Cyberbulling

I was a victim of traditional bullying all throughout my elementary and high school years.  I grew up in a very small town where there weren’t many African Americans.  From first grade through sixth grade, I was the only black student in the entire school.  The other children were so cruel.  I was always the last person picked to be on any team, I never had anyone to play with during recess, I was always excluded from after school activities, children would through rocks and mud at me at recess and on the bus, and I would get teased nearly every day.  In high school there were about 9 other black students, but the bullying didn’t get any better.  The kids were older now so it became much worst.  Hearing the “N” word was a part of my everyday routine. The kids would chant songs and make monkey noises in the hallways.  They even went as far as putting bombs in my mailbox, toilet papering my house, and they once even broke out all the car windows in my driveway.  I graduated in 1999 and back then the internet was still new, we were still on dial up, and pagers were the “in” thing.  At least when I got home from school the bullying stopped and I could be free from torment until the next day.

With cyberbullying, for the victim, the torment never stops.  Although it is logical, I didn’t realize that cell phones were used to engage in cyberbullying.  Before I conducted this research I correlated cyberbullying with social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.  Cyberbullying has gone beyond text messages and tweets.  Children are creating websites, recording videos to share on Youtube, bullying in chat rooms, on gaming sites, on blogs, and with internet polling as well.  Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullies can create false identities, which would prevent the victim from knowing who they are being bullied by and why.  With cyberbullying, a photo, a video, and a website can go viral for the whole world to see and for multiple bullies to join in on.

Cyberbullying is a very serious problem affecting many adolescents in our society.  There are many negative affects related to cyberbullying.  According to The Cyberbullying Research Center:

Many targets of cyberbullying report feeling depressed, sad, angry, and frustrated….Victims who experience cyberbullying also reveal that are were afraid or embarrassed to go to school. In addition, research has revealed a link between cyberbullying and low self‐esteem, family problems, academic problems, school violence, and delinquent behavior. Finally, cyberbullied youth also report having suicidal thoughts, and there have been a number of examples in the United States where youth who were victimized ended up taking their own lives. (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010, p.1)

I found it very surprising that schools run the risk of being sued for trying to stop cyberbullying.  Even though cyberbullying usually takes place off of school grounds, it generally involves students from the same school; therefore, you would think that schools would have some rights as a disciplinarian to stop cyberbullying from occurring.  I also was shocked to learn that there are specific criminal charges such as cyberharrassment and juvenile delinquency. 

It seems as though cyberbullying is hard to prevent, hard to stop, and hard to prove.  I feel as though with more and more technological advances, this problem has the potential for enormous growth.  The first step to prevent cyberbullying is to take it more seriously.  A lot of adolescences and adults brush it off as no big deal, when in actuality it is affecting many lives and some cases taking them.  Parents need to become aware of the common warning signs of cyberbullying.

A child or teenager may be a victim of cyberbullying if he or she: unexpectedly stops using their computer or cell phone; appears nervous or jumpy when an instant message or email appears; appears uneasy about going to school or outside in general; appears to be angry, depressed, or frustrated after using the computer or cell phone; avoids discussions about what they are doing on the computer or cell phone; or becomes abnormally withdrawn from usual friends and family members. (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010, p.3)

 Schools can help prevent cyberbullying by encouraging their faculty and staff to talk to students about cyberbullying and the affects it could have on others.  Faculty members can also give students advice on what to do if they are a victim of cyberbullying.  The school as a whole should implement a cyberbullying policy and enforce Cleary stated consequences.   Schools should post cyberbullying warning signs in computer labs, install monitoring software, and block certain sites.

I am not a teacher or a parent, but as an individual I feel that I can help prevent cyberbullying by getting the word out to as many people as I can.  This can be done by simple word of mouth, facebook, or on my blog.  I volunteer at a community center, and I am going to talk to the director about implementing a cyberbullying awareness series with the after school tutoring programs. 

Hinduja, S. Ph.D. , & Patchin, W. Ph.D. (2010). Cyberbullying Identification, Prevention, and Response. Cyberbullying Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.cyberbullying.us/Cyberbullying_Identification_Prevention_Response_Fact_Sheet.pdf

http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/cyberbullying/lessons/6-8/dealing_with_cyberbullying/