001+CyberBullying

=** **Cyber-bullying** ** =

=
 **Ali Kapustin** =====

=
 **Jill Helmstetter** =====

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 **Jenna Mathews** =====  **Frostburg State University**  **Spring 2011**

 Bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions. Cyber bullying is when those aggressive, negative actions are done electronically. Cyber bullying can include sending mean or degrading messages or pictures, posting private information online, excluding someone from an online group, or pretending to be someone else while sending hurtful things about another person (Willard, 2005). Cyber bullying can take place through text messages, emails, blogs, chat rooms, social networking sites, and many more. If at any point an adult becomes involved in sending messages, it is no longer cyber bullying. It then becomes cyber-harassment or cyber stalking (STOP cyberbullying, 2010).

 Cyber bullying can fall into one of two categories: Direct bullying, which is when messages are sent directly to a child, and bullying by proxy, which is when others are used to indirectly bully a person. An example of direct bullying would be sending a text to a person that degrade s them or makes them feel bad about themselves, like saying they are fat, ugly, or worthless. Bullying by proxy can sometimes involve adults and can make it much more dangerous (Aftab, 2006). An example of bullying by proxy would be if a child alerts another child's parents to an action of that child, whether they are doing it or not, and the parents then punish that child. For example, on the movie //Mean Girls,// directed by Mark Walters in 2004, the bully called a young girls mother that she disliked and acted as if she was a doctor calling from the planned parenthood clinic. This indirect bullying, proxy bullying, lead to this parent to be very upset and punish her daughter.

 Children are cyber bullied for many different reasons. Sometimes, a cyber bully may say hurtful things accidentally. It is easy to misunderstand the nature or tone of a text and become offended, even if the text was harmless. However, like regular bullying, cyber bullying is often fueled by anger, frustration, and the thought of revenge. Some children may do it to keep themselves from getting bored or could do it to make themselves feel better and "just for laughs" (STOP cyberbullying, 2010). Others either do it gain power by putting others down or by putting them "back in their place" or to stand up for people or things they believe in. According to Kids Health (2011), bullying via text message, instant messages, blogs, social networks, etc., allows bullies to remain anonymous if they want to, is convenient, and a bully doesn't have to feel as bad because they don't have to see the victims reaction.

Cyber bullying can happen to any child. The age can range from elementary school to teenagers in high school (i-SAFE Foundation, 2009). In the era we live in, technology is inevitable. Children are use technology for entertainment, education, and social networking. All of these areas are where cyber bullying can occur. Children can be bullied through social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter. The students can be bullied through chat rooms, or via pictures posted by the bullies. The National Crime Prevention Council (2011) states that the youth who cyber bully pretend that they are different people to play tricks on the victims. They often times spread lies and rumors about the victims and trick the victims into telling the bully information that may harm that person. Text messages can be sent to harass, embarrass or blackmail the victim. Pictures may be sent or posted onto the internet to harm the other person as well (NCPC 2011).

Cyber bullies often do not think that the things they do are embarrassing. They believe it to be a trick or just something to do for fun. The bullies don’t consider the consequences and just think they are fitting in with the crowd. The bullies often times have been bullied themselves, so they believe it happens to everyone (NCPC, 2011).

NCPC (2011) states that victims sometimes try to block communication with the bully, but may not always be successful. Sometimes, they will delete the messages or pictures before they are seen so they can stop the embarrassment. The victims can talk to friends and parents for help, but sometimes the victims hold in how they feel. Some victims have enough hurt themselves or committed suicide over being hurt so badly (Kids Health, 2011).

Cyber bullying can be prevented by talking to children about the affects of cyber bullying and the harms that it may cause. Kids Health (2011) tells that parents can limit time on the internet to prevent bullying and parents could have access to the passwords so the parents can see if it is happening to their children. Cyber bullying can be prevented by talking to others about it and not holding in the emotional effects of cyber bullying.

 Cyber bullying is becoming one of the most prevalent forms of bullying among elementary aged children. The i-Safe foundation (2009) has found that 1 in 3 students faced some sort of online threat from another student and over 25% of adolescents are receptively bullied through their cellphones and/or internet. One of the reasons cyber bullying has had such a determinetal impact on our society is because this harassment starts at such a young age. According to The Harford County Examiner (2009), "Only 1 in 10 teens tells a parent if they have been a cyber bully victim" and, "Fewer than 1 in 5 cyber bullying incidents are reported to law enforcement."

 Since cyber bullying is a relatively new form of bullying in our society, reserach has been done to show the most effective prevention methods. Prevention starting at school has caused great controversy but it is believed that a combination of parental involvement coinciding with school administrators will greatly decrease the prevalence of cyber bullying (STOP Cyber bullying, 2010).

 Finalized on April 5, 2011

<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">List of References:

<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">//Cyber Bullying Statistics//. (2009). Retrieved January 2011, from bullying Statistics: [statistics.html]

<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">//Cyberbullying//. (2011). Retrieved January 2011, from KidsHealth: <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; url(http: //www.wikispaces.com/i/a.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[]

<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> National Crime Prevention Council, (2011). //Cyberbullying//. Retrieved Febrary 7, 2011 from <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; url(http: //www.wikispaces.com/i/a.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[]

<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, (2009). In //What adults can do//. (section of Cyberbullying). Retrieved Febrauary 7, 2011 from <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; url(http: //www.wikispaces.com/i/a.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[]

<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Wired Kids, Inc., (n.d.) //Stop cyberbullying//. Retrieved February 7, 2011 from <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; url(http: //www.wikispaces.com/i/a.gif); background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[]

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Ali Kapustin:

Cyber bullying is becoming one of the most prevalent forms of bullying among elementary aged children. <span style="font-family: tahoma,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">The i-Safe foundation (2009) has found that 1 in 3 students faced some sort of online threat from another student and over 25% of adolescents are receptively bullied through their cellphones and/or internet. One of the reasons cyber bullying has had such a determinetal impact on our society is because this harassment starts at such a young age. According to The Harford County Examiner (2009), "Only 1 in 10 teens tells a parent if they have been a cyber bully victim" and, "Fewer than 1 in 5 cyber bullying incidents are reported to law enforcement." Since cyber bullying is a relatively new form of bullying in our society, reserach has been done to show the most effective prevention methods. Prevention starting at school has caused great controversy but it is believed that a combination of parental involvement coinciding with school administrators will greatly decrease the prevalence of cyber bullying (STOP Cyber bullying, 2010).
 * Statistics/What Teachers Should Do:**

http://stopcyberbullying.org/ I chose this website because it is a very informative webpage with a wide variety of useful content. Prevention and effects are really important factors to consider. I feel that fully understanding the definition and identifying the widespread problem of cyberbullying is the first thing that people need to know before they look into prevention. This website lays out cyberbullying in a way that people can learn about the issue in a sequential order.

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html This website provides its readers with fairly new statistics. Statistics are always important in identifying issues because it puts the problem in perspective. Statistics always make a large impact on audience when they see the actual numbers. I feel that this website will be useful in our presentation so that people will see that cyberbullying is in fact a huge problem in our society.

[] This website will be very useful in our presentation mostly because it provides its readers with ways that parents and students can personally prevent cyberbullying from occurring in their community. This website also gives its readers more effects of cyberbullying and goes into more detail about the signs that an individual may be experiencing the detrimental effects of cyberbullying.

Jenna Mathews

Cyber bullying can happen to any child. The age can range from elementary school to teenagers in high school. In the era we live in, technology is inevitable. Children are use technology for entertainment, education, and social networking. All of these areas are where cyber bullying can occur. Children can be bullied through social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter. The students can be bullied through chat rooms, or via pictures posted by the bullies. The youth who cyber bully pretend that they are different people to play tricks on the victims. They often times spread lies and rumors about the victims and trick the victims into telling the bully information that may harm that person. Text messages can be sent to harass, embarrass or blackmail the victim. Pictures may be sent or posted onto the internet to harm the other person as well.
 * How Cyber Bullying Happens and How We Can Help**

Cyber bullies often do not think that the things they do are embarrassing. They believe it to be a trick or just something to do for fun. The bullies don’t consider the consequences and just think they are fitting in with the crowd. The bullies often times have been bullied themselves, so they believe it happens to everyone.

Victims sometimes try to block communication with the bully, but may not always be successful. Sometimes, they will delete the messages or pictures before they are seen so they can stop the embarrassment. The victims can talk to friends and parents for help, but sometimes the victims hold in how they feel. Some victims have enough hurt themselves or committed suicide over being hurt so badly. Cyber bullying can be prevented by talking to children about the affects of cyber bullying and the harms that it may cause. Parents can limit time on the internet to prevent bullying and parents could have access to the passwords so the parents can see if it is happening to their children. Cyber bullying can be prevented by talking to others about it and not holding in the emotional effects of cyber bullying. []: NCPC (2011) says that cyber bullying happens when children and teens use the internet or some sort of electronic device and are bullied, harassed, or embarrassed by another person. It gives information on how victims may be cyber bullied by the bullies. This information consists of telling how bullies pretend they are other people, how the bullies spread lies and trick the victims, and how they can hurt the victims. Also, the reactions of the victims are discussed. I like the website because it provides descriptions os of the bullies and the victims.

[]: Harford County Examiner, The Cyber bullying Research Center, and the i-SAFE foundation (2009) list statistics about children who are bullied, the children who are threatened through electronics, the number of incidents reported to officials, and how many times the bullying has taken place. I liked this site because it provided statistical information on cyber bullying. It also provides tips for parents and teens on how to reduce cyber bullying to their children or to themselves.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">[]: PCAU describes how cyber bullying can occur and what forms it can come in, such as verbal abuse and physical abuse. It also describes the forms of electronics that it can come in. The forms are text messages, email, websites, and camera phones. I liked this website because it gave different links. It also gives a brief history about bullying and how it turned from bullying to cyberbullying.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Jill Helmstetter:

[] The article "Stop Cyber bullying" by Parry Aftab(2008) was very helpful to my research because it provided a wide range of information from what is cyber bullying to what the law is and how to prevent it. According to this website, Cyber bullying is when a child, preteen, or teen is harassed or picked on by any type of technology (example-internet or cell phone). It is very easy for a child to go from the bully to a victim and is usually not a one time thing. It is very difficult for schools and teachers to get involved in cyber bullying because it often happens after school hours outside of the classroom. They say that the teachers are overstepping their authority and taking away the children's right to freedom of speech.

Kids use cyber bullying as a means of releasing frustration, anger, or relieving boredom. To some, bullying people via the internet of cell phones is a way to get a laugh, it is fun to them. To others, it is a way to right a wrong or to make a situation right. Each person who is involved in cyber bullying does it for a different reason.

Aftab(2008) suggests that schools need to be proactive in preventing cyber bullying. They need to make students understand that if they are to post inappropriate things online or send inappropriate text messages, they can very easily be traced back to them. Things done online are often easier for them because they feel like they can't get caught and they don't have to look the person in the eye when they are saying hurtful things, however schools need to help them understand that there still will be consequences to their actions.

[]

A<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ccording to the Stop Bullying Now! website, cyber bullying is "sometimes referred to as online social cruelty or electronic bullying" and can involve "Cyberbullying can involve: sending mean, vulgar, or threatening messages or images, posting sensitive, private information and/or lies about another person, pretending to be someone else in order to make that person look bad, or intentionally excluding someone from an online group (Willard, 2005)." Cyber bullying can take many forms and may children/teens view cyber bullying as a serious problem that needs consequences likes stricter rules. Cyber bullying differs from normal bullying because it can happen at any time, night or day, messages or photos capable distributed among peers very quickly and without consequence, and the person doing the bullying can remain anonymous. This website also provides fact sheets for children, parents, teachers, administrators, and others. It is very helpful as a prospective teacher to be able to find so much useful information on cyber bullying for teachers.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[]

According to the article, Stop Cyber bullying, the effects of cyber bullying are very dangerous. Some children have been lead to suicide or violent crimes as a result of being bullied via text messages or the internet. While those are serious and extreme cases, it is most likely that cyber bullying will effect a child's self-esteem, their feelings of personal safely, and emotional well being.This can lead to depression, poor performance in school or work, and self destructive behavior. According to this article, laws have been put in place in New York, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Maryland to prevent cyber bullying.


 * Cyberbullying:**

Bullying is aggressive behavior that involves unwanted, negative actions. Cyber bullying is when those aggressive, negative actions are done electronically. Cyber bullying can include sending mean or degrading messages or pictures, posting private information online, excluding someone from an online group, or pretending to be someone else while sending hurtful things about another person (Willard, 2005). Cyber bullying can take place through text messages, emails, blogs, chat rooms. social networking sites, and many more. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">If at any point an adult becomes involved in sending messages, it is no longer cyber bullying. It then becomes cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking.

Cyber bullying can fall into one of two categories. Direct bullying which is when messages are sent directly to a child. An example of direct bullying would be sending a text to a person that degrades them or makes them feel bad about themselves, like saying they are fat, ugly, o worthless. Bullying by proxy is when others are used to indirectly bully a person. Bullying by proxy can sometimes involve adults and can make it much more dangerous. An example of bullying by proxy would be if a child alerts another child's parents to an action of that child, whether they are doing it or not, and the parents then punish that child. For example, on the movie //Mean Girls,// directed by Mark Walters in 2004, the bully called a young girls mother that she disliked and acted as if she was a doctor calling from the planned parenthood clinic. This indirect bullying, proxy bullying, lead to this parent to be very upset and punish her daughter.
 * Two Types of Cyber Bullying**

Children are cyber bullied for many different reasons. Sometimes, a cyber bully may say hurtful things accidentally. It is easy to misunderstand the nature or tone of a text and become offended, even if the text was harmless. However, like regular bullying, cyber bullying is often fueled by anger, frustration, and the thought of revenge. Some children may do it to keep themselves from getting bored or could do it to make themselves feel better and "just for laughs." Others either do it gain power by putting others down or by putting them "back in their place" or to stand up for people or things they believe in. Bullying via text message, instant messages, blogs, social networks, etc., allows bullies to remain anonymous if they want to, is convenient, and a bully doesn't have to feel as bad because they don't have to see the victims reaction.
 * Why Children Cyber Bully**