Hinduja, S. &. (2010). Cyberbullying: Identification, Prevention, and Reponse. Retrieved 10 7, 2011, from www.cyberbullying.us/Cyberbullying_Identification_Prevention_Response_Fact_Sheet.pdf
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Cyberbullying: How can we Help?
I have seen many articles on the news about cyberbullying happening today. Students are using and abusing the internet to hurt others and making it extremely difficult to use internet and social networks in schools. Many people see cyberbullying as simply using the internet to hurt someone else one time, but it is not always so. According to Dr. Sameer Hinduja, cyberbullying by definition is " willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices" (Hinduja, 2010). Dr. Hinduja, along with her colleagues has created a website where parents and staff can find out more information regarding cyberbullying and webinars to help keep kids safe on the internet. Cyberbullying is a form of harassment between two or more people with the intent of one person to affect negatively the other emotionally and socially. I have seen many of my friends, having been at the beginning of the technology age, in high school and college who have been victims of negative commenting on their social network pages and by texts. This is something that is unecssary and really does effect ones self esteem. I think schools need to find ways to educate the youth to use these social media outlets for positive outlets instead of negative. Now I know that there will always be one or more people who want to go against everyone else, but if the majority of students follow the right way and we help to build their self-esteem, we could see less cases of cyberbullying. I remember when facebook was only accessable to students in college. Maybe there needs to be an age cap on social networking sites so students cannot access these webpages and harass others. I am not sure what we should do but I know unless we start thinking of something, we are going to see more and more cases of cyberbullying especially as this generation grows and has more access to technology. One of the hardest things, according to Dr. Hinduja, about cyberbullying is that the child does not typically know who the person is who is saying negative things about them (Hinduja, 2010). It makes it hard to talk to adults about being bullied when the child does not know the source from which it is coming. The problem with trying to stop cyberbullying is that many people do not see it as a growing threat in our youth and many people do not stand up and try to defend those who are being bullied. As teachers, we need to stand up for our students and make sure to note changed in the behavior of our students. No one else may ask them what is wrong but it is our job to be there and support them no matter what we have going on in our lives. If we take an active role in our students well being and make sure to talk with our students about the harms associated with cyberbullying, we may help save one child from falling victim to this harassment. The hardest part about bullying is making sure that students understand what it means to bully someone. I know students say they were just giving someone a hard time or just playing but not everyone thinks it is funny. It is important to teach the students what the difference is and encourage them to report any behavior that could fit into the bullying category without penalty: socially or by law.
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Years ago my daughter was a victim of cyberbulling when it first hit the scene with AOL IM. At that time it was not at the forefront and although she would complain my response would be, “it is just the internet.” Boy was I wrong because she then became afraid to attend dance class that is when I knew that I had to intervene. My daughter’s dance instructor was very proactive and thankfully everything was solved before matters grew out of control. I commend you as a teaching in letting your student know that we must celebrate differences in others.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your blog!
Middle schools in Houston ISD are in the middle of a series on bullying. We are educating students on the different forms of bullying and encouraging them to come forward with any incidents that need to be reported. A student of mine recently had an issue when a friend, who helped her set up her Facebook account, posted slanderous status updates and then changed her password, so she couldn't remove them.
ReplyDeleteNo matter the precautions we take, students may not be able to completely avoid bullying. However, like the fact sheet says: "Most importantly, youth should develop a relationship with an adult they trust (a parent, teacher, or someone else) so they can talk about any experiences they have online (or off) that make them upset or uncomfortable" (Hinduja, 2010). I'm glad this student felt she could trust me, so that we could address the problem as soon as possible.
Hinduja, S. &. (2010). Cyberbullying: Identification, Prevention, and Reponse. Retrieved October 12, 2011, from www.cyberbullying.us/Cyberbullying_Identification_Prevention_Response_Fact_Sheet.pdf
I will admit that when I first heard the term "cyberbullying", I laughed a bit and also brushed it off as nonsense. At the time it sounded absurd, but I have since seen that it causes a lot of problems, including self-mutilation and even suicide.
ReplyDeleteThe most common ways I have come in contact with cyberbullying is by students talking about other students on their specific social networking site or by "blogging" about them. The hurtful things students say to each other really hit hard and are upsetting to the students. You stated, "maybe there needs to be an age cap on social networking sites so students cannot access these webpages and harass others." However, all that had to be done was a change of birthdate to make you 16 and you were on Myspace (my younger sister did this). There are always loopholes and ways around everything.
I think cyberbullying should be handled just as the traditional "Give me your lunch money" bullying is handled. The students involved should be punished, either in school or by notifying the parents (if it's happening outside of school). There should also be assemblies and seminars showing students what happens when cyberbullying goes to far. These should be done often and kept short and specific. Often times if students see who is causing the problems, they will not support it and may even become confident enough to come forward and report the behavior.
Cyber-bullying has become a huge problem in the US. One of the real problems schools face is how do you know it's going on? Unless a student or parent brings it to the staffs attention it can go undetected. Lauren mentioned having an age requirement for social media. That's a great idea. I think that Facebook requires that you be at least 12 or 13, but they don't bother to check so many students just lie about their age. I have at least one student who's told me his parents will not allow him to have a Facebook account. But, he could use a friends phone to set up an account and check it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymity was mentioned in your post. This is a real problem. How do you really know who is on the other side of a computer. There was a sad story a few years ago about a girl who committed suicide after an incident on Myspace. A parent, not a student, of a girl she went to school with pretended to be a boy and tried to gather information to embarrass her. The parent said the other girl was spreading rumors about her daughter. Eventually, the parent told the girl no one liked her and that she should kill herself. The girl did.
The problem was, the law hadn't really caught up with technology and this was the first case of it's type. They tried to put her in jail, but the case was overturned. How are we as teachers and school officials supposed to fight this kind of harassment? I wish there was an easy answer.
United States v. Lori Drew. In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 19, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Lori_Drew
Last year during my student teaching assignment, we had a big cyber-bullying problem. In one incident, a parent encouraged her daughter to create a website to bash other students. Since the school already had anti cyber bullying campaigns set in place, the targeted group of students felt comfortable to report the website as soon as the word got out about it. The administrators immediately requested that the website should be taken down.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like a reoccurring theme in cyber bullying is the parents. I think it is important that schools implement an anti-cyberbullying program in order to educate the students about how they can fight the bullying. I have seen the benefits first hand.