Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done?

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Valerie N. Griffith Western Washington University

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Children who have been victims of bullying have always been able to retreat to their homes for safety, but now their homes have been invaded with cyber bullying. According to Belsey (2008) cyber bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies

to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others (1). Most cyber bullying occurs within these childrens homes, but the aftermath usually ends up at the schools. Cyber bullying has left schools unsure of what steps they have to take in dealing with this issue. The responsibility to these students runs into ethical and legal concerns. This literature review is geared towards helping others understand the issues adhering to cyber bullying and to develop hypothesis on how to improve ways to deal with this growing problem. When it comes to normal bullying, schools have created no tolerance policies, but cyber bullying has become harder for schools to regulate. In a 2008 study, the statistics of school-aged children being bullied online was at 72%, a 30% raise from 2004 (Juvonen & Gross, 2008). Every day, students across the nation are bringing the fear of cyber bullying with them to school, but school administrators do not know how to help these children when the bullying happens off campus. The legal actions that are being taken against the bully are limited when the act occurs off campus. Schools need to be implementing clear policies for cyber bullying, but most are just putting a no tolerance policy stamp across the issue. The administrations think that a no tolerance policy will be sufficient but in actuality it is only punishing those who get caught. Through research, schools should start to recognize ways to deal with cyber bullying in a more proactive manner.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Traditional Bullying Cyber bullying is better understood when there is a comprehension of what traditional

bullying is. Bullying can be physical or emotional harm done to another. Traditional bullying has always been seen as kids will be kids and not taken very seriously. A majority of the acts of bullying occur at the schools themselves. Bullying is more likely to occur in areas with little to no supervision such as locker rooms but they also do occur in the classroom. In many instances the teacher will ignore the importance of the incident and brush it off. Until educators understand the signs of bullying and the impact of the victims and those who witness these acts, this tradition will continue (Crother & Kilbert, 2008). Bullying has not been researched until recently in the last decade. Bullying started to be taken seriously when the Columbine massacre left 15 dead and 24 injured. The two teenage boys, who were behind the deaths and injuries, were responding to increasing embarrassment and bullying they were dealing with. Bullying is usually made up of four different elements (Coloroso, 2003). There is usually an imbalance in power, meaning the bully is bigger, stronger and/or older than the victim. Bullying can be done by one person or a group. The victim is typically identified with a particular race or gender. The bully makes it clear that his intent it to harm the victim. There tends to be further threats. Victims are chosen because the bully knows that they are vulnerable, and the bully will do whatever it takes to feel the pleasure of the victims pain. The victim usually always becomes over powered with fear. The fear gets so strong that the victim wont tell anybody of the threats for fear that the abuse will get worse. Male bullies tend to be physically and verbally abusive while girls tend to be more emotionally abusive. Males are more common to be the bullies. Victims are usually mentally or physically handicapped, obese or another sexual orientation or race of the bully themselves.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Bystanders When bullying occurs there are usually other children around that witness what is happening with their peers. Craig and Pepler (1995) looked at what the bystander does when witnessing an act of bullying. It was found that 85% of incidents had bystanders, of those cases 81% were reinforced, 48 % of those became participants and 13% actually intervened. Bystanders were typically more apt to be buddies with the bully than the victim after the incident. Bystanders rarely intervene because they dont want to get hurt, they are afraid, they dont want to make it worse or they just don t know what to do. Frequent exposure to these incidents makes bystanders unaware that the bullying is a serious issue. This highlights the need

for further programs and policies on school campuses that educate students in how to respond to these incidents. Bystanders feel teachers do not appropriately react when told about acts of bullying on campus. This lack of confidence in response to bullying leaves us to determine that teachers, even school systems, may not be responding appropriately to bullying. This needs to be addressed by creating an atmosphere where policies against bullying are adhered to and taken care of. The teachers should be teaching kids about respect and caring for others. Programs within the school that promote a sense of belonging for all students, address character education and teach conflict resolution are the answer (Perry, 1999). It is a lack of education on the preventive measures in the school system that need to be in the front seat of addressing traditional bullying as well as cyber bullying.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Cyber Bullying Cyber bullying has become damaging to children, just as traditional bullying has in the past. The main difference between cyber bullying and traditional bullying is that the victim is being harassed at all hours through many different forms of technology such as phones and computers. Cyber bullying has interfered with students home and school life, allowing schools the ability to intervene. The message that is conveyed through technology is usually the same message in traditional bullying. In this generation, kids are constantly wired in to their computers, phones, game consoles and radios. The internet has become a place where kids can talk with their friends, keep up with

whats going on in the world, expand their social network, help determine who they are and learn new things. Most online socialization is through social networking websites. Social networking sites offer an individual to customize his or her personal information, which is accessible to whomever they allow. When using technology whatever is expressed is permanent, it can be accessed at any time even when it is no longer visible, therefore when someone doesnt mean what they say they have no way of taking it back. On the internet, anyone can search for anyone, which can lead children into harmful situations. Then there is the issue of copying and pasting which can lead to skewed messages that were originally not intended to harm another. The biggest problem with the internet is that kids have no idea who they are talking to, or who is cyber stalking them.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? The Cyber Bully

The means for cyber bullying are basically the same as traditional bullying. The profile of the bully, however, is changing. Bullies can now be those who you would least expect. Aftab (2008) has characterized the typical cyber bully into five different categories. The vengeful angel is one who is getting back at those who have bullied him/her. Vengeful angels think that they are protecting others. The best way to teach vengeful angels is by giving them alternative ways to deal with the bullying and that they shouldnt take the problem into their hands. The power hungry are those that are usually characterized as the traditional bully. The nerds who are normally the victims in traditional bullying are characterized the same as the power hungry. The power hungry and nerds are bullying online to feel powerful and are usually untraceable and left undisciplined. Then there are the mean girls. Mean girls are usually always easy to identify. They are the group of popular people who bully for entertainment. Schools are good about punishing mean girls. The inadvertent bully is one who didnt mean to hurt the other person. Once they find out they usually feel bad about it. The Cyber Bullied In 2008, Juvonen & Gross, found that 72% of children were being cyber bullied while 20% of children were being traditionally bullied. The cyber bullied is usually the same kind of person who is bullied in traditional bullying. The victim handles the bullying the same as if it were in the school. Cyber victims have lower grades, poor self-esteem, mood swings, and even suicide. Those who are cyber bullied start to distrust everyone. The child wont tell his/her parents for fear that the internet will be taken away and that the situation will not be handled appropriately.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? The Roles of Adults in Cyber Bullying

School officials and parents have important roles in deciding how online acts of bullying are approached. Adults are who children go to when they are having issues, but there is a disconnection, because children understand the online networking more than that of the adults. Parents should talk with their children about boundaries, expectations of online use and the precautionary actions. Parents should also be aware and talk among themselves to make sure other parents are being led in to situations, if any. School administrators and teachers usually dont see bullying unless it is physical; they need to be educated about this obscure act of bullying. School boards need to take the initiative to understand the issue. Schools have developed policies when it comes to internet use. There are filters being placed on computers that ban certain words and topics. Policies against cell phones and social networking websites have nearly stopped the use at school, but these policies tend to do more harm to the students than help the issue of cyber bullying. Laws Since cyber bullying has only just recently come to our attention, there are not any federal laws that have been made. According to USA Today (2008), 36 states have anti-bullying laws, 10 of which have laws that specifically adhere to cyber bullying while many others are in the process. Schools can discipline students for bullying when there is evidence of harassment, threats, physical harm and slander. Actions that have been brought against school systems have been applied to set law. Cyber law takes traditional legal concepts and laws that are related to the constitution, and extends them to the internet (Yamaguchi, 2006). When merging school law and cyber law it becomes tricky. While school officials generally have more leniency than other

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? public officials when dealing with school crime, state tort immunity laws for educators do not always protect districts from being held negligent (Kirby, 2008). If proven that cyber bullying disrupts a childs learning the leeway is usually given to the school officials. In 2006, South Caroling passed The Safe School Climate Act. This act required school districts in the state to adopt policies to stop harassment, including electronic harassment. In 2007, Arkansas passed a bill that allows school official to intervene in acts of cyber bullying

even if they did not occur on campus. Though acts have been passed it is still questioned against legal and ethical concerns. According to Mason (2008), there are certain questions or principles that schools can use to help decide how to deal with cyber issues at school. Did the incident happen at school? Can the school place restrictions of off-campus student free speech? Does the student speech create a school climate that is none conducive to student well-being? Were search and seizure measures followed? Did the school act in a reasonable and prudent manner? As long as the teachers and administrators adhere to school policies and procedures, the court will usually reside on their behalf. Conclusion All incidents of cyber bullying are different, but together they create a rising issue among our nation. If we do not start educating our school administrators, school board, parents and students on this fairly new issue, we will lose more victims to suicide. Understanding that bullying is not just kids being kids and taking affirmative action against emotional and physical harm done to these children is important for their safety. Its time to start listening to our children, because I did not once come across the literature from the perception of a child. These children need their voices to be heard. These children need to shed the light on this issue

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done?

for us adults. Nothing will change until we start being proactive in making sure the children have skills in conflict resolution and anger management skills, and our adults can see the obscure symptoms of cyber bullying. Hypothesis In this study, participants will be between the ages of eight and 18, representing the broad age group that is affected by bullying. In order to understand bullying better, realize its occurring sooner, and to teach adults how to deal with it, observations and interviews need to be conducted at three different elementary schools, three different middle schools and three different high schools in Washington State for a year . The observant in this study will pose as a school counselor who will be able to dig deeper in to the growing issue of bullying. I expect that if we start to get a better understanding of bullying in our schools and how to deal with it, cyber bullying will not be so much of an issue. I predict that having the observant pose as a school counselor, there will be more students open to talking about their bullying issues and effective disciplinary action can happen. Method Sample The sampling frame of this study will be students age eight to 18 from three different elementary schools, three different middle schools and three different high schools in Washington State. The students will be observed during passing periods, lunch time and before and after school for a year. Students will be encouraged to see the counselor to talk about bullying in the school. Students will be free to use the counseling service at their discretion; no one will be forced to talk to the counselor.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Design This is a longitudinal study, using observation and interviewing. The independent variable in this study is the presence of an observer who will pose as a school counselor. The dependent variable is the childrens actions with the counselor. The children will be observed and interviewed at their own will for a year. The study will hopefully help to gain insight into bullying further. Procedure

10

I will randomly select three different elementary schools, three different middle schools and three different high schools across Washington State. The observant in the study will be briefed on what to be looking for and how to deal with issues of bullying. All nine schools will get a counselor who will observe the students during passing periods, lunch time and before and after school. The students will be encouraged to attend counseling sessions with the observant, but will not be forced. Those students who chose to attend counseling services will be interviewed on bullying. Their responses will be crucial to affective strategies on how to deal with bullying and more insight on to the growing issue of cyber bullying. After learning more about bullying, teachers can be educated further when it comes to bullying, effective disciplinary actions can be discovered, those being bullied can feel more comfortable about sharing and the bully can have counseling services to help with the underlying factor associated with the reason for bullying. In the interviews, cyber bullying can be brought up and questions can be asked about what the student thinks should be done. Teachers will be encouraged to talk with the children they feel are being bullied and ensure them that its better to talk about the issue instead of oppressing it.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Results Students will feel more comfortable talking to adults. The students will discuss their

11

points of view on bullying which will further the adults understanding on the issue and how to appropriately react. Adults will become more educated about bullying and can help the children further through the physical and emotional effects from bullying. Teachers will be able to witness bullying sooner and adhere to consequences rather than letting the situation slide. Discussion In relation to the initial hypothesis, I will restate the results of this study. If the results are as predicted, researchers will be able to further realize the importance of dealing with bullying and finding the appropriate way to do so. The results of this longitudinal study and any trends discovered will have practical implications for future bullying studies. This may lead to new and more appropriate disciplinary actions and approaches to bullying, as well as higher rates of education on bullying. Limitations There are some limitations of the current research and I have suggestions for how future research can build upon the findings of this study. The sample population may not be adequately representative of the entire population of American youth and children since it will be conducted in Washington State only. Various location demographics and characteristics may skew the results. There is also the chance that children will not be cooperative not allowing there to be any results. Also, the age group is a bit large; it might be hard to find trends with such a huge sample. Another threat to this study is that the counselors will all be different, having a result that some counselors will have better cooperation than others.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? Significance Despite these limitations, this study will be important in establishing a base level of

12

information to further understand bullying and how it affects our children. Future research could examine how to appropriately handle bullying situations; especially issues that surround cyber bullying. Education of our adults on this matter will ultimately help children by making it more comfortable to speak out and look to adults for help. Adults will also be able to see bullying in all forms.

Cyber Bullying: What needs to be done? References Aftab, P. (2008). What methods work with different kinds of cyber bullies? Retrieved from http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/educators/howdoyouhandleacyberbully.html Belsey, B. (2008). www.cyberbullying.org: Always on, always aware. Retrieved from http://www.cyberbullying.org/ Coloroso, B. (2003). The bully, the bullied, and the bystander. New York: Harper Collins. Craig, W. & Pepler, D. (1995). (Observations of bullying and victimization in the school year. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 13(2), p. 41-59. Crothers, L.M., & Kolbert, J. B. (2008). Tackling a problematic Management issue: Teachers intervention in childhood bullying problems. Intervention in School and Clinic, 43(3), p. 132-139. Juvonen, J., & Gross, E. (2008). Extending the school grounds? Bullying experiences in cyberspace. The Journal of School Health, 78(9), p. 496-505. Kirby, W. (2008). Eliminate bullying a legal imperative. National Association of Secondary School Principals, 8(2), p. 1-6. Mason, K., Ph.D. (2008). Cyber bullying: Legal issues. Cleveland State University. Retrieved from http://www.ebasedprevention.org/bullying.asp?id=3086 Perry, C. (1999). Proactive thoughts on creating safe schools. School Community Journal, 9(1), p. 113-119. Yamaguchi, I. (2006). Cyber law. Theory Culture Society, 23(2-3), p. 529-531.

13