 What is Cyber-bullying?:
Cyber-bullying occurs when a person
(often a child, preteen, or teenager) is bullied, harassed,
humiliated, threatened, embarrassed, or targeted in some way by
another person (often a child, preteen or teenager).
Cyber-bullying is much like traditional playground bullying
where there is name calling and someone is getting picked on,
except cyber-bullying is done through the use of the internet,
cell phones and other forms of digital technology. In order for
it to be categorized as cyber-bullying, the intent must be to
cause emotional distress, and the methods of cyber-bullying are
limited only by a child's' imagination or access to technology . Cyber bullying can be something as
simple as continuing to send an e-mail to someone who has said
they want no further contact with the sender, but it could also
include threats, sexual remarks and hate speech. Though the use
of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in
cyber-bullying, it is not the same as sexual harassment and does
not involve sexual predators.
StopCyberbullyingNow offers these concrete examples of
traditional and cyber bullying.
Traditional:
- Punching, shoving and other
acts that hurt people physically
- Spreading bad rumors about
people
- Keeping certain people out of
a "group"
- Teasing people in a mean way
- Getting certain people to
"gang up" on others
Cyber-bullying:
- Sending mean text, e-mail or
instant messages
- Posting nasty pictures or
messages about others in blogs or on websites
- Using someone else's username
to spread rumors or lies about someone
Types of Cyber-bullying:
There are two very common types of
cyber-bullying;
direct attack, and
cyber-bullying by proxy.
Direct Attack: A direct attack is a
message that is sent to a child directly such as:
- Instant messaging or text
messaging
- Blogs (Myspace,
Facebook...etc...)
- Stolen passwords for email,
instant messaging, and other online accounts
- Websites (websites that are
created to tease or hurt another child)
- Pictures sent through email
and cell phones
- Internet polling ("Who's hot,
Who's not"..."Who is the biggest 8th grade slut"...)
- Sending malicious code
(viruses, spy ware and hacking programs)
- Sending porn and other junk
emails or IMs
- Impersonation (posing as the
victim and harming other people)
- Interactive gaming (X-box
live, Sony Playstation network)
Cyber-bullying through proxy:
Cyber-bullying through proxy is when the "bully" gets someone to
do the dirty work for them. Most often they are unwitting
accomplices and don't know they are being used by the "bully".
Cyber-bullying by proxy is considerably the most dangerous type
of cyber-bullying because it often gets adults involved in the
harassment and most of the time the adults are unaware that
they're bullying a child.
Who does Cyber-bullying
effect?:
Cyber-bullying normally effects any
child, preteen or teenager who has access to the internet,
email, text messages, etc... Again it is much like traditional
playground bullying where fellow classmates, friends, and even
enemies attack one another with harsh words and threats.
Sometimes the threats are harmless and victim is able to brush
it off of their shoulders, other times the threats and attacks
are much more painful and can result in depression and sometimes
even suicide. As I explained on the opening page of this essay,
victims of cyber-bullying are much different than victim's of
traditional bullying. Kids who are bullied on the playground can
be physically beaten by someone who is twice their size, but in
the case of cyber-bullying the little guy can kick the crap out
of the big kid verbally, and can sometimes leave some very
emotional scars.
BBC produced an article about
teachers who felt that social networking sites (Mysapce,
Facebook...etc) were becoming "weapons". Within the article,
they quoted a boy named Nathan who had been a victim of
traditional bullying. Nathan said: "When people are bullied they
often don't feel confident about speaking to people face to
face." Perhaps this further proves that cyber-bullying gives
individuals a special "power" that allows them to say what they
want, to whoever they want, and they cannot get in trouble for
it. Nor will it come back to bit them in the butt tomorrow. The
ability to remain anonymous on the internet when cyber-bullying
gives the upper-hand to the kids who would probably have the
lower-hand on the playground.
Who carries out the act of
Cyber-bullying?:
The act of Cyber-bullying is
normally committed by one child, preteen or teenager towards
another child, preteen, or teenager. This is not to say that
adults are never involved. There have been instances (the
Story
of Megan Meiers for example) where adults have posed as
children, preteens or teenagers to cyber-bully a child, preteen
or teenager. If the bullying occurs in a conversation between
two adults it is not considered Cyber-bullying.
Why/Reasons for
Cyber-bullying:
StopCyberBullying.Org gives this
explanation for why kids cyber-bully:
Who knows why kids do anything? When it comes to cyber-bullying,
they are often motivated by anger, revenge or frustration.
Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored
and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys
available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction.
Some do it by accident, and either send a message to the wrong
recipient or didn't think before they did something. The
Power-hungry do it to torment others and for their ego. Revenge
of the Nerd may start out defending themselves from traditional
bullying only to find that they enjoy being the tough guy or
gal. Mean girls do it to help bolster or remind people of their
own social standing. And some think they are righting wrong and
standing up for others. Because their motives differ, the
solutions and responses to each type of cyber-bullying incident
has to differ too. Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits
all" when cyber-bullying is concerned. Only two of the types of
cyber-bullies have something in common with the traditional
schoolyard bully. Experts who understand schoolyard bullying
often misunderstand cyber-bullying, thinking it is just another
method of bullying. But the motives and the nature of
cyber-communications, as well as the demographic and profile of
a cyber-bully differ from their offline counterpart.

|