Cyber Bullying Analysis

Cyber bullying Analysis

I investigated cyber bullying, which has become a massive problem faced by schools since the widespread introduction of technology into our classrooms and homes.

“Cyber bullying is bullying that is carried out with the aid of recent technologies like email, chat rooms, discussion groups, instant messaging and mobile phone texting.”(Ford, 2008)

Franek defines a cyber bully as “anyone who repeatedly misuses technology to harass, intimidate, bully, or terrorize another person” (2005/2006).

It is still unclear how prevalent cyber bullying is in our schools with statistics ranging from 9%- 49% of students experiencing some form of cyber bullying. (Juvonen & Gross 2008) Clearly this is an area that requires further investigation. However, a lower number of  9% of students experiencing/d cyber bullying is still results in a significant number. E.g. For a school of 1000 students 90 of those will have been cyber bullied at some point. Once we clearly define how prevalent cyber bullying is it may become easier to address the issue at hand and implement anti-cyber bullying programs.

The department of education has played a large role in what schools are currently doing to deal with cyber bullying issues. The Department of education has deployed a “National Safe schools framework”. The aim of this framework is to “ensure the wellbeing of all Australian students” (Student learning and support services taskforce, 2003).  Whilst there are good suggestions, and a good start to begin to stop cyber bullying in our schools there is no suggestion in the framework to ensure that all schools carry out these policies. I believe that until the department of education is able to ensure, and check that these policies are implemented in schools cyber bullying will continue to plague our schools, as many schools may fail to implement the framework properly, if at all.

Ford (2009) recommends using “traditional anti- bullying strategies” to combat cyber bullying. This is because “Cyber-bullying is not so different than regular old school-yard bullying as the tactics employed by the offenders, the people affected, the resulting consequences, and the reasons for the bullying are all basically the same.” (Ford, 2009) Some of his strategies suggested include:

      “Intervention”- that is talk to the bully about their behaviour

      “Counselling”- for the bully to deal with the root cause of the bullying, and to teach the victims coping strategies.

       “School assemblies”- addressing the behaviour and highlighting the school policies against bullying (in any form) and the consequences that can occur for the bully.

      “Students parents can be bought in”

      “Educating teachers about cyber bullying and how to safeguard their students”. (Ford, 2009)

Although these are great suggestions, they can only be put into action, once the victim reports the bullying. Unfortunately up to 90% of victims don’t inform an adult. ((Juvonen & Gross 2008) Unlike traditional bullying where the bullying becomes obvious, cyber bullying can be easily hidden and often anonymous.

Through my research, it appears that the best way to stop cyber bullying would be to effectively teach our children to be cyber safe. According to Baum (2006), there are five things that we can do as educators to ensure the online safety of students:

      Initiate a cyber ethics/safety curriculum

      Teach cyber ethics/safety in the classroom

      Use the Internet for curriculum delivery

      Have students make a pledge

      Create an Internet Use Policy

In saying this, these steps cannot completely stop cyber bullying from occurring. For those students that are being cyber bullied it is important that we encourage our students to attempt to “avoid receiving messages from suspected bullies by blocking their screen names from their computer, restricting buddy lists or changing their own avatar” (Juvonen & Gross 2008).

References

Baum, J. (2006). Cyberethics: The new frontier, redOrbit. Retrieved October 7, 2009 from http://www.redorbit.com/news/education/345993/cyberethics%5fthe%5fnew%5ffrontier/index.html  Cited in Endicott-Popovsky , B,. (2009) Seeking a Balance: Online Safety for Our Children, Teacher Librarian, 14811782, Vol. 37, Issue 2

FORD, A. (2009). School Liability: Holding Middle Schools Liable for Cyber-Bullying Despite Their Implementation of Internet Usage Contracts. Journal of Law & Education, 38(3), 535-543. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Franek, M. 2005/2006. Foiling cyberbullies in the new wild west.

Educational Leadership 63 (4): 39–43. Cited in Kite, S., Gable, R., & Filippelli, L. (2010). Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge of Conduct and Consequences and Their Behaviours Regarding the Use of Social Networking Sites. Clearing House, 83(5), 158-163.  Accessed on the 1^st of September

Juvonen, J. & Gross, E. 2008, ‘Extending the school grounds? Bullying experiences in cyberspace’, The Journal of School Health, v.78, n.9, p.496. Cited in Price, M., & Dalgleish, J. (2010). Cyberbullying Experiences, impacts and coping strategies as described by Australian young people. Youth Studies Australia. Vol. 29 Issue 2, p51-59, 9p, 3 Charts, 1 Graph

http://www.mceetya.edu.au/verve/_resources/natsafeschools_file.pdf accessed 15/09/10

What are schools doing to stop Cyber bullying?

What are schools doing?

The Department of education has deployed a “National Safe schools framework”. The aim of this framework is to “ensure the wellbeing of all Australian students” (Student Learning and Support Services Taskforce, 2003).

The guide has implemented strategies such as;

“• Providing guidance and advice to schools in the development of written policies;

• Encouraging and promoting whole-school approaches, including the involvement of parents

through workshops, school boards, and associations representing parents, carers and

community members;

• Including child protection education in the school curriculum, as well as content that explores

discriminatory behaviours through an understanding of social factors such as gender, race,

sexuality, disability and religion;

• Providing professional development and training for school staff on, for example, methods of

countering bullying and harassment, child protection legislation and procedures (including

mandatory reporting), and identifying and understanding child abuse, including the needs of

victims;

• Providing resources to teachers on helping students to recognise/report abuse, and build

protective behaviours, resilience and optimism;

• Encouraging schools to empower students by involving them in the decision making and

resolution processes through, for example, training in peer mediation or adoption of ‘buddy’

systems;

• Providing specialist support, including for teachers who encounter or report abuse and who

work with students who are persistently aggressive, such as behaviour teachers and

consultants, anti-harassment officers, school counsellors, psychological consultants and

school based police constables; and by

• Conducting police checks on school personnel.”(Student Learning and Support Services Taskforce, 2003)

Whilst these are good suggestions, and a good start to begin to stop cyber bullying in our schools there is no suggestion in the framework to ensure that all schools carry out these policies. I believe that until the department of education is able to ensure, and check that these policies are implemented in schools cyber bullying will continue to plague our schools, as many schools may fail to implement the framework properly, if at all.

References

http://www.mceetya.edu.au/verve/_resources/natsafeschools_file.pdf accessed 15/09/10

What should schools be doing to combat cyber bullying?

What should schools be doing?

“Cyber-bullying is not so different than regular old school-yard bullying as the tactics employed by the offenders, the people affected, the resulting consequences, and the reasons for the bullying are all basically the same. Thus, many of the methods used to combat regular bullying may be effective to prevent cyber-bullying.”

In short the article is suggesting that rather than implementing an internet usage contract, like a number of schools are doing to attempt to combat cyber bullying, traditional methods used to combat school yard bullying can be used.

Some of the methods suggested are;

      Intervention- that is talk to the bully about their behaviour

      Counselling- for the bully to deal with the root cause of the bullying, and to teach the victims coping strategies.

       School assemblies- addressing the behaviour and highlighting the school policies against bullying (in any form) and the consequences that can occur for the bully.

      Students parents can be bought in

      Educating teachers about cyber bullying and how to safeguard their students.

References

FORD, A. (2009). School Liability: Holding Middle Schools Liable for Cyber-Bullying Despite Their Implementation of Internet Usage Contracts. Journal of Law & Education, 38(3), 535-543. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Cyber safety

Cyber safety



• Victims can attempt to avoid receiving messages from suspected bullies by blocking their screen names from their computer, restricting buddy lists or changing their own avatar (Juvonen & Gross 2008).


• According to Baum (2006), there are five things that we can do as educators to ensure the online safety of students:


 Initiate a cyber ethics/safety curriculum


 Teach cyber ethics/safety in the classroom


 Use the Internet for curriculum delivery


 Have students make a pledge


 Create an Internet Use Policy


• “If you fined yourself in the position of having to facilitate the development or advancement of Internet use policies at your school, the best first step is to engage administration, parents, and students in an informal dialogue. Filtering policies developed by a school board are not all that is needed. Children should be made aware of online risks in order to stay safe; malicious online behaviour must be curbed and sanctioned; computer access should be conditioned on taking user awareness training; skills on how to determine the credibility of online information must be taught; accountability and responsibility must be emphasized; and issues surrounding intellectual property (piracy, sharing, etc.) must be communicated.” (Endicott-Popovsky 2008)



Referencing


Baum, J. (2006). Cyberethics: The new frontier, redOrbit. Retrieved October 7, 2009 from http://www.redorbit.com/news/education/345993/cyberethics%5fthe%5fnew%5ffrontier/index.html Cited in Endicott-Popovsky , B,. (2009) Seeking a Balance: Online Safety for Our Children, Teacher Librarian, 14811782, Vol. 37, Issue 2


Endicott-Popovsky , B,. (2009) Seeking a Balance: Online Safety for Our Children, Teacher Librarian, 14811782, Vol. 37, Issue 2

Juvonen, J. & Gross, E. (2008) ‘Extending the school grounds? Bullying experiences in cyberspace’, The Journal of School Health, v.78, n.9, p.496. Cited in Price, M., & Dalgleish, J. (2010). Cyberbullying Experiences, impacts and coping strategies as described by Australian young people. Youth Studies Australia. Vol. 29 Issue 2, p51-59, 9p, 3 Charts, 1 Graph

How prevalent is Cyber bullying?

How prevalent is Cyber bullying?

• The results of research on the prevalence of cyberbullying among young people vary considerably. Reports of prevalence in the literature range from 9% to 49% within a school year (Juvonen & Gross 2008), with the wide variance attributed to differences in research design and the types of technology examined.
  
  
• young people who have been cyber bullied rarely inform adults. Indeed one American study (Juvonen & Gross 2008) found that as many as 90% of victims claimed to have not told an adult. Other studies have yielded similar findings, and attribute the inhibition to fears of humiliation and embarrassment; not being believed; having their concerns trivialised; and/or having access to technology devices restricted (Campbell 2007; Rickwood et al. 2005; Smith et al. 2008).

References






Campbell, M. 2007, Cyber bullying and young people: Treatment principles not simplistic advice, QUT Digital Repository, viewed 24 May 2010, <http://eprints.qut.edu.au/14903/>. Cited in Price, M., & Dalgleish, J. (2010). Cyberbullying Experiences, impacts and coping strategies as described by Australian young people. Youth Studies Australia. Vol. 29 Issue 2, p51-59, 9p, 3 Charts, 1 Graph






Price, M., & Dalgleish, J. (2010). Cyberbullying Experiences, impacts and coping strategies as described by Australian young people. Youth Studies Australia. Vol. 29 Issue 2, p51-59, 9p, 3 Charts, 1 Graph






Juvonen, J. & Gross, E. 2008, ‘Extending the school grounds? Bullying experiences in cyberspace’, The Journal of School Health, v.78, n.9, p.496. Cited in Price, M., & Dalgleish, J. (2010). Cyberbullying Experiences, impacts and coping strategies as described by Australian young people. Youth Studies Australia. Vol. 29 Issue 2, p51-59, 9p, 3 Charts, 1 Graph

What is Cyberbullying?

What is Cyber bullying?



• Franek defines a cyberbully as “anyone who repeatedly misuses technology to harass, intimidate, bully, or terrorize another person” (2005/2006, 36).

“Cyber bullying is bullying that is carried out with the aid of recent technologies like email, chat rooms, discussion groups, instant messaging and mobile phone texting. These technologies allow a bully or a group of bullies to intimidate other students,
for example, by:


• teasing and making fun of them online


• spreading rumours about them online


• insulting and ridiculing them in chat rooms - known as 'flaming'


• putting photos of them on the web accompanied by nasty comments


• tricking them into sharing private information and then sharing it online, and


• sending unwanted messages” (Ford, 2008)




References
Ford D. Cyberbullying in schools. [online]. Professional Educator; v.7 n.4 p.38; November 2008. Availability: <http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=171920;res=AEIPT> ISSN: 1447-3607. [cited 07 Sep 10].

Franek, M. 2005/2006. Foiling cyberbullies in the new wild west.



Educational Leadership 63 (4): 39–43. Cited in Kite, S., Gable, R., & Filippelli, L. (2010). Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge of Conduct and Consequences and Their Behaviours Regarding the Use of Social Networking Sites. Clearing House, 83(5), 158-163. Accessed on the 1st of September