A NEW GENERATION OF BULLIES
By Andree Johnson,
SDSCA President
A middle school student is in tears because she found out her boyfriend was "going out” with another girl. A high school junior is furious over derogatory sexual comments made about his girlfriend. A young professional is fired over comments she made on myspace.com. What do these scenarios have in common? They are all true and they all resulted from comments said online. This is cyber bullying.
Bullying such as this uses the internet or cell phones to degrade or humiliate another person and it's not surprising! In a study done by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2003, almost 99% of all teens ages 16-18 surveyed stated they use the internet regularly; 91% of 12-15 years old accessed the internet regularly. Berson, Berson, and Ferron (2002) found 74% of girls ages 12-18 spent a majority of their time online in chat rooms or sending instant messages and email. The anonymity and the lack of supervision make the internet and wireless networks an ideal atmosphere for bullying.
In 2004, the non-profit internet safety group, i-safe America, conducted a study of 1,566 students. The research indicated that nearly 60% of 4th-8th graders had mean or hurtful things said to them online and nearly 1/3 had been threatened. Students who are the victims of cyber bullying experience many of the same emotions common to other victims of bullying. Feelings of low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, anger, failing grades, increased school absenteeism, mood swings are not uncommon.
What can be done? How can school counselors help? Recognize the signs (i.e. spending a lot of time on the computer, mood swings, no desire to use the computer or go to school, difficulty sleeping etc.). Encourage parents to get involved and enable "block”, "ignore” or "ban” features on the internet or cell phone. Inform your local law enforcement or school liaison officer about cyber bullying incidents. Encourage zero tolerance for cyber bullying and encourage students/children to tell an adult they know and trust when it occurs. Inform students to never reply to negative messages. Never erase or delete negative messages; make a copy and save everything. If cyber bullying continues disable old address, names, and passwords and develop new ones.
No student or child should be the victim of bullying. School counselors need to help children learn that cyber bullying is wrong and should not be tolerated.
HIDDEN MESSAGE!
If you have read this article, email Jenny Noteboom at jenny.noteboom@k12.sd.us. In your email, tell her what the theme for SDSCA is for this year and your name will be put in a drawing for a personal CD player to be drawn at the spring conference! The deadline to submit your name and answer to the question is Wednesday, April 5, 2006.