Cyber bullying: Understanding and Preventing Online Harassment and Bullying
Media Awareness Network
The Media Awareness Network is a national not-for profit education organization that has pioneered the development of media and Internet literacy programs in Canada since 1996.
Issue Contents
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In 2003, a 15-year-old from Trois-Rivières, Québec, dropped out of his high school after classmates found an embarrassing video of him pretending to be a Star Wars character and posted it on the Internet (Harmon, 2003).
Three years earlier, a 14-year-old from Mission , B.C., hanged herself after receiving threatening phone calls from classmates (CBC News Online, March 23, 2005).
These are just two of the most disturbing examples of a hard-to-detect problem that affects thousands of Canadian children and teenagers every year: cyber-bullying.
What is cyber-bullying?
Dr. Shaheen Shariff of McGill University’s Faculty of Education defines cyber-bullying as follows: “Cyber-bullying consists of covert, psychological bullying, conveyed through the electronic mediums such as cell-phones, web-logs and web-sites, on-line chat rooms, ‘MUD’ rooms (multi-user domains where individuals take on different characters) and Xangas (on-line personal profiles where some adolescents create lists of people they do not like). It is verbal (over the telephone or cell phone), or written (flaming, threats, racial, sexual or homophobic harassment) using the various mediums available” (Shariff and Gouin, 2005, p.3).
How widespread is the problem?
Cyber-bullying is on the rise because more kids than ever before are using electronic communications technologies. In a 2005 survey of more than 5,000 students in grades 4 to 11, Media Awareness Network (MNet) found that 94% have Internet access at home, and a significant majority has a high-speed connection. By the time they hit Grade 11, half of students have an Internet-connected computer for their own use.
Kids use the Internet to build and sustain their social networks. One of the most popular activities is chatting with friends and “meeting” new acquaintances, particularly through instant messaging (IM). On an average school day, 28% of Grade 4 students use IM; among Grade 11 students, that figure rises to 86%.
Although kids are still more likely to be bullied in the “real world,” MNet’s research found that of the 34% of students in grades 7 to 11 who reported being bullied, almost a third were bullied through the Internet.
Isn’t cyber-bullying much like traditional bullying?
In some respects, cyber-bullying is similar to traditional bullying. The behaviour is always unwanted, deliberate, and relentless. Often, bullies use it to exclude the victim from a social circle for reasons such as looking different, being gay, being intelligent or gifted, or having special needs or disabilities (Shariff and Gouin, 2005, p.3-4).
However, some significant differences make cyber-bullying a unique problem. New technologies can affect kids’ ethical behaviour in several ways (p. 5).
First, technology doesn’t give kids visible feedback about the consequences of their actions. One of the most effective ways to end bullying behaviour is to get bullies to feel empathy for their victims. But online, even when kids know their actions are hurtful, they can easily convince themselves they haven’t hurt anyone. As one elementary school student in Toronto put it, “I don’t think a lot of people would have enough confidence to walk up to someone and be like, ‘I hate you, you're ugly.’ But over the Internet…you don’t have to look in their eyes and see they’re hurt” (CBC News Online, March, 2005).
Second, technology allows kids to be anonymous. In the physical world, behaviours often have known consequences, and kids feel they are continually observed, monitored, watched, and protected. Online, they can post something anonymously and then distance themselves from it, confident they won’t be caught. In one Calgary survey of middle school students, 41% of students who had been cyber-bullied didn’t know the identity of the person who was bullying them (Sharif and Gouin, 2005, p. 5).
What other appeal does cyber-bullying hold for bullies?
The Internet can be a perfect tool for harassing others because it offers bullies access to their victims 24/7, even when the victim is at home.
The power of the Internet also means that hateful messages can be widely distributed to millions of people. And the more people who are involved, the worse bullying can become. Research on bullying has found that 30% of bystanders support perpetrators instead of victims, and that the longer the bullying persists, the more bystanders are likely to join the abuse(Sharif and Gouin, 2005, p. 5).
As an Ontario teenager who became the subject of an abusive Web site told CBC News, “Anyone with a computer can see it…And you can’t get away from it. It doesn’t go away when you come home from school” (CBC News Online, 2005).
Are boys and girls equally affected?
Preliminary research has found girls to be primary targets of cyber-bullying (Sharif and Gouin, 2005, p. 7). However, they are also increasingly surfacing as instigators. In the Calgary study of middle school students, 17% of girls confessed to online bullying over a two-month period, compared to 10% of boys (Sharif and Gouin, 2005, p. 10).
One explanation offered is that girls, who may be more submissive in face-to-face communications, may not feel so constrained when they’re online (Sharif and Gouin, 2005, p. 5). As a 13-year-old Edmonton girl told MNet researchers, “In school ….you don’t want anyone to think of you as a ‘gossip’ or someone who says things about other people. Everyone wants to be ‘nice.’ You don’t have to be nice if you don’t want to online.”
Are there laws to prevent cyber-bullying?
In some cases, online bullying may be considered a criminal act. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, it’s a crime to communicate repeatedly with someone if your communication causes them to fear for their own safety or for the safety of others (Department of Justice Canada , 2005). It’s also a crime to publish a “defamatory libel”—something likely to injure a person’s reputation by exposing him or her to hatred, contempt or ridicule (Department of Justice Canada , 2006).
A cyber-bully may also be violating the Canadian Human Rights Act if he or she spreads hate or discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status or disability.
However, cyber-bullying becomes more complicated where schools and the law are involved. When real world bullying occurs on school property, teachers and administrators can often intervene, but online bullying usually occurs in secret or off school grounds, making it difficult for schools to fight.
Because cyber-bullying is a relatively new phenomenon, schools are operating without legal precedents. Despite this vacuum, many schools are responding proactively. For instance, in 2005, when a Toronto boys’ school discovered some of its students had created an anti-Semitic web site, they expelled the three students who created the site and four others who knew about it but did nothing to stop it ( Moore , 2005). More recently, two Grade 11 students in Calgary , Alberta , were suspended from school after sending threatening e-mails to a classmate ( Ferguson , 2006).
What steps can kids take to avoid being cyber-bullied?
Young people can take some basic steps to protect themselves from cyber-bullying. One of the most important is to guard their contact information and passwords. They should avoid giving their cell phone number or e-mail address to people they don’t know. And they should never give their e-mail or IM passwords to anyone, even friends. Friendships can go sour.
What can kids do if they are cyber-bullied?
Unlike whispered threats, cyber-bullying leaves a trail of evidence, enabling victims to trace their aggressors. When cyber-bullying occurs, victims should keep a record of all messages, with their times and dates. E-mail messages can be traced and used as evidence. Kids setting up IM accounts should enable the “conversation history” option, so that their computer will store logs of IM conversations.
Cell phone companies can trace any harassing calls and text messages sent through their service, unless the messages are coming from a Web site. Victims can also ask to have their phone numbers changed.
In the case of an offensive Web site, victims can track down a Web site host by using one of the many Whois search tools on the Web, then ask the company hosting the site to remove it, however, unless the content is illegal, hosts are not obligated to do so. Whois sites allow people to search for the host of a Web domain. Because there is no central database for this information, users may need to reference more than one Whois site.
Here are three easy-to-remember actions MNet recommends to victims of cyber-bullying.
Is there no good news in cyber-space?
While this article has focused on the dark side of online communication, the majority of young people’s online experiences are positive. In the Media Awareness Network’s latest survey (2005a), only a quarter of kids classified memorable online experiences as “bad”—and a good portion of those “bad” experiences related to frustration with technology, not with peers.
The Media Awareness Network (2005b) also discovered that rules about Internet use, parental involvement and discussion about Internet issues do make a difference in kids’ online behaviour. Across the board, children whose parents enforce rules surrounding Internet use are less likely to participate in questionable or risky online activities.
Keep it in perspective
When it comes to online bullying, don’t blame the technology. These are age-old bullying behaviours that kids are simply applying through a new medium. Many adults feel at a disadvantage knowing that kids are way ahead of them when it comes to the Net. But it’s important to remember that even though kids may be ahead of adults in their use of technology, adults have the life experience and knowledge to help kids contextualize their online experiences and actions.
References:
CBC News Online (March, 2005). Cyber-bullying. Retrieved, May 18, 2006 from http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/bullying/cyber_bullying.html
CBC News Online (March 23, 2005). Sticks and stones and bullies. Retrieved May 16, 2006 from http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/bullying/
Department of Justice Canada . (2006). Consolidated Statutes and Regulations. Retrieved May 20, 2006 from http://lois.justice.gc.ca/en/C-46/267462.html
Department of Justice Canada . (2005). Criminal Harassment. Retrieved May 20, 2006 from http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/fm/harassment.html
Ferguson , E. (2006). Students suspended for e-mailing threats. Calgary Herald, Friday, April 7, 2006, p. B1.
Harmon, A. (May 19, 2003). Fame is no laughing matter for the ‘Star Wars kid’. New York Times (Late Edition) Sec C, p. 3.
Media Awareness Network, (2005a), Young Canadians in a Wired World – Phase II: Student Survey, Ottawa , ON .
Media Awareness Network, (2005b), Young Canadians in a Wired World – Phase II: Trends and Recommendations, Ottawa , ON .
Moore, O. (2005). Students expelled for anti-Semetic website. Globe and Mail, Saturday April 30, 2005, p A2.
Shariff S. and Gouin, R. (2005), Cyber-Dilemmas: Gendered Hierarchies, Free Expression and Cyber-Safety in Schools. Presented at “Safety and Security in a Networked World: Balancing Cyber-Rights and Responsibilities,” Oxford Internet Institute conference, Oxford , U.K. , September 8–10, 2005. Available at http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/cybersafety/extensions/pdfs/papers/shaheen_shariff.pdf. This paper will also be published in a forthcoming issue of Atlantis: A Women’s Issues Journal.
Tolerance.org (2006). Mix it up at lunch. Retrieved, May 20, 2006 from http://www.tolerance.org/teens/lunch.jsp
Willard, N. (2000). What is right and what is wrong? How can we help young people use information and communication technologies in and ethical manner? Presented at National Conference on Cyperethics, University of Oregon , Eugene , Oregon , October 2000. Available at http://www.responsiblenetizen.org/onlinedocs/documents/whatisright.doc
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