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.