Anna, Magda & Taylor

 The Wikipedia definition for cyber-bullying is

“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”
 Basically, cyber-bullying is an issue in which

people abuse others over the internet, via a

mobile phone or other communication devices
with intention to hurt or embarrass the victim.
 Cyber bullying can be done through picture or
post messages.
 Cyber-bullying may also include threats, sexual
remarks, hate speech, ganging up on victims by
making them the subject of ridicule, and posting
false statements as fact aimed at humiliation of the
victim.
 Some cyber bullies harass the victim by constantly
sending threatening or derogatory emails and
instant messages to the victim
 Other cyber bullies have been known to instigate
gossip and rumours via social network sites in
order to get others to dislike and gang up against a
victim.
 Simply, cyber-bullying is done via means of
communication, this includes the internet.
 Online forums, email accounts, social network
sites, and instant messaging systems are all
involved in cyber-bullying via the internet, as
long as a bully can get in contact with a victim
or make someone a victim using the internet,
then cyber-bullying will continue to exist.
 The difference between traditional, physical
bullying and cyber bullying is that via the
internet a bully can remain virtually
anonymous and unknown to the victim.
 Temporary or secondary email accounts can be
used, a ‘blocked’ mobile number can be used to
send abusive text messages and a false instant
messaging account can easily be set up so the
victim has no clue who their bully is.
 Mainly, it has been the younger generation
affected by cyber-bullying, this is because today’s
teenagers and younger generally know more about
computers than adults do and so can mask from
their parents that they are involved in cyber-
bullying (as victim or bully) if they know their way
around computer technology.
 Older youth use the internet more than younger
children and are more likely to be cyber-bullied
but there have been reports that children as young
as 8 years old have been victims of cyber-bullying.
 The Youth Internet Safety Survey-2, conducted by the Crimes
Against Children Research Center at the University of New
Hampshire found that 9% of youth (10-17 y.o.) claimed to be
victims of cyber bullying
 Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin completed a study in the
summer of 2005 of approximately 1,500 Internet-using
adolescents and found that over one-third of youth reported
being victimized online, and over 16% of respondents
admitted to cyber-bullying others
 According to a 2005 survey by the National Children's
Home charity and Tesco Mobile[14] of 770 youth between
the ages of 11 and 19, 20% of respondents revealed that they
had been bullied via electronic means. Almost three-
quarters (73%) stated that they knew the bully, while 26%
stated that the offender was a stranger.
 Following a mean from these statistics, at least
a quarter of people in this class will have been
cyber-bullied at some point in their lives.
 Reports from people being cyber-bullied claim
to start feeling uncomfortable in public
(especially if they don’t know who their bully
is), and are found to be more distressed, often
leading to social problems.
 Often those being cyber-bullied don’t tell a
figure of authority for fear that their
technology will be taken from them to stop any
further harassment.
 Social problems that can be caused from cyber-
bullying have been found to include;
 “running away from home, cheating on a
school test, skipping school, or using alcohol or
marijuana”
 This is according to research undertaken by
Hinduja and Patchin.
 Extremely, cyber bullying has actually lead to
the suicide or death of some victims
 Ryan Halligan (Dec 18 1989 – Oct 7 2003)
 Ryan was only 13 when he committed suicide
after being continually bullied online.
 He was repeatedly sent taunts via instant
messages calling him ‘gay’ and as a result he
was also threatened via text messages because
of this accusation
 Ryan suffered from a learning disability and as
a result wasn’t very good at sports, this caused
classmates to actually bully him physically.
 After his death transcripts from AIM
conversations were found in which a popular
girl pretended to like him but later told him at
school that he was a "loser". Ryan later found
out she only pretended to like him in order to
retrieve personal information about him. Their
private exchanges were copied and pasted into
other IMs among his schoolmates to embarrass
and humiliate him. After he went up to the girl
and she called him a loser, he said "It's girls like
you who make me want to kill myself".
 Halligan's father discovered some disturbing
conversations between Halligan and a boy with a
screen name he didn't recognise. Ryan had begun
communicating online with a penpal about suicide and
death and told him he was thinking about suicide.
They had also been exchanging information they had
found on sites relating to death and suicide including
sites that taught them how to painlessly kill
themselves. The penpal answered " Phew. It's about
fucking time." shortly after Ryan told him he was
thinking about suicide, 2 weeks before he killed
himself. This was the last conversation he ever had
with the penpal. Online they would talk about how
much they hated the popular kids and how they made
them feel and then the penpal pitched the suicide idea
saying that "If you killed yourself you would really
make them feel bad."
 Ryan’s penpal, though seemingly ‘helpful’ to
Ryan, was in fact a bully too, manipulating
Ryan to think about suicide, linking him up to
sites showing him how to do and putting idea’s
in his head. Without this form of manipulative
bullying, Ryan may never have killed himself.
 In England no official regulation or legislation has been
put in place to punish those who are causing harm to
others via communication devices.
 Campaigns are in place however to raise awareness of
the growing problem;
CyberKind campaign
 The aim of this campaign is to counteract and reverse the
growing trend of cyberbullying by making a conscious
effort to encourage and reward 'niceness on the net'.It
was launched at the House of Lords on Armistice Day
2009 by Baroness Hayman and Lord Grocott.
The CyberKind campaign is part of the Act Against
Bullying charity. There is no law in place to counteract or
stop cyberbullying, nor are forums particularly regulated
and looked over by officials but campaigns and charities
are in place to try and raise awareness of the problem
 It tells us that regulation of the internet may not be
strict enough, three cases of suicide by 12-13 year olds
have been reported in the USA as a result of cyber
bullying, including Ryan Halligan and Megan Meier.
 Regulation should really be stricter with ways of
communication over the internet as far too much takes
place, sometimes with dire and terrible consequences.
 Campaigns are in place in the UK but charities have no
real power, just a voice to try and get a law to come
into place, without a law in place then cyber-bullying
will continue to go on and the bullies will be able to go
on anonymously and unpunished.