Project 3 Draft 1

Michelle Chiodi

Shampa

UN 2001

November 5, 2010

Cyber Bullying: A New Breed of Bullies?

“Stupid,” “jerk,” “Look at Natalie’s outfit, what was she thinking?” Sound familiar? They do to the approximately 15 percent of students who are bullied. These days however, those insults might be considered “old school.” It seems that in the digital boom of the 21^st century everything is making a transition from the real, tangible world to a virtual world. Bullying is not excluded from this. With the transition to a digital social network comes a new mentality for users, one where they may feel as if there are no consequences for their actions. This report will show that the digital media has created a new breed of bully and help the reader understand what is being done to combat the threat of cyber bullying.

Before the technology boom of the mid 21^st century most bullying took place on school grounds. In 2003 it was found that bullying is the most common type of violence in the US with 15%-30% of students being victims or bullies.  On the National Association of School Psychologists website it states that, “A [2003] report from the American Medical Association on a study of over 15,000 6th-10th graders estimates that approximately 3.7 million youths engage in, and more than 3.2 million are victims of, moderate or serious bullying each year (Canter).” Often the victims are insecure, passive, won’t retaliate, and are physically weaker than the aggressor (Canter).

Tradition school yard bullying is often described as systematic physical or verbal persecution. It has been found that bullying in schools is less likely when more teachers or supervisor are present. Unlike today, there was no standout in gender which was more likely to bullied before the technology boom. Girls were bullied about equally as much as boys (Kusel). These facts serve as good standards to compare the bullying of the cyber age to.

With the addition of digital media the realm of bullying goes far beyond physical and verbal harassment. Visual harassment such as posting defamatory, embarrassing videos or photo shopped pictures are becoming increasingly common. Unlike spoken words, text exchanged in a virtual world does not disappear. Once something is created in the internet, it is there to stay. It has also been found that females are more likely to be bullied and to bully in cyberspace (Li).

In the recent years the venue for bullies has expanded to the web. Technology has created various new forms of bullying which creates more danger for more people. Bullies are turning to e-mail, instant messaging, Web sites, voting booths, and chat rooms to harass their victims (Beale). For victims this makes escaping the tormenting increasingly difficult because technology and social networking is an integral part of teenage life. Unlike school yard bullying, cyber bullying can be conducted through various types of media. This presents a new set of concerns for victims. Young victims are being exposed to media far too grotesque for their age (Li).

Since bullies now have a greater means to bully, the occurrence of bullying has increased greatly since the age of school yard bullying. A study conducted among middle school students showed that 25 percent of females and 11 percent of males reported being cyber bullied at least once in the preceding two months (Beale 8). This adds to be 36 percent of the population studied that is reporting being bullied. Compare this to the study previously mention that was conducted less than a decade prior and it can be see that the new estimate is 6 percent higher than the previous high estimate for occurrence.

Beale and Hall’s Cyberbullying: What School Administrators (and Parents) Can Do says, “According to the results of the first national survey on school bullying, 74 percent of eight- to eleven-year-old students reported that bullying and teasing occurred at their schools (Beale).” This survey was conducted at a time before cyber bullying was created, before Myspace and Facebook were even created. Thinking about this fact is daunting. If the digital boom has increased the prevalence of bullying then it is safe to assume that students seeing bullying and teasing at school is nearing 100 percent.

New digital media allows humiliation to be more widespread. In a school in California students posted scathing rumors and racist comments to the website www.schoolscandals.com (Li). This was so rampant that nearly the entire school of almost 2000 students was affected (School). This is certainly not an isolated case where the bullying reached a large audience. A middle-school boy, Will, from Kansas knows just how tormenting a large audience can be. After he and his girlfriend broke up, the girl created a website to smear Will. She made various threats and vividly described what it would be like if his body were to be ripped apart (Li). Compared to face-to-face bullying the scale that cyber bullying has reached is outrageous. While traditional bullies may have the lunchroom crowd as their audience, cyber bullies can potentially have the entire world as theirs. For this reason cyber bullying is much more severe than traditional bullying.

While the occurrence of bullying has increased with the addition of technology, that is not the only factor leading to a harsher style of bullying. Bullies feel safe when they are attacking on the internet.  They feel that they can be anonymous therefore no one will know what they say in a cyber world (Beale). Not only do internet users feel a sense of anonymity but they can also pose as other users. It is so simple for a user to log on as someone else or use a non identifying screen name. Even if the owner of a screen name is identified that user can simply blame someone else for using their screen name (Beale). Because cyber bullies can pose as others and feel anonymous this causes the bully to be more mean-spirited and say things they would never say in the face-to-face world (Beale). Cyber bullies hide behind their screen names with little fear of being caught; this leads to more brazen attacks (Beale). 

While the level of fear decreases for the bullies themselves, the level of fear for the victim increases. In the cyber world the attacks are more vicious and the victim could have no idea who the attacker is, leading to great trepidation (Beale).  Unlike traditional bullying where a teacher or other student could see an incident, if the victim doesn’t stand up for them self or doesn’t report the aggressor, no one will know it is going on. A student can be cyber bullied while someone is sitting right next to the victim and the bystander can remain completely unaware of what is happening. As Beale and Hall state, “A tormentor can get into a victims’ home, harassing him or her while parents sit comfortable in the next room (Beale).”

In the news recently there have been an increasing number of reports of cyber bullying even some cases where the bullying has been so extreme it leads the victim to suicide. Most recent is the story of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers freshman who was tormented to an extreme. Tyler was a reserved student who was victimized by his roommate. The roommate video taped an intimate encounter between Tyler and another student and streamed this video to the internet for the whole world to see. Understandably, Tyler was extremely humiliated by this. Just days after the video was posted, Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge to his death (Tyler). This is an extreme and horrifying example of cyber bullying but the reality of the situation is that cyber bullying is becoming more brutal and more widespread. Stories like Tyler’s are becoming all too common and this call into question what measures are being taken to prevent cyber bullying.

Because cyber bullying is so much more widespread and severe than traditional bullying, new preventative measures and punishments are being sought by many. Facebook is one of the most common social networking sites in use today. Many teens use this site and of course, this prevents the threat of cyber bullying. Facebook takes this issue seriously as they have a section in their help section that addresses cyber bullying and provides tips to prevent it and ways to respond and report it (Safety). It is steps like these that can make users safer. The problem however is that some users may not seek this resource. To be more proactive on preventing cyber bullying, Facebook should advertise their policy and make users more aware of the resources available to them. This certainly is possible seeing as Facebook makes so many other things so visible.

Facebook is surely not the only site taking preventative measures. Many schools, websites, and even state governments are taking measures to prevent and prosecute offences. Schools are developing policies for how to deal with reports of cyber bullies and trying to be more proactive in the prevention. While to prosecution for cyber bullies is tricky because of the first amendment right governments are enacting laws that will give cyber bullies more severe punishment (Beale).

By examining the techniques and occurrence of cyber bullying, traditional bullying begins to look almost innocent. New media provides a much larger scale for which cyber bullies can torment and harass. There are so many more ways to bully now than there ever have been. Bullies use email, social networking sites, broadcasting sites, and instant messaging to intimidate on a whole new level. Because digital media is now being used, the audience for bullying is limitless; the internet is a vast resource. The level of secrecy that comes with the internet allows bullies to be more brazen and less fearful of being caught. At the same time this creates a greater fear for victims because they may feel isolated because they do not know the identity of the bully and may feel hopeless in any punishment being given.

Works Cited

Beale, Andrew V., and Kimberly R.  Hall. “Cyberbullying: What School Administrators (and Parents) Can Do.” Wilson Web. Web. 3 November 2010.

Canter, Andrea and Andrea Cohn. Bullying: Facts for Schools and Parents. National Association of School Psychologists, 7 October 2003. 3 November 2010.

Kusel, Sara J., David G. Perry , and Louise C. Perry. “Victims of Peer Aggression.” Wilson Web. Web. 3 November 2010.

Li, Qing. “New bottle but old wine: A research of cyberbullying in schools.” Academic OneFile. Web. 3 November 2010.

Safety for Teens. Facebook, 2010. Web. 4 November 2010.

School Profile 2010-2011. Calabasas High School, 2010. Web 4 November 2010.

“Tyler Clementi.” New York Times. New York Times, 1 October 2010. Web. 3 November 2010.