Transcript Slide 1

Bullying Using Websites
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/bullying/cyber_bullying.html
DIFFERENCES
BULLYING
CYBERBULLYING
• DIRECT
• ANONYMOUS
• Occurs on
school property
• Occurs off
school property
• Poor relationships
with teachers
• Good relationships with
teachers
• Fear retribution
• Fear loss of technology
privileges
Physical: Hitting, Punching &
Shoving
Verbal: Teasing, Name calling &
Gossip
Nonverbal: Use of gestures &
Exclusion
www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov
•
Further under the radar than
bullying
•
Emotional reactions cannot be
determined
{McKenna & Bargh, 2004; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004}
From ‘Demystifying and Deescalating Cyber Bullying’ by Barbara Trolley, Ph.D. CRC, Connie
Hanel, M.S.E.d & Linda Shields, M.S.E.d. http://www.nyssca.org/CYBERBULLYING-pp-BT28th.ppt
What is Cyberbullying?
• Cyberbullying involves the use of
information and communication
technologies such as email, cell phone
and pager text messages, instant
messaging (IM), defamatory personal web
sites, and defamatory online personal
polling web sites, to support deliberate,
repeated, and hostile behavior by an
individual or group, that is intended to
harm others (Keith & Martin, 2004).
Recently, i-SAFE America conducted a national survey of more than 1500
students -ranging from fourth to eighth grade.
iSafe Survey
• 58% of kids admit someone has said
mean or hurtful things to them online
• 53% of kids admit having said something
mean or hurtful things to another online
• 42% of kids have been bullied while online
• 34% were threatened
CYBER BULLYING
PREVALENCE
• Aftab’s statistics:
 90% of middle school students they polled had
their feelings hurt online
 65% of their students between 8-14 have been
involved directly or indirectly in a cyber bullying
incident as the cyber bully, victim or friend
 50% had seen or heard of a website bashing of
another student
 75% had visited a website bashing
 40% had their password stolen and changed by a
bully (locking them out of their own account) or
sent communications posing as them
 Problems in studies: not assessing the ‘real thing’
i.e. Only 15% of parent polled knew what cyber
bullying was
CYBER BULLYING
PREVALENCE
• Cyber bullying typically starts at
about 9 years of age and usually
ends after 14 years of age; after 14, it
becomes cyber or sexual
harassment due to nature of acts
and age of actors (Aftab)
• Affects 65-85% of kids in the core
group directly or indirectly through
close friends (Aftab)
http://www.aftab.com/
When Joanne had a row with a longtime friend
last year, she had no idea it would spill into
cyberspace. But what started as a spat at a
teenage sleepover swiftly escalated into a
three-month harangue of threatening e-mails
and defacement of her weblog. "It was a nonstop nightmare," says Joanne, 14, a freshman
at a private high school in Southern California.
"I dreaded going on my computer."
"If I find you, I will beat you up," one message
read. Frightened, Michael blocked their IM
addresses but didn't tell his parents for two
weeks. "It scared me," he recalls. "It was the
first time I was bullied."
At one Elementary School in Fairfax, Va. last
year, sixth-grade students conducted an online
poll to determine the ugliest classmate, school
officials say.
"The person was pretending it was me, and
using it to call people names," the 14-year-old
Seattle student said. "I never found out who it
was."
In June 2003 a twelve-year-old Japanese girl
killed her classmate because she was angry
about messages that had been posted about
her on the Internet.
Canadian teenager David Knight’s life became
hell when a group of his school mates
established a “Hate David Knight” website and
posted denigrating pictures and abuse and
invited the global community to join in the hate
campaign.
Why Use Technology to Bully?
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Anonymity
Rapid deployment and dissemination
Immediate
Rich medium
Natural
How Do People
Cyberbully Others?
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Exclusion
Outing
Polling
Stalking
Libel
Blackmail
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Flaming
E-mail
Websites
Impersonation
What is the Impact of
Cyberbullying?
• Psychological, physical, and
emotional
• depression, anxiety, anger,
• school failure, school
avoidance, suicide, and
school violence
• Role modeling for others which
increases likelihood of
increased bullying
What is the Impact of
Cyberbullying?
• Legal consequences for school
and families (slander,
defamation, terroristic threats,
sexual exploitation, etc.)
• Family Complications
• Very difficult to take back once
it begins.
• Antithetical to the overall
school mission
CYBER BULLY CATEGORIES
• “Inadvertent”
– Role-play
– Responding
– May not realize it’s
cyber bullying
• “Vengeful Angel”
– Righting wrongs
– Protecting themselves
• “Mean Girls”
“Power-Hungry”
 Want reaction
 Controlling with fear
“Revenge of the Nerds”
(“Subset of Power-Hungry”)
 Often Victims of school-yard
bullies
 Throw ‘cyber-weight’ around
 Not school-yard bullies like
Power-Hungry & Mean Girls
– Bored; Entertainment
– Ego based; promote
own social status
– Often do in a group
– Intimidate on and off
line
– Need others to bully; if
isolated, stop
{Parry Aftab. Esq., Executive Director, WiredSafety.org}
What Educators Can Do …
• Conduct a needs/threat assessment
• Review school policy
• Provide opportunities for professional
development of school staff (and parents).
• Classroom guidance
• System of reporting (especially among peers)
• Work with authorities and ISP
• Counseling
• Anti-bullying programs
What Parents Can Do
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Keep computer in a place easy to monitor
Use monitoring software and/or blocking/filtering
Work with the school, authorities, and ISP
Get tech literate
Communicate with children about the issue
Programmable cell phones
Support the victims
– Don’t blame the victim
– Don’t freak out
What Kids Can Do …
Discipline & Legal Issues
Back to YouTube Video…
• Is there a legal duty for school
administrators to protect the safety and
security of students when they are in school
and when they are using the Internet
through the district system?
• Yes! Schools have an obligation to protect
students and/or employees from harassing,
threatening, or bullying conduct.
Discipline & Legal Issues
That said, as you will see, balancing this
obligation with the concurrent obligation to
respect students’ speech rights often makes
this quite difficult
•Tinker Standard
- Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 1969
- “Considered to be the high watermark of students’ First
Amendment rights”
Discipline & Legal Issues
Law Enforcement should be contacted if
educator becomes aware of:
•Death threats or threats of other forms of violence to a
person or property
•Excessive intimidation or extortion
•Threats or intimidation that involve any form of bias or
discrimination
•Any evidence of sexual exploitation
What Do You Think?
• A common scenario recently has been
students creating false online profiles of
administrators and teachers.
• Students posted parody on MySpace.com
claiming the principal smoked pot, kept beer
at school and liked having sex with students.
• Principal suspended students and sued
family for damaging his reputation.
• What do you think?
The Verdict!
• Judge finds suspension of student for MySpace
parody of school principal unconstitutional.
• “Hermitage School District violated the First
Amendment free-speech rights of a student
when it punished him for creating a parody
profile of his principal on the MySpace.com
website because the District failed to show that
the profile - which was created off-campus caused any disruption to the school day, a
federal judge ruled late yesterday.”
What Do Think?
• A website is created about a teacher that
indicated “Why She Should Die” and solicited
contributions for a “hit man.”
• Verdict guess?
• Here the court found there was substantial
disruption, because the teacher was so upset
she had to take leave.
What Do Think?
• One student’s website depicted his assistant
principal in a Viagra ad, as a cartoon
character having sex, and as a participant in
a Nazi book burning.
• Verdict guess?
• “Appalling and inappropriate,” the court
conceded. But no disruption, no grounds for
discipline.
What Would You Do?
• A parent brings the principal a disturbing posting
she has found online posted by a student.
• It reads: Philosophy So that’s the only way to
solve arguments with all you $%&*heads out
there. I just kill you! God I cant wait till I can kill
you people. Feel no remorse. No shame. I don’t
care if I live or die in the shootout, all I want to
do is to kill and injure as many of you pricks as I
can, especially a few people. Like (name of
student).
What Would You Do?
• Ben reports seeing Tony using his cell phone
in the locker room taking pictures of students
while they are changing for PE.
What
Would
You
Do?
Sam, a high school student, has publicly
acknowledged that he is gay.
• Jerry, another student, has created a profile
that focuses on Sam. Jerry’s profile is entirely
focused on condemning homosexuality.
Sam and his parents have reported this site to
the school and are demanding the school
have the site taken down.
• Sam is now fearful when he comes to school
as he has had some negative incidents that
appear to be related to this site
Summing It Up
• “Substantial Disruption” is a high hurdle for
schools.
• Whether or not you can impose formal discipline
may end up being the least important question
– Stopping the harm is the most important objective
• Schools can always educate. Schools should
regulate with caution.
• Beef up your bullying policy to include
cyberbullying.
Resources
• Online column about cyberbullying
(http://www.schoolcounselor.com/pubs/cyberbull
ying-sabella.doc)
• http://cyberbully.org/
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Parent’s guide
Educators guide more!
News reports
National Alliance for Safe Schools
http://www.safeschools.org/
• Provides training, technical assistance, and publications to
school districts interested in reducing school based crime
and violence.
Resources
• National Education Association’s National Bullying
Awareness Campaign
http://www.nea.org/issues/safescho/bullying
• National School Safety Center http://www.nssc1.org/
– Provides training, technical assistance, and resources on school safety
and school crime prevention; offers training films on various issues;
conducts national public service campaigns.
• The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
http://modelprograms.samhsa.gov/pdfs/FactSheets/Olweus%20Bull
y.pdf
– A model program of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The
program is a multilevel, multi-component school-based program
designed to prevent or reduce bullying in elementary, middle, and junior
high schools.
• http://www.stopbullyingnow.com/