What is cyberbullying, exactly?

"Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened,

harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another
child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital
technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at
least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once
adultsbecome involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or
cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called
cyberbullying.It isn't when adult are trying to lure children into offline
meetings, that is called sexualexploitation or luring by a sexual predator.
But sometimes when a minor starts acyberbullying campaign it involves
sexual predators who are intrigued by the sexualharassment or even ads
posted by the cyberbullying offering up the victim for sex.The methods
used are limited only by the child's imagination and access to technology.
Andthe cyberbully 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 acyberbullying incident.Cyberbullying is usually not a one time
communication, unless it involves a death threat ora credible threat of
serious bodily harm. Kids usually know it when they see it, while
parentsmay be more worried about the lewd language used by the kids
than the hurtful effect of rude and embarrassing posts.Cyberbullying may
rise to the level of a misdemeanor cyberharassment charge, or if thechild
is young enough may result in the charge of juvenile delinquency. Most of
the time thecyberbullying does not go that far, although parents often try
and pursue criminal charges.It typically can result in a child losing their
ISP or IM accounts as a terms of serviceviolation. And in some cases, if
hacking or password and identity theft is involved, can be aserious
criminal matter under state and federal law.When schools try and get
involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions thattook
place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for
exceeding theirauthority and violating the student's free speech right.
They also, often lose. Schools can bevery effective brokers in working
with the parents to stop and remedy cyberbullyingsituations. They can
also educate the students on cyberethics and the law. If schools
arecreative, they can sometimes avoid the claim that their actions
exceeded their legalauthority for off-campus cyberbullying actions. We
recommend that a provision is added tothe 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 adverselyaffect
the safety and well-being of student while in school. This makes it a
contractual, not aconstitutional, issue.

How cyberbullying works

There are two kinds of cyberbullying, direct attacks (messages sent to
your kids directly)and cyberbullying by proxy (using others to
help cyberbully the victim, either with orwithout the accomplice's
knowledge). Because cyberbullying by proxy often gets adultsinvolved in
the harassment, it is much more dangerous.
Direct Attacks
1. Instant Messaging/Text Messaging Harassment
a) Kids may send hateful or threatening messages to other kids, without
realizing that whilenot said in real life, unkind or threatening messages
are hurtful and very serious.
b) Warning wars - Many Internet Service Providers offer a way of
"telling on" a user who is saying inappropriate things. Kids often
engage in "warning wars" which can lead to kicking someone offline for a
period of time. While this should be a security tool, kids sometimes use
the Warn button as a game or prank.
c) A kid/teen may create a screen name that is very similar to another
kid's name. Thename may have an additional "i" or one less "e". They
may use this name to sayinappropriate things to other users while posing
as the other person.d) Text wars or text attacks are when kids gang up on
the victim, sending thousands of text-messages to the victim's cell phone
or other mobile device. The victim is then facedwith a huge cell phone bill
and angry parents.e) Kids send death threats using IM and textmessaging as well as photos/videos. (seebelow)
2. Stealing passwords
a) A kid may steal another child's password and begin to chat with other
people, pretendingto be the other kid. He/she may say mean things that
offend and anger this person's friendsor even strangers. Meanwhile, they
won't know it is not really that person they are talkingto.b) A kid may also
use another kid's password to change his/her profile to include
sexual,racist, and inappropriate things that may attract unwanted
attention or offend people.

c) A kid often steals the password and locks the victim out of their own
account.d) Once the password is stolen, hackers may use it to hack
into the victim's computer.
3. Blogs
Blogs are online journals. They are a fun way for kids and teens to send
messages for all of their friends to see. However, kids sometimes use
these blogs to damage other kids'reputations or invade their privacy. For
example, in one case, a boy posted a bunch of blogsabout his breakup
with his ex-girlfriend, explaining how she destroyed his life,
calling herdegrading names. Their mutual friends read about this and
criticized her. She wasembarrassed and hurt, all because another kid
posted mean, private, and false informationabout her. Sometimes kids set
up a blog or profile page pretending to be their victim andsaying things
designed to humiliate them.
4. Web sites
a) Children used to tease each other in the playground; now they do it on
Web sites. Kidssometimes create Web sites that may insult or endanger
another child. They create pagesspecifically designed to insult another kid
or group of people.b) Kids also post other kids' personal information and
pictures, which put those people at agreater risk of being contacted
or found.
5. Sending Pictures through E-mail and Cell Phones
a) There have been cases of teens sending mass e-mails to other users,
that include nudeor degrading pictures of other teens. Once an e-mail like
this is sent, it is passed around tohundreds of other people within hours;
there is no way of controlling where it goes.b) Many of the newer cell
phones allow kids to send pictures to each other. The kids receivethe
pictures directly on their phones, and may send it to everyone in their
address books.After viewing the picture at a Web site, some kids have
actually posted these oftenpornographic pictures on Kazaa and other
programs for anyone to download.c) Kids often take a picture of someone
in a locker room, bathroom or dressing room andpost it online or send it
to others on cell phones.
6. Internet Polling
Who's Hot? Who's Not? Who is the biggest slut in the sixth grade? These
types of questions

The Arguments

Cyberbullying is not a form of bullying. It is a form of Cybercrime.

Cyberspace classification and cognition: information and communicationscyberspaces
(Kellerman, 2007).
Cyberbullying is normally considered a new form of bullying along with physical,verbal and
gesture bullying within definitions and explanations of bullying such asthe Anti-Bullying

Centre Trinity College Dublin (2010). However in order to fullycomprehend the concept of
cyberbullying, the term cyberspace must be defined.Kellerman (2007) defines Cyberspace
as a virtual and immaterial worldexperienced by users of the Internet, as well as by
individuals communicatingthrough fixed and mobile telephones (p.5). Forms of bullying
such as physical,verbal and gesture bullying can only exist in the physical world.
Cyberbullying isexecuted in cyberspace. Cyberbullying therefore should not be considered a
newform of bullying; it should be classified as a form of Cybercrime. According toKansas
Safe Schools Resource Center (2011) all forms of cyberbullying are stateoffenses in the state
of Kansas and that all schools in Kansas must adopt an anti-cyberbullying campaign.
Currently in Ireland, there is no official anti-bullying or anti-cyberbullying policy imposed in
schools. However, the Department of Education and Science (1993) suggest a recommended
anti-bullying campaign,which includes an anti-cyberbullying article.

Cyberbullies have more elaborate tools to bully compared to traditionalbullies.

Cyberbullying in High Schools: A Study of Students Behaviors and Beliefs about This New
Phenomenon (Li, 2010)
Li (2010) completed a study about the behaviours and beliefs about cyberbullyingamong
students. According to Li (2010), combating cyberbullying is harder thancombating
traditional forms of bullying because online anonymity protects theidentities of cyberbullies.
The online anonymity of cyberbullies cause greatapprehension and vulnerability among their
victims (Li, 2010). Li (2010) reportedthat students were afraid to seek help from parents or
teachers in the event of thetechnology being restricted or taken away from them. A finding by
Li (2010)showed that the majority of students believed that cyberbullies thought it wascool
to victimise individuals using Internet and mobile technologies. Li (2010)outlines that
schools should emphasize cyberbullying in anti-bullying policies.The results of Li (2010)
show the growing concerns of cyberbullying amongstudents and highlight the dangers and
implications to cyberbullying.Cyberbullying tools can therefore be considered worse than
traditional tools of bullying.
According to the OIS (2008) and Reach Out (2010), cyberbullying caninvolve new methods
for bullies during the bullying process:

Bullies can be anonymous online.

Individuals can also be bullied by online groups.

The Internet can be used as a platform for public exposure on victims.

Postings on online social networks can stay posted for vast amounts of time.

Cyberbullying can take place after work and school hours from different platforms such as
home computers, mobile phones and laptops.


Cyberbullying also effects self-esteem just like traditional bullying.
Cyberbullying and Self-Esteem (Patchin & Hinduja, 2010)
Traditional bullying has a relationship with low self-esteem (Jankauskiene,Kardelis, Sukys
and Kardeliene, 2008). However, up until a study completed by Patchin and Hinduja (2010),
the area of cyberbullying and self-esteem hadnever been explored before. Patchin and
Hinduja (2010) hypothesised thatcyberbullying would correlate with low self-esteem; similar
to traditional bullying correlating with low self-esteem (Jankauskiene et al, 2008). The
keyresult of Patchin and Hinduja (2010) was that a strong negative relationshipexists between
cyberbullying and self-esteem among individuals. Patchin andHinduja (2010) also reported
that self-esteem was lower among victims of cyberbullying than the offenders of
cyberbullying. This result is congruentwith a result of Jankauskiene et al. (2008) that victims
of bullying have lower self-esteem than bullies. Although this research may not directly
supportcyberbullying having a more negative effect on self-esteem compared totraditional
bullying, this research highlights that cyberbullying can equate totraditional bullying in the
area of self-esteem.

Cyberbullying has serious consequences and implications today.

Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding toCyberbullying. (Hinduja &
Patchin, 2009)
On January 14
th
2010, Phoebe Prince, an Irish schoolgirl who moved to theUSA, committed suicide after
several incidents of bullying and torment bythree girls at South Hadley High in
Massachusetts (Irish Independent, 2010).According to an article entitled The Untouchable
Mean Girls published byThe Boston Globe (2010), the three girls who bullied Phoebe Prince
usedFacebook as a prime weapon to taunt, threaten and slag Phoebe for having arelationship
with a football player who also attended the school. Hinduja andPatchin (2009) would define
the act of committing suicide due to bullyingfrom online and mobile sources as
Cyberbullicide. According to a studycompleted by Hinduja and Patchin (2010)