"With great power comes great responsibility." We have all heard this saying. I think it is especially true when it comes to technology and our students. While advances in technology have given teachers and students wonderful tools to use inside and outside the classroom, these same advances also give us a new spin on an old problem~bullying.
Cyber bullying is a new age problem. It became an issue long before adults (teachers and parents alike) knew how to handle it and before the laws had any provisions on how to protect our students and children. Cyber bullying occurs when a minor child (anyone under the age of 18) is "tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed, or otherwise targeted by another minor child using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies, or mobile phones."(www.stopcyberbullying.org)
There are two types of cyberbullying. The first type is direct attacks by the individuals doing the bullying. This includes sending or posting threatening, hateful, or humiliating messages to or about another student, stealing passwords to impersonate the student, sending the student viruses or hacker programs, creating insulting or degrading polls about other classmates, or sending lewd or degrading pictures of another classmate. The second type is cyberbullying by proxy. This is when a bully impersonates them and causes other people to unknowingly punish or bully the victim for something he or she was not responsible for.
Often when cyber bullying begins, it is something done by the bully out of anger to get revenge for an action the other student did to them. However, due to the nature of the web and technology, lots of other students see this as well. Once others begin to join in on this, it spirals out of control very fast. Because the students are unable to see the immediate reaction of the things they post, many do not think about the consequences of their actions until after it is too late. Unless a classmate was threatening death or serious bodily injury to them, cyber bullying is a repeated series of technological communications. So the student has been repeatedly attacked and degraded for a period of time. This is one reason a victim of cyber bullying will often become a cyber bully themselves. They act in retaliation to the hurtful things being done to them and said about them. So the victim one moment can become the bully the next. Another minute later, they could be the victim again.
This is a problem that happens more often than adults know about or would like to admit. According to one set of statistics, 42% of students say they have been bullied online at one time or another. Girls are twice as likely to become both the victim and the bully online. The biggest difference from online bullying to regular bullying is that the victims have no escape from it. The internet is available all the time, everywhere. When a student was bullied in the past, they could go home to get some peace and security. With the availability of the internet, students are now unable to escape from the hurt and emotional damage caused by the bullying.
Cyber bullying has become such a serious problem that it has caused the death of teenagers. Students have killed other classmates as well as themselves over issues with cyber bullying. Our students lives are ending needlessly when the problems of cyber bullying are not addressed properly right away. In serious cases, cyber bullying can become a serious criminal offense. A student could be charged with juvenile delinquency or even with a misdemeanor cyber harassment charge.
Resources used in this blog:
*www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying
*www.stopcyberbullying.org
*www.dosomething.org/tipsnadtools/11-fact-about-cyber-bullying
*surfsafety.net/cyberbullying-exec%summary-final.htm
Very thoughtful post. Did you run out of room to make it into one post? I was wondering if that was going to be a problem. Anyway, this is well thought out. I like your integration of websites and statistics. You voice is passionate and articulate. Nice job. Here are some cool links to videos on Cyberbulling:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNumIY9D7uY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWUtywfwsMw&feature=related
I didn't run out of room. I didn't know how much room I did have, so I decided to split the posts into the problems on one and the the solutions on the other.
ReplyDeleteI love the second video "Children see, children do." I wasn't even aware of this problem until about a month ago when I watched a movie with my son called Cyberbully on ABC Family. That kind of scares me because my oldest son is nine. He's still a little young, but in a couple years he could be facing a problem that I may have never known anything about.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a well thought out idea. I believe you were in my group when we discuessed this and had a very in depth conversation on the topic. Bullying in general is a huge problem in all schools. That is horrible to have to admit to, but the facts are right in front of us. As future educators, we need to be aware of this (as you clearly are), and we need to be ready to take a strict stand on making this issue disappear. This task will be very hard, but if all future educators are willing to make the much needed change happen, it is possible to see a more positive end to cyber bullies. I feel so bad for the young and old children dealing with it. Hopefully they all feel comfortable talking to someone about it so that a change can be made, and they can live a happier life.
ReplyDeleteKayla, we did have a very in depth conversation about it. You should watch the second youtube video Mr. Smith suggested. That's kind of what I was talking about in our group about being able to accept teachers based on their abilities and performance instead of outward appearances. We need to lead by example.
ReplyDeleteIt's absolutely horrible that children are bullied so bad that they want to end their own life or the life of another classmate. All teachers and parents need to be educated on this topic because it can be a life or death matter.
Well done :-} I like the way you think about things. Bully has become a huge problem. I witness a lot of bullying in and outside of classrooms. I believe students who bully shows lack of confidence and wants attention. Kayla, this is horrible, but what can we do to stop it. Students have been getting bully before we were borned. I'm sad to say, but the starting age of bully is getting younger and younger. It's a shame. I hope bullying comes to an ending very soon because a lot of students are afraid to speak up. Voicing their voice will never hurt them, get will sightly get the job done to end bully
ReplyDeleteThank you Dashaya. As educators and parents, we need to find a way to stop it. Schools have workshops and "Stop Bullying Campaigns" as early as kindergarten. Let's hope this helps so that children are no longer afraid to speak up.
ReplyDelete