What happened to Tyler Clementi was indeed online and malicious, but it was first and foremost a gross, and illegal, invasion of privacy. Nevertheless, his tragedy reminds us that the web is not a world removed. The way we behave online resonates in real life. More than viruses, identity theft, or any of the threats perpetrated by the few that we face online, the term cyber bullying defines those negative aspects of digital life that we do unto one another. Hopefully, our present state of increased awareness can be extended into a more permanent culture of online responsibility. In the meantime, any resource that aims at prevention through education or helps people find solace without becoming bullies themselves is okay by me.
–Sarah Brown
Garfield and Friends go to work educating the 4 and up crowd on cyber bullying with a story that puts the very cute Nermal in the victim’s seat. The whole thing is rather adorable and grants a certain gravity to the lesson it imparts without ever aiming at scary. Most importantly, it looks to teach kids early on not only how to best deal with a bully, but how to avoid becoming one.
What is cyber bullying, exactly?
Cyber bullying is an issue that has been much in the public eye as of late. It’s awful. I want to see free speech protected, but wish people would treat one another with greater respect.
"Cyber bullying" in other word is when a child or teenagers is threatened, harassed, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child or teenagers using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyber stalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyber stalking is NEVER called cyber bullying.
The methods used are limited only by the child's imagination and access to technology. And the cyber bully one moment may become the victim the next. The kids often change roles, going from victim to bully and back again.Children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyber bullying incident.
Cyber bullying is usually not a onetime communication, unless it involves a death threat or a credible threat of serious bodily harm. Kids usually know it when they see it, while parents may be more worried about the lewd language used by the kids than the hurtful effect of rude and embarrassing posts.
Cyber bullying may rise to the level of a misdemeanour cyber harassment charge, or if the child is young enough may result in the charge of juvenile delinquency. Most of the time the cyber bullying does not go that far, although parents often try and pursue criminal charges
When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyber bullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right. They also, often lose. Schools can be very effective brokers in working with the parents to stop and remedy cyber bullying situations. They can also educate the students on cyberethics and the law. If schools are creative, they can sometimes avoid the claim that their actions exceeded their legal authority for off-campus cyber bullying actions. We recommend that a provision is added to the school's acceptable use policy reserving the right to discipline the student for actions taken off-campus if they are intended to have an effect on a student or they adversely affect the safety and well-being of student while in school. This makes it a contractual, not a constitutional, issue.
Why do kids cyber bully each other?
Kids do cyber bully each other because 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 sends a message to the wrong recipient or didn't think before they did something. 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.
How to prevent kids from cyber bullying?
1. Parents need to be the one trusted place kids can go when things go wrong online and offline. Yet they often are the one place kids avoid when things go wrong online.
2. Education can help considerably in preventing and dealing with the consequences of cyber bullying. The first place to begin an education campaign is with the kids and teens themselves. We need to address ways they can become inadvertent cyber bullies, how to be accountable for their actions and not to stand by and allow bullying (in any form) to be acceptable.
3. We need to teach them not to ignore the pain of others.
They can even let others know that they won’t allow cyber bullying, supporting the victim, making it clear that they won’t be used to torment others and that they care about the feelings of others is key.
We need to teach our children that silence, when others are being hurt, is not acceptable. If they don’t allow the cyber bullies to use them to embarrass or torment others, cyber bullying will quickly stop. It’s a tall task, but a noble goal. And in the end, our children will be safer online and offline. We will have helped create a generation of good cyber citizens, controlling the technology instead of being controlled by it..
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