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Cyber Bullying: The insidious secret monster of hyperspace bullying
Another new term for all of us to come to understand: CYBER BULLYING. What is it? Where did it come from? What are the dangers of CYBER BULLYING? How can we protect our children? How can we stop it?
These are questions frequently asked by parents and educators. The answers are as complex and unsatisfying as any other foray into combatting other social issues that have bullying a the heart of the intention.
There are many related definitions for CYBER BULLYING. CYBER BULLYING.ORG states;
“Cyber bullying” is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen, teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor.”
CYBER BULLYING can take on a variety of forms and all are very effective in causing distress to the recipient. The various mediums CYBERBULLIES use include:
- Instant Messaging and text messaging
- Stealing passwords, copying passwords and impersonating another person’s Identity through slight changes in spelling
- Blogs
- Sabotaging
- Inappropriate subscriptions and junk mail sign-ups
- Gaming games
- Polling and voting
Cyber bullying has the added benefit of anonymity, where the bully is often able to hide or disguise themselves behind hidden or stolen identities, or complicated and hard to trace web addresses. As in the more traditional form of bullying, when confronted, cyber bullies will often justify their actions and try to explain-away their inappropriate behaviour. These excuses can in fact be typed into several different categories.
1. The Reactive Victim can easily become a bully over the internet if s/he is adept in computer literacy. Reactive victims are cited often throughout bullying literature as kids who have a long history of being targeted and teased and believe that no one has helped them and there is no escape from the harassment. As preteens or teens, these students may use their technological abilities to become VENGFUL INTERNET HARRASSERS (VIH), manipulating their ways around chat rooms and targeting those who, in the past, may have targeted them or any of their friends. As these children get older and move into larger educational settings, they find others who have had a similar experience, and may band together in as comrades, possibly looking to right previous wrongs. They may also gain a sense of power over a situation in which they have had no power in the past. This is a revengeful type of bullying and can be extremely difficult to trace. In a study done by Crimes Against Children Research Center (University of New Hampshire, 2005), significant overlap was seen between youth who are harassed, and in turn go on to harass others. The technological prowess of these students make it challenging to trace cyber bullying to its source.
2. The FAITHFUL FRIEND CYBER BULLY commits acts of cyber bullying all in the name of friendship loyalty. Faithful Friends get connected against others who have allegedly bullied, harassed or dissed someone in their circle of friends. This type of bullying behaviour is defended by the Faithful Friend by reason of loyalty and a sense of duty to preserve the good name or reputation of another.
3. POWER CURIOUS CYBER BULLIES are often fairly innocent in their acts of bullying. Often these children have been bullied themselves or have witnessed friends being targeted and teased, and felt helpless to do anything about it. They may hear of instances where someone’s life has been made miserable through cyber bullying and they decide to check it out to see if it is fact true. The targets are those who have bullied in the past. These Power Curious users may get caught in an escalation of events and continue with their pattern of mean spirited behaviour until such time as they get the reaction they are looking for. Once addressed these curiosity seekers seldom re-offend.
4. DRAMA QUEEN CYBER BULLIES intentionally look for and build up potentially volatile friendship connections and heighten an interaction until it becomes a full blown crisis. These actions are almost always initiated by girls and messages, gossip and lies are sent to either girls or boys. Inevitable, these situations revolve around romances, boyfriend stealing or rumour spreading, either real or imagined. These actions have the explosive potential to ignite groups of students against other groups of students. Drama Queens incite riotous reactions in groups and find this an acceptable form of entertainment. These people have what Dr. S. Samenow calls “Crooked Thinking” and require support to learn to interact with others in a morally acceptable manner.
5. MOBBER CYBER BULLIES use the same kind of mobbing techniques as used in traditional bullying except that they do it online. MOBBERS get together, target one or some individuals, and literally send hundreds of text messages of questionable content to their cell phones. This is referred to as “Attacks or Wars” and can end up being extremely costly for the receivers parents when they get the phone bill. This is intentional and purposeful CYBER BULLYING.
What can be done about Cyber Bullying? Well, that depends. All internet service providers have an address to report abuse. This is reached through www.abuse@ (internet service provider).(end). School districts that have included the words “bullying” and “cyber bullying” in their policy making around keeping schools safe have some jurisdiction around taking action against behaviours that interfere with the learning environment, however the law in Canada and the United States seems to protect those who make unkind comments under freedom of speech rights, rather than those who are at the receiving end of such comments. Check with your school district or school to see what the policy in terms of taking action against cyber bullying. Tell your children to do the following should they find themselves targeted by others over the cyber space.
- Keep all messages. If there are threats, they need to be reported to the police
- Get out off the site or out of the chat room immediately
- Tell an adult you trust
- Do not respond in any way
Parents need to know that most Cyber bullying goes unreported as our children now count the cyber network as a part of their social circle. They fear that the adults will take away the offensive device(s) which would cut them off from a part of their social life. Knowing that, adults need to be careful and respectful that the cyber world is a part of our children’s loves, and these challenges of cyber bullying have to be tackled together.
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