Just Turn the Darn Thing Off: Understanding Cyberbullying

Bullying in a school setting is an important social concern that has received increased scholarly attention in recent years. Specifically, its causes and effects have been under investigation by a number of researchers in the social and behavioral sciences. A new permutation of bullying, however, has recently arisen and become more common: Tech-savvy students are turning to cyberspace to harass their peers. This exploratory articlediscusses the nature of bullying and its transmutation to the electronic world and the negative repercussions that can befall both its victims and instigators. In addition, findings are reported from a pilot study designed to empirically assess the nature and extent of online bullying. The overall goal of the current work is to illuminate this novel form of deviance stemming from the intersection of communications and computers and to provide a foundational backdrop on which future empirical research can be conducted.

Cyberbullying in the Global …, 2011

2008

This brief reports on the major findings of the studies conducted in the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center during the years 2006 to 2008. Detailed analyses are omitted but general findings are displayed and explained. The data deals primarily with cyberbullying, but some data related to bullying behaviors is reported. The findings are separated by study. Two studies are reported upon here: a survey of 334 college freshman and a survey of 178 K-12 educators from public schools across the Commonwealth. A third study, of 75 pediatricians in Massachusetts, will be discussed under separate cover. The findings from the two studies are presented here separately. STUDY #1: 334 FRESHMAN STUDENTS REGARDING THEIR EXPERIENCES OF CYBERBULLYING DURING HIGH SCHOOL A. Frequency of Cyberbullying behaviors Forty-two percent of students surveyed reported that they had been cyberbullied via Instant Messaging (see Figure 1). This number should be considered an underestimate, since this study only examined Instant Messaging as the means of cyberbullying, and we now know that cyberbullying occurs via several different methods (user-generated online content, online chatting, text messaging, etc.). Data is currently being gathered utilizing a broader definition of cyberbullying which includes methods other than messaging; however, messaging is clearly one of the most common vehicles for cyberbullying.

Recent reports in the news media indicates a vast majority of children are connected to the Internet and World Wide Web. As more children connect online, they bring their behaviors that were once principally face-to-face, to the Internet. This chapter is concerned with online aggression, specifically school age bullying. Children's capacity to bully peers is growing because of increased use of electronic and wireless information communication technologies. Anonymity provides a venue to engage in risky cyber-bullying for today's children. School districts need to be aware of the dangers and psychological effects of cyber-bullying.

While traditional forms of bullying have been steadily decreasing over the course of the last two decades, cyberbullying has emerged as a major concern among parents, teachers, and other professionals working with young people. Because cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon, its research base is not as well developed as research on traditional bullying. In this literature review, the authors synthesize current knowledge on cyberbullying's prevalence among youth; its relationship to offline bullying; which youth are most likely to be perpetrators and victims; the negative effects of cyberbullying on victims; and the landscape of intervention efforts currently employed in the United States. In the process, they highlight areas in need of future research.

RMLE Online, 2014

Bullying and cyberbullying continue to be major problems in today's schools and topics of heightened public concern. This pilot study aimed to increase the knowledge base concerning bullying and cyberbullying, to explore the relationship between traditional bullying and cyberbullying, and to solicit information on the prevalence rates of technology use by students in grades 5-8 (N=352). This information enhances the current research in cyberbullying and contributes to the development of prevention, intervention, and response strategies, especially as they relate to school counselors and mental health providers in schools.

Handbook of Research on School Violence in American K-12 Education, 2019

The advent of the internet has revolutionized the way individuals conduct business, socialize, and search for information on any topic imaginable at any time. Nevertheless, with all its benefits, the internet also has a darker side for which new criminal opportunities have emerged and some traditional crimes have evolved and multiplied. One area of concern that has emerged since the advent of the internet is that of cyberbullying, a distinct type of deviant behavior that has attained worldwide attention from practitioners and scholars. This chapter examines cyberbullying as associated with the age, gender, race, and urbanicity of the victims versus the extent to which traditional face-to-face bullying took place within these same groups. Cyberbullying remains an elusive social problem for all because cyberbullying has been associated with school shootings, suicides, and other violence among adolescents. Discussion of the implications for practitioners and scholars will be included i...

Journal of School Health, 2008

BACKGROUND: Bullying is a national public health problem affecting millions of students. With the rapid increase in electronic or online communication, bullying is no longer limited to schools. The goal of the current investigation was to examine the overlap among targets of, and the similarities between, online and in-school bullying among Internet-using adolescents. Additionally, a number of common assumptions regarding online or cyberbullying were tested.

Choice Reviews Online

Just hit him back, and he'll leave you alone. Hit him back, and you'll be suspended for hitting. We want kids to always report to us when bullying is happening." But don't tattle. Adults must always intervene in bullying cases. Why can't kids learn to deal with any of these problems by themselves? This may not be the first book about bullying that you've picked up. Perhaps you've dipped into many articles or books, but like many educators, you still feel frustrated with a problem that seems to stubbornly defy a tsunami of opinions, discussions, stories, and proposed solutions. Anyone working in schools knows very well how serious bullying can be; on the other hand, it's not uncommon to hear even mild slights characterized as bullying. We want to help children who are being targeted, but we also know that there's no way to require children to like each other. We know that children can be cruel online, but realistically, how can educators address problems that are happening off campus and in cyberspace? Everyone seems to agree that bullying has always existed. That fact alone can make it hard to understand why this problem sometimes feels as though it's spinning out of control. It's always been here-yet now it's also different. We know that referring to everything and anything as bullying isn't correct; but it's hard to say what bullying is, exactly. A teacher told me once that he felt like he was trying to clutch Jell-O. The problem is real-and serious-but we're having trouble getting a grip on it. My purpose in this book is to help educators sort through the thorny issues that complicate our efforts to understand bullying and cyberbullying, and to suggest practical and realistic ways to address these behaviors effectively. Despite the plethora of publications in this field-many of which offer valuable insights according to their different areas of emphasis-I've been struck by how unusual it is to find approaches that are both concrete and genuine but that also cover the entire spectrum of online and offline bullying behaviors. I don't think these social problems between children can be addressed without a solid understanding of child development, how children actually bully today, what goes on in schools, and how digital behaviors emerge during childhood and interrelate with (and sometimes determine) in-school socializing. Bullying is a complex puzzle because solving it needs all of these pieces. And that's exactly the perspective that I present in this book. Let me introduce myself by saying I'm not a college professor, or a professional trainer in bullying prevention, or a researcher in bullying and cyberbullying, or a parent of three kids (two teens), or a teacher. I'm all of those things. And each role I play adds an important skill and dimension to the mix. First and foremost, I'm a professor of psychology at a state university in Massachusetts. At that university, I run a center (the BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING By Dr. Elizabeth Englander Harvard Education Press, 2013 2" " Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, or MARC) where I (with my colleagues and students) conduct research into bullying and cyberbullying, including a statewide survey of more than twenty-one thousand children in grades 3 through 12, and an annual regional survey of college freshmen (in 2010-11, we studied 617 freshman; during 2011-12, we studied another 616; to date this year, we've studied 293 more). 1 We study some typical issues, such as how many kids report being bullied, and some unusual problems, such as kids who cyberbully themselves (yes, they do attack themselves), children who try to report bullying only to be told not to tattle, and the types of bullying that adults don't react to. I'll talk a lot more about the findings of this research program later in the book. (Appendix A has methodological details about the research cited in this book. Appendix B provides more information about MARC.) But it's important that I don't only conduct research. I also do a great deal of work in the field with teachers, children, parents, administrators, and community members. MARC delivers programs, trainings, and services to teachers, students, and parents in hundreds of schools each year (during the 2010-11 school year, we visited about 250 schools). Along with other MARC faculty, I deliver, or supervise the delivery of, virtually every one of those services. I've written and tested two evidence-based curricula (a third is in progress), as well as the training materials for the college students we train to work with kids in dozens of schools every year. (You'd be amazed at what school-age kids will discuss with college students, whom they generally revere-it gives us wonderful insights.) I've also trained tens of thousands of teachers, administrators, and staff in hundreds of schools. Finally, I've spoken to and worked with parents' organizations in hundreds of communities. I think it's being heavily involved in both research and fieldwork that makes my perspective particularly useful. And because parents are such an important part of this mix, my additional perspective as a parent of three children makes my approach to the whole issue more realistic and grounded. In addition to this combination of experiences, I'm something of a rare bird in that I'm interested in both child development and digital communications. I've been studying child development and aggression, and the difficulties that occur during childhood that result in violence or abuse, for more than twenty-five years. But my second area of interest-which, until about 2005, had absolutely nothing to do with my first-has always been the impact of technology on human beings and communications. These interests remained entirely separate until, a few years into the twenty-first century, digital communications began to consistently emerge as the newest and most insidious form of aggression on the planet (and a growing problem among children). Virtually overnight, my two areas of study merged. Let me also introduce a few caveats. I'm not an attorney or a licensed therapist, and so won't be dispensing legal, clinical, or therapeutic advice in this book. Thank goodness. THE AGENDA " The first thing I do, in chapter 1, is to summarize some of my research findings about patterns of behavior among bullies-in particular the emergence of "gateway behaviors" that are particularly difficult to monitor and assess at school. The chapter provides

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