Tips to Stop Cyberbullying - Essay Example

Cyber-Bullying Bullying has long been a problem in the schoolyard. Many children have suffered from physical as well as short and long-term psychological scars due to harassment from schoolmates. With the advent of the internet and social networking, bullying tactics have spread into the electronic realm, at times with heartbreaking consequences. About half of all teenagers report they have experienced cyber-bullying to some extent driving some to contemplate suicide. It is a concerning issue for young persons and their parents who may not know how to effectively address this new phenomenon if they are aware it occurring to their child at all. Due to the unfortunate and highly publicized cases of teen suicide due to cyber bullying, parents are becoming increasingly aware of the problem and taking steps to prevent their child from being victimized in this manner. Cyber-bullying can be effectively reduced with the combination of parental involvement and newly developed software that filters content. Cyber-bullying affects people of all ages but teenagers are by far the most vulnerable and most victimized. This relatively new type of bullying does not inflict physical injury therefore may go unnoticed by parents. Too often parents do not realize their child is being libeled, coerced or taunted on Facebook, harassed through an online chat room or cyber-stalked by a number of electronic means. Cyber-bullying has been defined as online social malevolence and electronic bullying. It occurs via instant messaging, on a gaming or other social networking website, through email, by phone texting and in a chat room. Photos sent via these venues are another way to harass. Cyber-bullying shares common features with traditional, schoolyard bullying but is less observable and allows the perpetrator to be anonymous. Due to the unique qualities of cyber-bullying it presents distinctive challenges. There are three ways to deal with cyber-bullying, parental understanding and involvement, the ability for the person being victimized to take steps to stop the harassment and the means to track the perpetrator. According to statistics provided by the i-SAFE foundation: At least half of teenagers have bullied another person online and about half have been bullied. About one-third of teens have been threatened online. More than one-fourth of teens have received continual online threats. More than half of cyber-bullied teens do not inform their parents. According to surveys conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center: More than eight in ten teens regularly use mobile phones. It is the most common cyber-bullying medium. Unlike the schoolyard, girls are more likely to be the cyber-bully. Boys are more likely to receive threats. Between 10 and 20 percent of teens are regular victims of cyber-bullying. All races are cyber-bullied to about the same extent. The most common form of cyber-bullying involves rumor mongering. Unsurprisingly, victims of cyber-bullying are likely to have a diminished self image and to contemplate suicide. (Zaleski, 2011). Cyber-bullying takes many forms. As an example, a teenager who has no known adversaries at school or in the neighborhood begins being inundated by psychologically hurtful and threatening emails from an anonymous sender or senders. The teen recipient does not know who or how many people are against them therefore becomes frightened and increasingly paranoid both at school and home. Another example could be: a cyber-bully builds a phony Facebook profile but uses a class-mates photo, actual name and contact information. The cyber-bully then posts hateful and/or embarrassing messages and pictures then makes “friends” with other classmates. The fake profile circulates rapidly around school due to its provocative nature causing continuous humiliation for the victim. A variation of this is spamming a school’s web-based bulletin board with rumors about a student. (Hardcastle, 2012). Actual instances include the infamous Rutgers student who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge due to cyber-bullying. He was inconsolably despondent due to being secretly videoed having homosexual sex by his roommate who then posted it on a social media site. Earlier this year a 15 year-old girl died after she purposely stepped in front of a bus because of a cyber-bullying Facebook campaign. (Srivastava, 2012). Several similarly tragic stories involving students of all ages are becoming increasingly more commonplace Several software programs that detects and tracks cyber-bullying is becoming increasingly sophisticated and will soon become widely used. It’s a cyber solution to a cyber problem. Karthik Dinakar, software engineer at MIT, designs programs that recognize hurtful words and phrases on social networking sites, even subtle instances. It discourages cyber-bullying from insulting others. Using artificial intelligence to discern the sender’s intention, the software identifies commonly used hateful words such as “fat” and “ugly” in addition to softer forms of harassment such as the phrase “you never brush your hair.” Dinakar’s program scrutinized and categorized approximately 5,500 cyber-bullying posts with the goal of helping harassed teens empathize with others by subject matter. “All these teenagers are still growing emotionally, and there’s a tendency to think that their experience is singular to themselves,” Dinakar said, “It can let them know that they are not alone in their plight.” (Srivastava, 2012). According to Dinakar says his program would ultimately have the ability to notify bullies to stop their offensive comments and prohibit insulting comments. A company in England, Crisp Thinking, has designed software available online that is becoming popular. It is one of few that actively searches for and tracks bullying language. If a user cyber-bullies another person, their account will either be examined by a real-life moderator or they will be automatically blocked from accessing the particular site, depending on the severity of language used. Though some social networking sites use the company’s software successfully, Facebook and Twitter do not. Another company, Common Sense Media, is developing lessons geared toward parents and teachers with the intention of helping the people who protect children understand their options when cyber-bullying occurs. “When do they want a parent or a teacher to get involved? When do they want to try handling it themselves? That's a big part of empowerment,” according to Common Sense Media vice president Alan Simpson, “some kids should know they just need to be able to stand up for themselves and tell the other kids in their space, ‘Hey, don’t treat me like that.’” (Louie, 2012). The cyber-bullying curriculum was developed by Harvard professors includes videos of kids telling their stories. It helps when students know they are not the only ones who have experienced cyber-bullying. Upon analyzing 15 million instant messages sent by students, Crisp Thinking discovered one-third could be classified as cyber-bullying. (Louie, 2012). Social networking sites such as Facebook encourage users to report harassing language which may lessen the amount of cyber-bullying on their sites. “People can now report bullying, imposter profiles, abusive content and other safety issues simultaneously to Facebook, to the person who posted it, or to a trusted adult who might be able to help address the issue offline,” said Facebook’s director of engineering Arturo Bejar. (Srivastava, 2012). These efforts fall well short of ending cyber-bullying on Facebook, however. People of all ages, particularly teenagers regularly use insulting, abusive language. Socially interactive sites may benefit from anti-bullying software that will search for harassing communications. Because cyber-bullying victims are often unwilling to report insulting or obscene remarks from others, software is the answer. It’s not embarrassed or shy. Someday, face-scanning technology may assist in preventing cyber-bullies from hiding their identity behind several fake accounts. Advances in the detection and elimination of cyber-bullying will help lessen the problem to an extent but for it to be truly effective it must be used in conjunction with the education and involvement of parents and teachers. (Srivastava, 2012). Parents can do more than they may think to prevent cyber-bullying in addition to lessening the harms caused to their children following an incident. Watch for outward expressions of distress that may conceal intense internal anxieties. The signs are many. Children who are frequently angry and lose their temper quickly, are noticeably upset about attending school or are depressed and withdrawn spending unusual amounts of time in their rooms may have a bullying issue of some type. In addition kids whose grades drop dramatically and they stop associated with long-term friends are exhibiting signs too. Parents and teachers can take steps to prevent or lessen the impact of cyber-bullying before it devolves into a hopeless situation primarily by observing, listening to the children and offering helpful advice in a comforting manner. Children should never be scolded or humiliated further by the parent. It’s not the child’s fault. Both the child and parent should fully understand that. Besides words of encouragement, comfort and wisdom, there are more concrete methods parents can employ to prevent or at least reduce the amount of cyber-bulling thus the amount of heartache their child endures. Place the computer a child uses in a room other than their bedroom. Scrutinize their online activities. Educate yourself to the various types of social media. Become “friends” if they wish so you can view their profile page. Learn from them. Speak often about online interacting, which is easier if you have a Facebook account too. Make certain they understand they can freely seek your help if needed. Establish rules of use including types of sites allowed to be accessed and time restrictions, both the time of day and amounts of time spent online during the day. Ask the child to help set the parameters. Children should never respond to cyber-bullying. Instead of deleting the hateful messages, the child should save and print them, including screen names and any contact information. Never blame the child. Ask the child how long this has been going on and how they feel about it. Assist them in finding a solution for the cyber-bullying and their emotional well-being too. Be understanding and supportive. Neither over nor under react. Some parents tell their kids to “not let it bother them.” Kids are affected more deeply by intimidating or hurtful words than adults, even online words. Threatening to take the computer away from the child will only make them less likely to tell you of online harassment. It seems like a simple solution but will backfire. If bullying persists ask teachers and guidance counselors at the school to watch for schoolyard bullying of your child. If the bullying persists and escalates or if there are threats of physical harm contact law enforcement officials. (Fitzgerald, 2012). To date 48 states have enacted various types of anti-bulling laws. As this problem becomes more apparent, states are working on legislation that will further define and strengthen these laws by imposing harsher sentences. Due to recent tragic events involving teen suicides in New York, Indiana, Delaware, Maine and Kentucky, laws are currently being considered to toughen laws already on the books. Delaware educators are meeting to determine how new cyber-bullying regulations could affect online harassment both on and off-campus. Lawmakers in Maine are proposing all public schools be required to adopt specific policies designed to pro-actively address cyber-bullying. In Indiana a bill has been proposed that would give school officials more authority to punish students for instances of bullying that occurs off-campus. Presently, schools can only act if the cyber-bullying originated from a school owned computer. (Alcindor, 2012). Due to some tragic, high profile events involving suicides tied to cyber-bullying the problem may be somewhat exaggerated according to two studies presented this year to the American Psychological Association. “We assume it’s this overwhelming thing, that everybody’s being bullied and that it’s inescapable. That’s not totally accurate,” said Michele Ybarra, research director at the Center for Innovative Public Health Research. “Because we’re seeing stories that are really serious,” Ybarra says, “it does give this sort of sense that it is happening all over the place.” (Briggs, 2012). According to the joint studies involving 5000 students, about 15 percent say they have been bullied online. This compares to other numbers by surveys that have estimated that number to be from 30 to 72 percent. The large disparity of the figures likely is due to the difference of definition. The study by Ybarra and colleagues defined cyber-bullying as a continuing situation as opposed to previous studies which counted one-time events. Either way, it’s a serious issue that occurs too often. Cyber-bullying is a relatively new form of intimidation; one that parents of the current generation did not experience themselves and may not know how to react appropriately or constructively. The circumstances are worse that what they understand better, the schoolyard variety. It is a hidden problem. Children display no clearly obvious signs such as a black eye and the harassment reaches much deeper than conventional bullying. Bullying on the internet lasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It never stops and many more people including friends and classmates are aware of it because they see the child being humiliated within their own homes. It’s schoolyard bullying on steroids. Parents and teachers should go the extra mile in trying to understand the problem and the solutions. Cyber-bullying is a new phenomenon but is not going to fade away like a clothing fad. It a deadly serious issue that is here to stay. Works Cited Alcindor, Yamiche. “States look to enact cyberbullying laws.” USA Today. March 19, 2012. Web. November 8, 2012 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-18/state-cyberbullying-laws/53626736/1 Briggs, Bill. “Cyberbullying not as rampant as thought, study suggests.” NBC News. August 10, 2012. Web. November 8, 2012 Fitzgerald, Pattie. “18 Tips to Stop Cyberbullying.” Parents Magazine. 2012. Web. November 8, 2012 http://www.parents.com/kids/problems/bullying/18-tips-to-stop-cyberbullying/ Hardcastle, Mike. “What is Cyberbullying?” About.com 2012. Web. November 8, 2012 Louie, David. “Websites embrace cyberbullying software.” ABC KGO-TV San Francisco 2012 Web. November 8, 2012 Srivastava, Kendra. “Software Seeks to End Cyberbullying.” Mobildia. July 12, 2012. Web. November 8, 2012 Zaleski, Sharon. “Cyber Bullying is Common.” Intellecorp. July 5, 2011. Web. November 8, 2012 Read More