Final Organized Research Blog :Work In Progress (Not yet finished)

Research Question: Why is Cyber-bullying so popular amongst school children?

Homepage:
-Introduction: Cyberbullying is a serious issue that is effecting more and more school children each and every day. Some children live in fear of being cyber bullied by there classmates each time they log onto the internet. The purpose of my web essay is to get the word out about Cyber-bullying, because before I began researching this topic, I knew nothing about it, nevermind know how serious it was. In this essay I will explore what Cyber-bullying is and how it works. I will explore the reasons behind Cyber-bullying as well as the ways you can get involved to help prevent it.

Page 1- What is Cyber-Bullying?
-What is it?: Cyber-bullying occurs when a person (often a child, preteen, or teenager) is bullied, harassed, humiliated, threatened, embarassed, or targeted in some way by another person (often a child, preteen or teenager). Cyber-bullying is much like traditional playground bullying where there is name calling and someone is getting picked on, except cyber-bullying is done through the use of the internet, cell phones and other forms of digital technology. In order for it to be catagorized as cyber-bullying, the intent must be to cause emotional distress, and there much be no legitimate purpise to the communication. Cyber bullying can be something as simple as continuing to send an e-mail to someone who has said they want no furter contact witht he sender, but it could aslo include threats, sexual remarks and hate speech. Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyber-bullying, it is not the same as sexual harassment and does not involve sexual predators.
-Who it effects: Cyber-bullying normally effects any child, preteen or teenager who has access to the internet, email, text messages, etc... Again it is much like traditional playground bullying where fellow classmates, friends, and even enemies attack one another with harsh words and threats. Sometimes the threats are harmless and victim is able to brush it off of their shoulders, other times the threats and attacks are much more painful and can result in depression and sometimes even suicide.
-Who does the bullying: Normally done from one child, preteen or teenager to another. Cyber-bullying is also sometimes done as an adult posing as a child, preteen or teenager.
-Why?/Reasons for Cyberbullying: Cyber-bullying.org gives this explaination for why kids cyberbully:
Who knows why kids do anything? When it comes to cyberbullying, they are often motivated by anger, revenge or frustration. Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction. Some do it by accident, and either send a message to the wrong recipient or didn't think before they did something. The Power-hungry do it to torment others and for their ego. Revenge of the Nerd may start out defending themselves from traditional bullying only to find that they enjoy being the tough guy or gal. Mean girls do it to help bolster or remind people of their own social standing. And some think they are righting wrong and standing up for others.
Because their motives differ, the solutions and responses to each type of cyberbullying incident has to differ too. Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" when cyberbullying is concerned. Only two of the types of cyberbullies have something in common with the traditional schoolyard bully. Experts who understand schoolyard bullying often misunderstand cyberbullying, thinking it is just another method of bullying. But the motives and the nature of cybercommunications, as well as the demographic and profile of a cyberbully differ from their offline counterpart.

Page 2-Cause and Effects (May not add this part)
-Causes:
-Effects:

Page 3-Sociological Research on why Cyberbullying occurs
-Research:

Page 4- Prevention/How to get involved:
-What can you do?

Page 5-Research on Cyberbullying

Page 6-External Links

Blog 10 and 11: Research Project

Outline for Cyber-bullying research project

Research Question: TBA

 I. Introduction

a. What is the purpose for my research

II. What is Cyberbullying

a. What is it 

b. who it effects

c. who does the bullying 

d. reasons for cyberbullying 

III. Cause and effects of cyberbullying

a. causes

b.effects

IV. Sociological Research on cyberbullying

a.

V. Prevention/Get Involved

a. What can you do? 

VI. Research

VII. Links

Cyberbullying occurs when a person (often a child, preteen or teenager) is bullied, harassed, humiliated, threatened, embarrassed, or targeted in some way by another person (often child, preteen or teenager) through the use of internet, cell phones, and other forms of digital technology. In order for it to be cyber-bullying, the intent much be to cause emotional distress, and there must be no legitimate purpose to the communication. Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send an e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender, but it could also include threats, sexual remarks and hate speech. Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyber-bullying it is not the same as sexual harassment and does not involve sexual predators. 

In September of 2006 abcnews produced a survey done by I-Safe.org. The data was based on a 2004 survey of 1500 students between grades 4-8. The results were as followed

-42 percent of kids have been bullied while online. One in four have had it happen more than once

-35 percent of kids have been threatened online. nearly one in five had had it happen more than once. 

-21 percent of kids have received mean or threatening emails or other messages

-58 percent of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online. More than four out of ten say it has happened more than once

-58 percent have not told their parents or an adult about something mean or hurtful that happened to them online

BBC news produced an article in August of 2007 stating "Social networking websites are seen by some teachers as the latest weapon of the school bully-prompting unions to all for them to be banned" 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6924422.stmwithin the article there is a 

quote from a student named Nathan "When people are bullied they often don't feel confident about speaking to people face to face." 

-perhaps the reasoning for people cyber bullying is because they feel more confident on the internet so they can say what they would never say to someone in person. 

www.stopcyberbullying.org says:

Why do kids cyberbully each other?

Who knows why kids do anything? When it comes to cyberbullying, they are often motivated by anger, revenge or frustration. Sometimes they do it for entertainment or because they are bored and have too much time on their hands and too many tech toys available to them. Many do it for laughs or to get a reaction. Some do it by accident, and either send a message to the wrong recipient or didn't think before they did something. The Power-hungry  do it to torment others and for their ego. Revenge of the Nerd may start out defending themselves from traditional bullying only to find that they enjoy being the tough guy or gal. Mean girls do it to help bolster or remind people of their own social standing. And some think they are righting wrong and standing up for others.

Because their motives differ, the solutions and responses to each type of cyberbullying incident has to differ too. Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" when cyberbullying is concerned. Only two of the types of cyberbullies have something in common with the traditional schoolyard bully. Experts who understand schoolyard bullying often misunderstand cyberbullying, thinking it is just another method of bullying. But the motives and the nature of cybercommunications, as well as the demographic and profile of a cyberbully differ from their offline counterpart.

may 2007: signs that a child may be a victim of cyberbullyinghttp://mblog.lib.umich.edu/cyberbulling/archives/2007/03/signs_that_a_ch.html

teenhealthandwellness.com is a website where teenagers can go to learn about problems going on around them including cyberbullying. they have to have a username and password to access the website but they can ask questions about their concerns, perhaps questions that they cant ask adults

I-safe.org is one of the most credible websites for cyberbullying information. New Jersey has a website just for prevention of cyberbullying www.njbullying.org/cyberbullying.htm on the NJ website they say that I-safe has been used by a number of NJ schools to make children aware of cyberbullying. 

I spoke with my boyfriend's cousins (ages 12 and 13, grades 7th and 8th) and some of their friends about cyberbullying. I spoke with 7 girls individually and each of them told me that they had experienced some type of cyberbullying at some point or another. A few of the girls took it to heart and were very hurt by what people had said to them. A few of the girls also told me that they had done some cyberbullying of their own that they weren't so proud of. The girls told me that a few times they had been cyberbullied they were able to brush it off without getting too worked up over it. "It is just typical teenagers trying to get at each others feelings" they told me. I asked the girls if they knew how dangerous cyberbullying can be, they all seemed to agree that it was, but you know how teenagers can be just yesing you to death until you shut up. The girls all go to school in Brick township, their school has taken time to provide assemblies for the students to make them aware of the dangers of cyberbullying. The school had informed them of the 2006 Megan Meiers incident as well as other cases of cyberbullying in our areas. The girls were aware of the website I-Safe.org as well, because the school had provided them with the website names. 

Analyzing My Patterns for Attention

1Q. List the kinds of media you use/read/engage with on a daily basis. Is your pattern for interacting with media the same or differnt than it was when you were 5?10?15? Give short descriptions to explain.
1A. I love to read, I always have a book with me and I read probably every day whenever I find a few spare minutes and also before I go to bed at night (it makes me more tired and I fall asleep easier). I go on the internet daily and I'm logged onto AIM 24/7 but I very rarely sit in front of the computer and chat with people for hours. I will normally log on to my e-mail accounts and facebook about two or three times a day, check it out for no longer than 10-20 minutes, then log off. The TV is always on in my room if I'm home but I'm very rarely watching it. I have satelite radio in my car which I'm constantly listening to when I'm driving but I'm normally listening to Howard Stern and talk shows rather than songs.
-When I was 5 years old all we really had was tv. I know I definitely didn't have a computer in my house just yet but I didn't have a tv in my room so my parents probably regulated how often I watched it.
-When I was 10 years old I had a tv in my room as well as a stereo system. I listened to music a lot and watched tv more than I did because it was in my room.
-When I was 15 years old I think I listened to the radio more than anything else, I've never been the biggest fan of television so I wasn't glued to it all the time. I had a computer in my room at this point and probably spent most of my time being a dumb teenager and gossiping with people online all day/night.

2Q.Rank the relative amount of time you presently spend with each medium-be as specific as you can.
2A. Reading-About 2 hours or more each day
Television- I probably only watch about 3 hours a day, maybe less
Radio-Depends how long I'm in the car for, probably 1-3 hours a day
Computer-1-2 hours a day

3Q.Describe any media associated with how you perform the following school related tasks:
3A.
Do math or other calculation-based homework-math is my worst subject, I don't take math, but if I did I'd probably concentrate more than have any media
Read assignments-the tv is on, but volume low
Write a paper-Tv is on to keep me awake, sometimes is a distraction
Study for an exam-tv is on, but volume low

4Q.Describe any media associated with how you do the following task:
4A.
Drive-radio has to be on, even if I don't like what I'm listening to, it must be on
Eat a meal by myself-TV or computer always on
Eat with my family-tv is usual on because my stepdad doesn't ever want to turn it off, eating with my friends we're ususal out and tv or other media is not on
Household chores-TV or music is usually always on

5Q.Describe what you do to relax or in your free time- and how you relax
5A. In my free time I usual read, again the tv is normally always on in my room for the background noise, even when I fall asleep to take a nap or to go to bed the tv has to be on, but I'm usually not watching it. When I have free time I like to get out of the house and do stuff like go for walks, which I always bring my ipod, or go to the gym-bring my ipod there too or I watch TV at the gym. It depends, if I'm reading a really great book all of my free time is devoted to that, otherwise I spread my free time around and do things that probably always involve some sort of media.

My ratings are as followed:
math=1
reading=2
writing a paper=4
studying=2
thats 9, divided by 4=2.25

drive=5
eat meal alone=5
eat meal with friends/family=3
chores=5
thats 18, divided by 4=4.5

relaxing I gave myself a 3

Reflection on Megan Meiers Case

Fake myspace account-is it legal? Should it be legal?
Contacted (13 year old) -underage--> should there be ratings on websites, penalties or should some government issued id be needed to access these websites

Posters pretended to be Josh Evans-Mrs. Drew, her 18 year old employee and 13 year old daughter. peer to peer-different standards for adults and children?

Establish relationships under false identity- friendly for months (Josh and Megan)-Are friendly relationships legal (obviously if Josh had never said anything mean to Megan she never would have committed suiced and we wouldnt even be having this conversation.)

"Josh" turned on Megan [happened within 24 hour period]--->Megan commites suicide

Who should be responsible for underage kids having access to myspace?
Myspace
Parents
ISP
Advertisers

Features of Internet
-Anonimity
-Information intensity
Interactivity Immediacy
Flash Mob reactions


What needs to be done about this?
-Do parents need to better educate their children about what and who is on the internet?
-Do we need to inforce laws to prevent children who are under the age of 18 from accessing Myspace and similar sites?
-Should the sites that allow these kids on them without monitoring what they're doing or without really checking their ages, should they be penalized in the same way that cigarette and alcohol providers are when they serve underage children?
-If we can't say what we want to on the interent it is violating our right to freedom of speech so how can we hold it against these kids for saying mean things over the internet?

Blog 9: Cyberbullying Research

After doing our Wikipedia projects I realized that I had a much greater interest in the subject of Cyber-Bullying than I did in the whole Multiple Personalities on the internet. I felt that I was only choosing the topic because I had nothing else to pick. I did my Wiki on Cyber-Bullying and I felt that I found much more information on this topic than I did on anything else, so I'm sticking to it because a lot of people seem to be unaware of the dangers of cyber-bullying. I know I was unaware that the problem even existed until Dr. Chandler brought a certain subject matter to my attention which I will be using as part of my research. 

Because I have not yet presented my Web Page layout, I am going to set this entry up in a way that is similar to my web layout and also in a way that will help me begin to organize my information in order so that I can refer back to this entry and use it as my beginning guidelines for this project. 

On my home page of my webpage I will give an introduction to my Cyber-bullying project and I will give a small background about why I chose this topic and what I hope to achieve by introducing it to my classmates and other people. 

Pg 1: What is Cyber-Bullying

On this page I will give an indepth definition and description of what Cyber-Bullying actually is. Cyber-Bullying is much like traditional bullying in the school yard, only it takes place online. On this page I will cover the main bullet points that are followed:

-What is Cyber-Bullying

-Who it effects

-Who does the bullying?

-Reasons for Cyberbullying

 

Pg2- Cause and Effects of Cyber-Bullying

On this page of my website I will be exploring the cause and effects of Cyber-bullying. I will be providing some factual stories for example the Megan Meiers tragedy of 2006. Where a 16 year old girl committed suicide because her friends mother made up a fake profile online pretending to be a local boy. The "boy" said very hateful things to Megan and his final words to her were "The world would be a better place without you." Though these things were actually said by a grown woman, things like this occur everyday causing innocent young boys and girls to take their own lives because of the hateful messages passed along to them on the internet. 

I will also provide general causes and effects that have been found out through surveys amongst school children. 

Pg3-Prevention/Getting Involved. 

Cyber-bullying, I am not finding out, Is a much bigger problem that many of us think. Especially because we are college students and many of us are not surrounded by this issue anymore. But, its a very big problem in our communities and everyone should know what to do to prevent cyber-bullying. Some of us have siblings and nieces, nephews or cousins at home that could be victims of cyberbullying and I will provide ways that we can give out more information to younger generations to either help them if they are victims or to talk then out of seriously hurting another person if they are the ones doing the bullying. 

Pg4-Research

This page will show additional research that I did not add into the other pages and will probably show some statistics that I have found.

Pg5-Links to the pages where I got my research from and other sites with helpful information about cyberbullying.

This is basically my page layout for the time being. For my next post, Blog 10 I will add more specific information for each of the points that I will be making on each of the pages. 

Wikipedia Blog

Original Wiki on Cyber-Bullying: Cyberbullying is the recurring or repeated harm willfully inflicted through the medium of electronic text.Cyberbulling, much like traditional bullying in the school yard normally occurs amongst children,preteens, or teens. In order for it to be cyber-bullying, the intent must be to cause emotional distress, and there must be no legitimate purpose to the communication.[1] Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender, but it may also include threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech). Cyber-bullies may disclose victims' personal data (e.g. real name or workplace/schools) at websites or forums, or may attempt to assume the identity of a victim for the purpose of publishing material in their name that defames or ridicules them. Some may post victims' photos, or victims' edited photos like defaming captions or pasting victims' faces on nude bodies. One famous forum for disclosing personal data or photos to "punish" the "enemies" is Hong Kong Golden Forum.

My Wiki Edits:

Cyberbullying occurs when a child, preteen or teenager is bullied, harassed, humiliated, threatened, embarrassed, or targeted in someway by another child, preteen or teenager through the use of internet, cell phones and other forms of digital technology. In order for it to be cyber-bullying, the intent must be to cause emotional distress, and there must be no legitimate purpose to the communication.^[1]Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender, but it may also include threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech). Though the use of sexual remarks and threats are sometimes present in cyber-bullying, it is not the same as sexual harassment and does not involve sexual predators. Cyber-bullies may disclose victims' personal data (e.g. real name or workplace/schools) at websites or forums, or may attempt to assume the identity of a victim for the purpose of publishing material in their name that defames or ridicules them. Some cyber-bullies may also send threatening emails and instant messages to the victims. The content in these messages are often so strong that a victim may commit suicide. Some may post victims' photos, or victims' edited photos like defaming captions or pasting victims' faces on nude bodies. One famous forum for disclosing personal data or photos to "punish" the "enemies" is Hong Kong Golden Forum. One example of suicide from being a victim of cyber-bullying is the Megan Meier Suicide Controversy[1]

What I basically did here was gave a more defined definition of what Cyber-bullying is and added some more examples. I also, further into the entry, added some links to sources as well as removed some of the old ones which no longer were working or ones that I felt did not provide 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-bullying content. 

my wikipedia name is Lrn886

After I didn't watch my entry for about a week because I was away on vacation. But luckily when I returned my entry was still there. The only revisions that were made to what I actually wrote were grammatical corrections. Of course a few times people had gone on to the page and added some profanity here and there which quickly was deleted from the page. From the time I posted there was also some additional information added to the page in the research section and causes as well. This assignment was very interesting for me because I was never really sure exactly how Wikipedia worked, and now I know. While I like the fact that Wikipedia provides real content, working on this project has made me realize that you cannot always trust your sources online. 

Blog 6: Research Plan

Research Question

Why do people feel the need to have multiple personalities on the internet? In particular, d0 people get a thrill out of acting as though they are a different age or gender? Are they using it dangerously (sexual predators, stalkers) or are they doing it for fun or to make themselves become more outgoing and outspoken? And is it wrong to pose as someone you aren't on the internet if you aren't doing it to be hurtful?

Statement of Purpose

I hope to discover a better understanding of what people are using MySpace, Facebook, Chat rooms and Instant Messaging for. I hope to be able to show in my research why people feel the need to pose as someone other than themselves on the internet and maybe find a way for others to avoid such people if they are using it in a dangerous manor.

List of Information to be Gathered

-lots of chatroom and blog feedback

-research on occurrence of sexual predators on above mentioned websites

-personal experience stories

-find out why people are doing it. Are they doing it dangerously (sexual predators and stalkers) or are they doing it for enjoyment?

Preliminary Sources

(still narrowing down my sources, I've found a lot of them but they are mostly blog sites and tv news reports. I'd like to sit down and look at them a little more closely to see which ones are most helpful but a few of them have been posted on my previous blog)

Plan for Gathering Information

I plan to look more closely at blogs that I have already found. Some of these blogs have anonymous post from users saying how they feel about having multiple identities on the internet. I want to narrow them down and find the ones that I like the best. I also want to look into news stories that will tell me more about sexual predators on the internet. Finally I will look more closely at Facebook and Myspace (and similar websites) to see how exactly people are using them and if people seem to have a different or more outgoing personality on the internet than they do in real life.