victim often knows the bully from their school or neighborhood.
According to Dan Olweus (2014), who has studied the subject of bullying for over 35
years, "A person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative
actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending himself
or herself". Olweus defines bullying with three components:
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1. Bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions.
2. Bullying involves a pattern of behavior repeated over time.
3. Bullying involves an imbalance of power or strength.
These components are present in cyber bullying as well. Cyber bullying does have its own
unique characteristics such as anonymity, accessibility to the victim, fears of retribution or the
revocation of their digital devices by parents, bystanders on the internet can be in the thousands
or more, and because children are not face-to-face, they may behave in ways they would not if
they were in the presence of the other person (Olweus, What is Cyber Bullying?, 2014).
According to Olweus, as cited by Donegan, there is a bullying hierarchy of seven
different levels; "the students who want to bully and initiate the action, their followers or
henchmen, supporters or passive bullies, passive supporters or possible bullies, disengaged
onlookers, possible defenders, and defenders who dislike the action of bullying and help those
that are victimized" (Donegan, 2012). The diversity of motives, typically anger, revenge or
frustration, indicates there is no defining who the cyber bullies are, but they share many of the
same characteristics of any bully. The cyber bully enjoys and relies upon the anonymity of the
internet. The victim may never know how close their bully may sit in class, or the reverse,
thinking it is someone near, yet it could be a stranger from afar. The latter is not as common in
terms of the primary bully. In Canadian teen, Amanda Todd's situation, the cyber bully is
currently believed to have not known Amanda and is a sexual predator. A man in the
Netherlands was arrested in connection with the online bullying of Amanda Todd (Nguyen &
Tepper, 2014).
Cyber bullies have been known to create bash board, online bulletin boards where people
can post hateful and cruel comments, taunts, and threats, by using a screen name, posting
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anonymously and masking or hiding their internet protocol address. Texting a typical high school
way of communicating. It can also evolve into a text war. A person can send daily messages that
harass their victim or send unlimited texts such that the person either has to shut down their
phone or delete the unwanted texts. Deleting them without seeing them is not an easy thing for a
teenager to do. Shutting down their phone or even the ability to text is like severing a lifeline to
some, especially considering three-fourths of teens own a phone. Sexting is a more recent
phenomenon. Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit photos, videos, or texts to a partner.
When images are sent out to someone else, even consensually, they can eventually wind up
shared on the internet. It might be a relationship gone badly and the recipient uses the sex photos
as a revenge or anger tactic. It is possible that someone else gets into one of the phones and sends
it out to everyone in an effort to humiliate, embarrass, or otherwise cause problems for their
victim (Hoff & Mitchell, 2009).
Amanda Todd was a 15-year old girl who suffered years of cyber-attacks, which also led
to school bullying. Like many young kids, they have foolish error in judgment and Amanda was
no different. She bared her breasts online and a sexual predator took a screen shot of the image.
Using the image as blackmail, the cyber bully threatened to share it with everyone if she did not
provide him/her with private cam session of a sexual nature. After Amanda refused, the bully did
as threatened, posting the image for everyone and anyone to see. The image made the rounds at
school and Amanda had to suffer the cruel and harsh treatment by her peers as well as from
strangers online. She suffered bodily harm when she was ambushed on the way home. Amanda
was later found, badly hurt, in a ditch.
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Amanda tried to escape by changing schools a few times and even moving to another
city. Her online bully found her wherever she went and made sure Amanda had no peace (Todd,
2014). Amanda made several attempts on her life as well as self-injury in the form of cutting.
Cutting is "Self-injury, also called self-harm, is the act of deliberately harming your own body,
such as cutting or burning yourself. It's typically not meant as a suicide attempt. Rather, self-
injury is an unhealthy way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger, and frustration" (Self-
injury/cutting: definition, 2014).
On September 7, 2012, Amanda created a nine-minute video of her holding flashcards
and relating her torment (TheSomebodytoknow, 2012). One month later, Amanda committed
suicide. A new term has arisen for situations like Amanda, when the victim of a bully takes their
own life to escape their torment; the suicide is now being referred to as bullycide. Sadly,
Amanda's story is similar to a growing number of bullied victims. "Childline, a free counseling
service which is based in the United Kingdom and was established especially for adolescents and
teens, reported in their most recent annual report that cyber bullying concerns rose by a
whopping 87 percent in 2013" (Cyber Bullying Statistics 2014, 2014). This may not be the same
percentage of growth everywhere, but with the digital proliferation into our societies, across the
globe, the rates are raising at alarming rates.
There are several problems with online bullying. The identity of the bully may or may not
ever be revealed. If it doesn't happen on school grounds, schools may choose to ignore or may be
required to ignore, depending on where it takes place. The federal, state, or local laws may not
have a law specific enough to charge and prosecute the offender. Technology has far outgrown
the laws everywhere and legal eagles everywhere, in countries far and near, are trying to find
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current laws to use, and trying to get new laws passed to protect its citizens. This is a daunting
task, but one that needs to be undertaken with expediency. One of the main hurdles to the
passage of comprehensive laws is the rights to free speech and the violation of civil rights. Some
states require that the person typing the harassment have to be uniquely identifiable, not simply
by means of ownership of the digital device or the I.P. address.
Working to Halt Online Abuse is a volunteer organization that is dedicated to fighting
cyber bullying by education of law enforcement, the internet community, and the general public.
The also attempt to provide victims with ways to empower themselves. WHO@ maintains a
website, www.haltabuse.org, that keeps abreast of pending and current cyber stalking-related
U.S. federal and state laws, including states that have yet to pass laws on this matter. They have
added two additional countries, Australia and India.
Schools are adopting after-school clubs like FOR aka Rachel's Challenge, which provides
education and support for students. Experts in the field, like Dan Olweus, who has spent thirty-
five years researching the subject of bullying and has created programs for schools to address the
bullying problems. His program is provides training, certification, assessments, webinars and
more (Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, 2014).
Amanda Todd's case is but one case, and the internet, research, and statistics are
inundated with countless more and the numbers are growing. It is clear that schools and laws
need to continue to evolve with technology and this digital age. The statistics bear out the need to
address this issue with serious and dedicated resources. Our society, more importantly, our
children desperately need this help.

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References

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http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying.html
Cyber Bullying Law & Legal Definition. (2014). Retrieved from USLegal.com:
http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/cyber-bullying/
Cyber Bullying Statistics 2014. (2014). Retrieved from NoBullying.com: http://nobullying.com/cyber-
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Daugherty, M. &. (1998). University Faculty and Student Perceptions of Web-based Instruction. Journal
of Distance Education, 13(1), 21-39. Retrieved from
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Donegan, R. (2012). Bullying and Cyberbullying: History, Statistics, Law, Prevention and Analysis. The
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Franklin D. Roosevelt. (2014). Retrieved from The American Presidency Project:
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Hoff, D. L., & Mitchell, S. N. (2009). Cyberbullying: causes, effects, and remedies. Journal of Education
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Nguyen, A., & Tepper, S. (2014, April 17). Amanda Todd: Man arrested in Netherlands in Canadians
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Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. (2014). Retrieved from ViolencePreventionWorks.org:
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http://www.violencepreventionworks.org/public/cyber_bullying.page
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TheSomebodytoknow. (2012, September 7). My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm. Retrieved
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Todd, A. (2014, April 16). The Sextortion of Amanda Todd: Cyberharclement ( The Fifth Estate ). The
Fifth Estate. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/JuOMR2bv6DU