Cyberbullying

By Michael Daley

Preface

Throughout the history of mankind there have been three great revolutions:The Agricultural Revolution, the Industerial Revolution, and the Digital Revolution. The Digital Revolution began in the second half of the 20th century, but really took off in the 1990s with the mainstreaming of the internet. With the rise of the internet came a new of form of harrasing and bullying, aka cyberbullying. The internet is now an internal part of our society and education and it will only grow stronger; therefore, we need to learn more about preventing the bad things that come with it such as cyberbullying.

Lesson Targets

This lesson has three learning targets:

Students will understand what is cyberbullying, who is targeted, and how to identify victims.
Students will be able to describe the current cyberbullying situation in US schools.
Students will be able to list different methods of dealing with cyberbullying in schools.

Screencastify videos

The following videos cover the lesson taught in here and are highly recommended to watch for everyone, particularly visual learners. There are a total of three videos, each less than 5 minutes (total run time of 11:21 minutes). For better quality, watch the videos in full screen mode.

Part 1.webm

Part 2.webm

Alt Part 3.webm

Information You Need to Know

Cyberbullying is the act of bullying others online. Bullies posts humiliating images of their victims, send them threats and insults, stalk them online, and the bullies pretend to be the victim and posts as them to get them into trouble (Feinberg & Robey, 2009). Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying doesn’t end when the victim is in a safe place (e.g. their home), it is constant; it follows them everywhere and it is persistent meaning that the victim can be under attack 24 hours a day making the victim unable to find relief or safety (Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA), 2021). A flawed solution that is often heard is to turn off your devices. However, the bully does not need the victim to be online. They can spread rumors and lies about their victims so people they know in real life would treat them differently. For example, in a documentary about cyberbullying by Brook Lapping Productions (2010), a 14 years old girl gives her experience of being cyberbullied from primary school. The bullies made a website that spread rumors about her that made everyone avoid her so they wouldn’t be associated with her and she got treated worse as others believed the lies until she became suicidal. ASPA (2021) researched and studied the topic and found which students are more likely to be targeted, they suggested that the following student groups are the highest likely to be targeted:

Members of the LGBTQ community
Overweight or underwight students
Have no or few friends
Have low self-esteem or depression
Have anger issues or easy to provoke

Cyberbullying can worsens conditions that lead to suicide, so teachers need to be able to identify cyber victims to get them help ASAP. Campbellsville University (2016) released an article that helps teachers identify victims of cyberbullying, a teacher will notice that the student will:

Become loners or will change their friend groups completely.
Have mood swings throughout the day: they will show signs of depression, paranoia, sudden aggresiveness, and will be stressed for the most part of the day.
Stop participating in class, their work quality will drop, grades will also start dropping, and they won’t show interest for subjects they were interested in.
Start missing classes or being absent more often.

If you know your student is a victim of cyberbullying you are required by law to report it.

Below is a video that summarizes what is cyberbullying with examples (Link).

Lesson summary: To help teach which students to keep an eye on and what behavior changes to watch out for which would make classrooms safer.

The US and Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying have been on the rise since the early 2000s, in 2013 it was estimated that one out of five students is cyberbullied (Eden, Heiman, & Olenik-Shemesh, 2013). The graph below is from another study that backs up the data and confirms that cyberbullying have been steadily increasing (Patchin, 2019).

Because of the high rate of cyberbullying, all States in the US (and most countries around the world) have passed laws, regulations, or policies to prevent or combat cyberbullying. For example, in 2017 Texas passed "David's law" which increased the punishment of cyber bullies and gave greater authority to schools in pursing cyberbullying activities off campus, it was passed after a Texan boy named David Molak was cyberbullied for years till he committed suicide (TXSSC, n.d.). Virginia's anti cyberbullying laws could result in the bully facing from one year to five years in prison if found guilty of cyberbullying (McClain, 2014). Schools are also required to train staff and to have anti-cyberbullying policies in place. Once you recognize that a student is cyberbullied you are required by law to report it and for the school to take the appropriate steps.

Lesson summary: to help teach how rampant cyberbullying in the US is, and that their are strong laws to fight back against it.

What can you do

Cyberbullying is a serious problem around the globe, with many countries such as the UK, Poland, Israel, Norway, and Germany attempting experimental school solutions at lowering cyberbullying (Eden, Heiman, & Olenik-Shemesh, 2013). Bradon Forest School in Swindon, England was one of those schools, their way was to educate students in a fun way on how to identify what is cyberbullying, and that cyberbullying is unacceptable in their schools (Maverick Television Productions, 2010). The classrooms would hold mock trials with the students serving as jurors to decide in the end if the defendant was guilty of cyberbullying or not, there would be a prosecutor and a defender as well. The size of the jurors depended on the size of the classrooms (so any school can follow their example). Using that module, you can create a story about someone that was cyberbullied or ask the class to write stories as an assignment, then have the class play it out. You can have an expert talk to the class about the dangers of cyberbullying others and what should those targeted do (The David’s Legacy Foundation offers expert guest speakers that can educate students or staff in schools, link to their site).

If you do suspect that a student is being cyberbullied you should:

let them know you are on their side and that they can talk to you.
report the incident
help the victim readjust in a safe environment

Below is avideo that shows a classroom trial method that is used Bradon Forest School in Swindon, England to teach about cyberbullying.

Lesson summary: to help teach how to prevent or curb cyberbullying in classrooms.

Combating Cyberbullying - Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company.webm

Conclusion

Cyberbullying is a major problem around the world, especially for children who are still developing mentally as it can cause problems that will plague them for the rest of their life. It can cause depression, paronia, and makes children socially isolated robbing them of their childhood (Eden, Heiman, & Olenik-Shemesh, 2013). Lies created about them can also follow them into adulthood ruining their future. Additinally, it creates a hostile learning environment that can hinder academic progress for students (Feinberg & Robey, 2009). Personally, as someone who witnessed multiple cases of cyberbullying, I view it as a terrible act. It is done for the sole purpose of hurting and exhausting the victim mentally, until they can't take it anymore and either submit to the aggressors' wishes and do what the bullies want which the victim might hate or regret doing, or have a break down mentally which could lead to depression and or suicide. As educators, one of our duties is to create a safe learning environment for our students, and we can do that by learning how to recognize cyberbullying and what to do about it. If you still not quite sure if you can recognize if its cyberbullying or not, refer to the following chart created for schools in Texas to help recognize it:

Questions

You see Brian angrily staring at other students by the cafeteria, when you ask him what is wrong, he replies that other students are tweeting that he is a welfie (someone who is a welfare recipient). What is going on here?

A. Brian is creating a hostile environment and should be warned to stop.

B. Brian is overreacting and shouldn't be worried about what is said on Twitter.

C. Brian is most likely being cyberbullied by the other students.

D. The other students are teasing Brian and it is playful behavior.

When a student is being cyberbullied, you are required by law to?

A. Help them reply to their attackers.

B. Report the incident.

C. Tell them to grow tougher skin.

D. Keep it quite to protect the school and the other students.

Answers

1: C

2: B

References

Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA). (2021, November 5). What Is Cyberbullying. StopBullying.gov. 5, 2022, from https://www.stopbullying.gov/

Brook Lapping Productions (Producer), & . (2010). Cyber-bullying. [Video/DVD] Teachers TV/UK Department of Education. https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/Cyber-bullying

Campbellsville University. (2016, September 2). 14 Signs of Cyberbullying in the Classroom. Campbellsville University | Online Programs. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://online.campbellsville.edu/education/signs-of-cyberbullying/

Eden, S., Heiman, T., & Olenik-Shemesh, D. (2013). Teachers’ perceptions, beliefs and concerns about cyberbullying. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(6), 1036–1052. https://doi- org.proxy.lib.odu.edu/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01363.x

Feinberg, T., & Robey, N. (2009). Cyberbullying. Education Digest, 74(7), 26-31. http://proxy.lib.odu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=ehh&AN=37332829&scope=site

Kat McClain, A. (2014, July 11). Cyberbullying and cyberstalking laws in Virginia. www.criminaldefenselawyer.com. Retrieved February 20, 2022, from https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/cyberbullying-laws-virginia.htm

Maverick Television Productions (Producer), & . (2010). Combating Cyberbullying. [Video/DVD] Teachers TV/UK Department of Education. https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/combating-cyberbullying

Patchin, J. W. (2019, July 10). Summary of Our Cyberbullying Research (2004-2016). Cyberbullying Research Center. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from https://cyberbullying.org/summary-of-our-cyberbullying- research

TXSSC. Texas Schools, Bullying, and the Law | Texas School Safety Center. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2022, from https://txssc.txstate.edu/videos/bullying-and-the-law/

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