What is Cyber bullying?

• Cyber bullying involves the use of

information and communication
technologies to support deliberate,
repeated and hostile behavior by
an individual or group, that is
intended to harm others
• Through…..

• (Keith & Martin, 2004).

 Technologies such as:

• email,
• cell phone
• pager
• text messages,
• instant messaging (IM),
• defamatory personal web sites
• defamatory online personal polling web
sites
• (Keith & Martin, 2004).
 DIFFERENCES
BULLYING CYBERBULLYING

•DIRECT •ANONYMOUS

•Occurs on •Occurs off

school property school property

•Poor relationships •Good relationships with

with teachers teachers

•Fear retribution •Fear loss of technology

privileges
Physical: Hitting, Punching & Shoving
Verbal: Teasing, Name calling & Gossip •Further under the radar than
Nonverbal: Use of gestures & Exclusion bullying
www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov
•Emotional reactions cannot be
determined
{McKenna & Bargh, 2004; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004}

From ‘Demystifying and Deescalating Cyber Bullying’ by Barbara Trolley, Ph.D. CRC, Connie
Hanel, M.S.E.d & Linda Shields, M.S.E.d. http://www.nyssca.org/CYBERBULLYING-pp-BT28th.ppt
Cell phones – Middle school years

•In 2004 – 45%

online teens have a
cellphone
•In 2006, 66% of Skype - 2003
online teens have a
cellphone
•68% of cellphone
owners txt (2006)
Today’s Teen –
 Today - 2007
•Older Kids: Habbo Hotel, Profiles: Switchboards for social life
Gaia Online & Second Life

•Younger Kids: Webkinz,

Whyville, Club Penguin
 Teen Reality
Mobile gadgets allow them to enjoy
media and communicate
anywhere

• 84% report owning at least

one personal media device: a
desktop or laptop computer,
a cell phone or a Personal
Digital Assistant

• 63% of all teens own a cell

phone
Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M, March 2005
Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M, March 2005
Recently, i-SAFE America conducted a national survey of more than 1500
students -ranging from fourth to eighth grade.
• Gaming – on-going.
• Oldest video gamers who grew up with it are
entering their forties, so some of the younger
kids have parents who game.
• More than 2/3rds of online teens play
computer or video games.
• Email – “It’s for old people”
• Mobility – gaming (DS,
PSP), and now continuous
presence applications –
take social networks
mobile
–Twitter
–Pownce etc etc etc
–Teens don’t use these –
yet.
 Online Behavior:
Parent & Teen Attitudes
• 81% of parents and 79% of teens
agree that kids are not as careful as
they should be about the information
they give out online

• 62% of parents and 62% of teens

agree that kids do things online that
they wouldn’t want their parents to
know about

• Overall, most parents believe that the

internet is a good thing for their
children
Where are the kids going?
• MySpace.com
• Blurty.com
• BlogLines.com
• Xanga.com
• Live Journal.com
• Dead Journal.com
• StudentCenter.org
• Bolt.com
• eCrush.com
Who engages in Cyber bullying?
CYBER BULLYING PREVALENCE

• Cyber bullying typically starts at about 9

years of age and usually ends after 14 years
of age; after 14, it becomes cyber or sexual
harassment due to nature of acts and age of
actors (Aftab)
• Affects 65-85% of kids in the core group
directly or indirectly through close friends
(Aftab)

http://www.aftab.com/
Sugar & Spice?
• Little girls are taught that
it’s much prettier to be nice

• Result = covert forms of

aggression – Relational
Aggression (RA)
Relational Aggression is…
Emotional violence and bullying behavior
focused on damaging an individual’s
social connections within the peer
group.

RA is “conditional
friendship”
More Examples of Relational Aggression:

•Spreading Rumors Taunting

•Verbal Insults •Manipulative
•Teasing Affection
•Intimidation •Three-Way Calling
•Eye Rolling •Cyber bullying –
Girls are twice as
likely to participate
in cyber-bullying
than are boys
Why Use Technology to Bully?
• Anonymity
• Rapid deployment and
dissemination
• Immediate
• Rich medium
• Natural
How Do People
Cyber bully Others?

•Exclusion •Flaming
•Outing •E-mail
•Polling •Websites
•Stalking •Piling” via IM
•Libel •Impersonation
•Blackmail
What is the Impact of
Cyber bullying?
• Psychological, physical,
and emotional
• depression, anxiety,
anger,
• school failure, school
avoidance, suicide, and
school violence
• Role modeling for others
which increases likelihood
of increased bullying
 What promotes it?

•You can’t see me – I’m invisible

•Removes concern of detection,
approval or punishment
•Lack of Feedback interferes
with empathy
•Rationalization- “everybody
does it”
•Role Playing- take on another
personality, avatar, persona
[reinforces “just a game”]
 CYBER BULLY CATEGORIES
•“Inadvertent” “Power-Hungry”
–Role-play Want reaction
–Responding Controlling with fear
–May not realize it’s “Revenge of the Nerds”
cyber bullying (“Subset of Power-Hungry”)
•“Vengeful Angel” Often Victims of school-yard
bullies
–Righting wrongs Throw ‘cyber-weight’ around
–Protecting themselves Not school-yard bullies like
•“Mean Girls” Power-Hungry & Mean Girls
–Bored; Entertainment
–Ego based; promote
own social status
–Often do in a group
–Intimidate on and off
line
–Need others to bully; if
isolated, stop

{Parry Aftab. Esq., Executive Director, WiredSafety.org}

What We Can ALL Do …
• Prevention
– Bully proof child with confidence and
resilience
– Pay attention to traits that may lead to
victimization
– Combat the “tell all’ phenomenon
– Discuss it with your child
– Discuss consequences
– Do not support on-line retaliation
• Monitor
– Keep computer in open, public place in home
– Periodically investigate files, history, online
activities [cookies]
– Search your child’s name online, profiles,
postings, blogs
– Watch for secretive behavior as you approach
computer
– Install key-stroke monitoring software
– Learn the controls that are available from your
ISP
– Engage in computer activities to determine
their savvy
• What if it happens?
– Assist your child
» Develop personal guidelines for using the net
» Make realistic evaluation of quality of online community
» Learn to respond assertively, not aggressively
– Change email address, account
– File complaint with ISP, web host
– Gather evidence and keep it
– Do not delete – but don’t let your child visit that site
again
– Block or filter email
Continued….
• Contact cyber bully's parents [caution]
• Contact school staff [if happens
from school equipment]
• Contact local law enforcement
• Civil litigation
Internet – install monitoring and
filtering programs

• WiredSafety.org
– Teen Angels
• SpectorSoft
• eBlaster
• NetNanny
• SpyAgent
• SoftProbe
• ActivityLogger
Resources
• Online column about cyberbullying
(http://www.schoolcounselor.com/pubs
/cyberbullying-sabella.doc)
• http://cyberbully.org/
– Parent’s guide
– Educators guide more!
– News reports
– National Alliance for Safe Schools
http://www.safeschools.org/
• Provides training, technical assistance, and
publications to school districts interested in
reducing school based crime and violence.
 Resources

• National Education Association’s National Bullying

Awareness Campaign
http://www.nea.org/issues/safescho/bullying
• National School Safety Center http://www.nssc1.org/
– Provides training, technical assistance, and resources on school safety
and school crime prevention; offers training films on various issues;
conducts national public service campaigns.
• The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
http://modelprograms.samhsa.gov/pdfs/FactSheets/Olweus%20
Bully.pdf
– A model program of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The
program is a multilevel, multi-component school-based program
designed to prevent or reduce bullying in elementary, middle, and
junior high schools.
• http://www.stopbullyingnow.com/