Dr. P. Brady
March 31.2011
Education Foundations and Issues
Cyber Bullying and a Much Needed Response
Bullying started off in three different but common forms, verbal, physical and relational; as if that was not enough students now find bullying virtually inescapable since it can find its way on to every computer, or cell phone. Unlike earlier years, students struggle to find ways to avoid bullying. Bullies only used to be at school, until now. Bullying is a problem and always will be a problem, but what makes cyber bullying so much more of a problem than just school yard bullying is that cyber bullying takes the safe haven from a student versus school yard bullying that only happens on the school yard. What do students do? How do they defend themselves against it? How many students find themselves victimized by cyber bullying? With such technology advancements in our world should there be laws or rules in place? How does cyber bullying even happen? What could happen to the kids from this? Is it really harmful? In the article Indepth: Bullying, reporter Joan Leishman investigates cyber bullying and its victims. Personal accounts are given by students who have or are being cyber bullied. Teachers and other school staff find it difficult to punish cyber bullies because the internet acts as a cloak for them. The statistics that show how much cyber bullying is going on versus cyber bullying that is known or arises to the attention of authority (whether it is parents or school staff) is unbelievable. Students have said to be more hurt by cyber bullying than school yard bullying. Parents can get “survivor guides” to cyber bullying that can help them and their children defend themselves against cyber bullying. If someone feels that cyber bullying or any bullying for that matter is too out of control then there are many different national or possibly local organizations and support groups that can be contacted for information.
There are three main types of bullying verbal, physical and relational; each one breaks off into other sub categories of bullying. Verbal bullying is when one youth by word of mouth insults or hurts the feelings or tries to hurt the feelings of another student. Secondly there is physical bullying is when one student uses bodily force to harm or to try and harm another student. Thirdly there is relational bullying which involves exclusionary measures and other things where tools such as labelling and “othering” come to in play. Kamaron Institute’s Margaret Ross describes cyber bullying as the use of information technologies to hurt, taunt, ridicule, threaten or intimidate someone deliberately. Cyber bullying can take form in many different ways through many different places. The notorious and original form of cyber bullying is IM and e-mail messaging. Unless parents have locks on their internet and/or computers, their kids will be able to access whatever content and programs their little heart desires. This automatically makes them a target for cyber bullying, especially if they are already a victim of school yard bullying. Cyber bullying is faceless and unreliable, a youth can never be sure how serious someone on another computer who is talking to them is when they say “Tomorrow I am gonna punch you in the face.” This unreliability scares victims into not saying anything or they feel that if they do not know who it is then they cannot tell because there is nothing that can be done. This is very similar in the case of cell phones and text messaging or students who have their e-mail hooked up to their cellular telephone. The CBC news article that is reported by Joan Leishman, states how the students in it (more specifically David Knight) were targeted by cyber bullies through the creation of humiliating websites, IM, e-mail, chat rooms, and bulletin boards. David has taken it for years, but not all youths can.
Cyber bullying is most common among youths and adolescents but adults are just as vulnerable to it as well. More then half of the students being bullied are claiming that cyber bullying hurts more then school yard bullying. Parents, guardians and people of loco parentis are asked to keep a close eye on their youth(s) to ensure they are safe while using information technologies. According to the CBC news article 99 per cent of Canadian students have used the internet. 8 per cent use it for a least an hour a day. Nearly 60 per cent use chat rooms and instant messaging. Usually school yard bullying is how students are selected for cyber bullying. The children who are cyber bullied are the ones who find no escape from it. When they are at school they are a walking target for cruel jokes and sometimes physical abuse, then when they get home to their place of peace they are sadly mistaken. What in the World is going on in Cyber-Bullying? Posts some information that is relatively recent and important when question facts about this phenomenon.
In addition to those mentioned above, the Media Awareness Network, a media industry non-profit (backed through the Media Awareness Network’s “Be Web Aware” partnership with Bell Canada and Microsoft Canada) which grew out of concerns for violence on television in the 1990s, now also focuses energies on digital safety issues, and is known for its research entitled Young Canadians in a Wired World, with its baseline Phase I study in 2000-2001 and its Phase II update in 2003-2005. Key Findings included the following: a majority (59 per cent) say they have assumed a different identify; thirty-four per cent of students in Grades 7 to 11 report being bullied, while 12 per cent report having being sexually harassed; among those who report being bullied, 74 per cent were bullied at school and 27 per cent over the Internet; for those who report sexual harassment, the situation is reversed: 47 per cent say they were harassed at school, while 70 per cent were harassed over the Internet; for those young people who report being sexually harassed over the Internet, over half (52 per cent) say it was someone they knew in the real world. While these studies are not recent, watch Media Awareness Network as a key player in Canada for information on cyberbullying research. (http://www.cyberbullyingnews.com/2010/05/canada-and-cyberbullying-new-data-key-researchers-and-organizations/, 2010)
It is very clear that the issues here are significantly posted about youths in today’s society. It seems as though a solution is much needed, that it seems like there are no odds to beating this. So people need to find ways to stop this from growing, the only way to do that is by educating the youth of today so they can educate the youth of tomorrow.
People get indirectly hurt or sometimes killed from cyber-bullying. As many parents, teachers, friends, neighbourhoods and school communities have learned over the last decade is that terrible things arise from bullying. School shootings, suicides, homicides, depression, mental breakdowns and even slow degeneration of one’s life are all indirect products from not only bullying but cyber-bullying as well. Some like Alex who puts his confession on a support site for bullied victims can survive it; however others have a harder time in doing so.
“First, don't respond to them, if they go to the point of physical abuse, i recommend go to someone who can help you, like your parents, principal, even police, if the injuries are bad or they threatening you with something bad. just in case also learn the basics of fighting, just in case, just enough to escape the situation without getting much injuries.” (http://www.stopabully.ca/support/, 2011)
Alex is brave to come forward and share what he found had worked for him, but not many youths are. Many parents also don’t know what warning signs to look for to know if their child is being bullied or not which makes a difference in that child’s life, decisions as to what they can do to stop and who they can talk to about it. Possible warning signs of a student or child who is being bullied include change in personality, change in their path to school, decreased appetite, dwindling of school performance, stolen items or damaged property, bumps/bruises, sleep deprivation, or suicidal thoughts. Any or all warning signs should be noted, documented and made known to the child’s school so the matter can be investigated further. If a child is bullied for too long, it could harm the child in unimaginable ways and take so much away from that potential child’s future.
Cyber bullying is a vast and hard topic to discuss. There are so many things people want to do to stop it but can not and when it has been beat something else is developed which allows it to happen again, sometimes even worse. Parents, teachers, friends, family, neighbours even siblings cannot stop the inevitable chance that someone close to them could be bullied, there may not be ways to stop it but there are ways to reassure our loved ones that they are not alone while targeted by faceless hate that follows them around. Teach them, show them, hug them, any which way a person can get to them, do it! One may never know when they may need the support and advice of someone close and one may never know if someone is being bullied until that person comes out and says it, so just be supportive and take them gently to find some way around it.
Works Cited
Gibson, Jim. Cyber Bullying On the Rise. Victoria Times Colonist, http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/fashion-beauty/indiDenim+brings+custom+jeans+Canada/2715658/Reinventing+classic+denim+jeans/2689233/Cyber+bullying+rise/2915031/story.html?id=2915031 March 31st, 2011
Ross Margaret. Cyber Bullying Prevention: How Parents can Protect Prepare http://kamaron.org. Apr 20, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck-OIP6nwLo&feature=related March 31st 2011
Shariff Shaheen. Canada and Cyberbullying: New Data, Key Researchers and Organizations. Sun, May 30, 2010.http://www.cyberbullyingnews.com/2010/05/canada-and-cyberbullying-new-data-key-researchers-and-organizations/ March 31 2011
Canadian Childrens Rights Council http://www.canadiancrc.com/Bullying_Canada_Resources_Provincial_Programs.aspx March 31st 2011
Stop A Bully Safe and Anonymous. http://stopabully.ca/bullying/ March 31st 2011
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