Cyber-bullying

Cyber bullying (cyber-bullying, online bullying) is the use of electronic information and communication devices such as e-mail, instant messaging, text messages, blogs, mobile phones, pagers, and defamatory websites to bully or otherwise harass an individual or group through personal attacks or other means, and it may constitute a computer crime. Cyberbullying is willful and involves recurring or repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text. According to R.B. Standler (2002)bullying intends to cause emotional distress and has no legitimate purpose to the choice of communications. Cyberbullying can be as simple as continuing to send e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender. Cyberbullying may also include threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech)

The term cyberbullying was first used by Canadian educator Bill Belsey, creator of the Web site www.bullying.org. Other terms for Cyber-bullying are "electronic bullying," "e-bullying," "sms bullying," "mobile bullying," "online bullying," "digital bullying," or "Internet bullying."

Examples of cyberbullying
One of the more recognized instances of cyberbullying occurred when Eric Harris, one of the killers in the Columbine High School massacre, put up a web site where he discussed murdering fellow students, although no action was taken against Harris by the authorities at the time. Another notable example was the Star Wars kid whose classmates uploaded video footage of him posing as the Star Wars character Darth Maul onto Kazaa in 2003. The footage was downloaded extensively and modified causing the subject extensive embarrassment resulting in psychiatric treatment.

People Magazine (March 21, 2005) reported on a case involving a 13 year old boy who committed suicide as a result of cyberbullying. His classmates had been taunting and teasing him about his size via instant messages for about a month.

Issues specific to cyberbullying
Certain characteristics inherent in these technologies increase the likelihood that they exploited for deviant purposes (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006). Personal computers offer several advantages to individuals inclined to harass others. First, electronic bullies can remain “virtually” anonymous. Temporary email accounts and pseudonyms in chat rooms, instant messaging programs, and other Internet venues can make it very difficult for individuals to determine the identity of aggressors. Cyberbullies can hide behind some measure of anonymity when using the text-message capabilities of a cellular phone or their personal computer to bully another individual, which perhaps frees them from normative and social constraints on their behavior. Further, it seems that cyberbullies might be emboldened when using electronic means to carry out their antagonistic agenda because it takes less energy and courage to express hurtful comments using a keypad or a keyboard than with one’s voice. Additionally, cyberbullies do not have to be larger and stronger than their victims, as had been the case in traditional bullying. Instead of a victim being several years younger and/or drastically weaker than his bully, victim and cyberbully alike can be just about anyone imaginable.

Second, electronic forums lack supervision. While chat hosts regularly observe the dialog in some chat rooms in an effort to police conversations and evict offensive individuals, personal messages sent between users are viewable only by the sender and the recipient, and therefore outside the regulatory reach of the proper authorities. Furthermore, there are no individuals to monitor or censor offensive content in electronic mail or text messages sent via computer or cellular phone. Another problem is the increasingly common presence of computers in the private environments of adolescent bedrooms. Indeed, teenagers often know more about computers and cellular phones than their parents and are therefore able to operate the technologies without worry or concern that a probing parent will discover their experience with bullying (whether as a victim or offender).

In a similar vein, the inseparability of a cellular phone from its owner makes that person a perpetual target for victimization. Users often need to keep it turned on for legitimate uses, which provides the opportunity for those with malicious intentions to engage in persistent unwelcome behavior such as harassing telephone calls or threatening and insulting statements via the cellular phone’s text messaging capabilities. There may truly be “no rest for the weary” as cyberbullying penetrates the walls of a home, traditionally a place where victims could seek refuge.

Sub-issues
Online identity stealth blurs the line in infringement of the right of would-be victims to identify their perpetrators. We need to debate how internet use can be traced without infringing on protected civil liberties. See Computer Networking tools as "tracert" or "nslookup" in order to trace an individual's computer to either their hosts, IP adresses or MAC addresses that are legal, legit and easy to use tools that allow one person to trace another one's computer.

Research
Hinduja and Patchin (In Review) completed a study in the summer of 2005 of approximately 1500 Internet-using adolescents and found that over one-third of youth reported being victimized online and over 16% of respondents admitted to cyberbullying others. While most of the instances of cyber bullying involved relatively minor behavior (40% were disrespected, 18% were called names), over 12% were physically threatened and about 5% were scared for their safety. Notably, less than 15% of victims told an adult about the incident. Additional research by Hinduja and Patchin (In Press) found that online bullying victimization is related to offline problem behaviors. That is, youth who report being victims of cyberbullying also experience stress or strain that is related to offline problem behaviors (an index of 11 deviant behaviors including: running away from home, cheating on a school test, skipping school, using alcohol or marijuana, among others). The authors acknowledge that both of these studies provide only preliminary information about the nature and consequences of online bullying due to the methodological challenges associated with an online survey.

According to a 2005 survey by the National Children's Home charity and Tesco Mobile of 770 youth between the ages of 11 and 19, 20% of respondents revealed that they had been bullied via electronic means. Almost three-fourths (73%) stated that they knew the bully, while 26% stated that the offender was a stranger. Another interesting finding was that 10% indicated that another person has taken a picture of them via a cellular phone camera, consequently making them feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, or threatened. Many youth are not comfortable telling an authority figure about their cyberbullying victimization; while 24% and 14% told a parent or teacher respectively, 28% did not tell anyone while 41% told a friend (National Children’s Home, 2005).

A 2004 survey by i-Safe America of 1,556 students from grades 4 to 8 found that 42% had been bullied online and 35% had been threatened. As well, 53% had said hurtful things to others online.

A survey by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in 2000 found that 6% of the young people in the survey had experienced some form of harassment including threats and negative rumours and two per cent had suffered distressing harassment. In the UK, a study in 2002 by NCH, a children's charity found that one in four students had been the victim of bullying online.

Papers
Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2006). Bullies move beyond the schoolyard: A preliminary look at Cyberbullying. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 4, 148-169.
 * Jerome, L., & Segal, A. (2003). Bullying by Internet. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 751.

Papers

 * Google Scholar