Just Turn the Darn Thing Off: Understanding Cyberbullying

The central role that the Internet now plays in the life of children has transformed everything about bullying between youth in the First World. Three features characterize cyberbullying: it evolves rapidly, adults differ fundamentally from children in their use of the Internet, and children are comfortable with technology but ignorant about the psychological impact of their online behaviors and the dangers to which they expose themselves and their families. This presentation will review the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center’s innovative and aggressive approach to researching and addressing both bullying and cyberbullying. Just Turn the Darn Thing Off Bullying and aggression in schools in Massachusetts today have reached epidemic proportions (Nansel et al., 2001). While always in existence, bullying behaviors have increased in frequency and in severity in the past few decades (Olweus, 1993). Abusive bullying behaviors begin in elementary school, peak during middle school, and begin to subside as children progress through their high school years (Cohn & Cantor, 2003). Nationwide statistics suggest that somewhere between one in six and one in four students are frequently bullied at school (Nansel et al., 2001). The 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey in Massachusetts found that 24 percent of Massachusetts teenagers reported being bullied at school in the year before the survey. One-fourth of Massachusetts schools in a December 2006 survey conducted by the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) characterized the bullying in their school as “serious” or “extremely serious” (Englander, 2007). The problem does not seem to be improving. In that same survey, 54 percent of Massachusetts schools indicated that bullying had become more of a problem “in the last few years” (Englander, 2007). One study of Massachusetts schools found that most children who were bullied in the state were victimized for six months or longer (Mullin-Rindler, 2003). The U.S. Department of Education has found that bullying increased 5 percent between 1999 and 2001 (U.S. Department of Education, 2002) and the National Education Association (NEA) has suggested that bullying is a serious problem in U.S. Schools (NEA, 2003). Bullying behaviors are associated with catastrophic violence. In the 2004-2005 school year, 24 school deaths in the U.S. were the results of shootings (National School Safety and Security Services, 2005), and the most common reason students bring weapons to school is protection against bullies (National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, 2002). We now know that the school shooters of the 1990s often reported being the chronic victims of bullies (Cohn & Canter, 2003). In the 1990s, a string of copycat shootings in suburban and rural school districts caused enormous alarm, and, although more recent attacks have been averted, vigilance and fear remain high (Englander, 2001). Bullying has increased online as well as offline. Cyberbullying has emerged as one result of the increasingly online social life in which modern teens and children engage. Teens reported having received threatening messages, having had private emails or messages forwarded without their consent; having had an Just Turn the Darn Thing Off: Understanding Cyberbullying (7503) Proceedings of Persistently Safe Schools: The 2007 National Conference on Safe Schools and Communities 84 embarrassing picture of themselves posted online without their consent; or having had rumors spread about them online (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2007). Because online teenage life is ever-present among First World teenagers, cyberbullying may become – or may already be – the dominant form of bullying behavior among children. Is cyberbullying more common than schoolyard bullying? A recent telephone study of 886 U.S. Internet users age 12 to 17 (conducted October to November, 2006) found that one-third (32 percent) of all teenagers who use the Internet say they have been targeted for cyberbullying online (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2007). Another 2006 survey of 18and 19-year old college freshman (conducted by the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) at Bridgewater State College) found that 40 percent reported having been “harassed, bullied, stalked, or threatened via instant messaging” (Englander, 2006). One-fifth (20 percent) of the respondents in that study also admitted being a cyberbully themselves. Over two-thirds (73 percent) had seen an insulting, threatening, or degrading profile on a social networking website such as MySpace. A follow-up MARC survey in 2007 of undergraduate students found that 24 percent admitted to cyberbullying and that, again, 40 percent admitted to being victimized online. A 2006 poll of 1,000 children conducted by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, found cyberbullying frequencies of about 33 percent similar to those found by Pew and MARC (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2007). These numbers suggest that cyberbullying (with about 35-40 percent admitting victimization) may be more common than traditional bullying (with about 20-24 percent admitting victimization). In the most recent MARC survey (Englander, 2007), most cyberbullying perpetrators attributed their online bullying to either “anger” (65 percent) or “a joke” (35 percent) with “revenge” and “no reason” being distant third choices. More than two-thirds of students knew a friend who had been victimized online and almost onefourth (24 percent) characterized cyberbullying as either prevalent or very prevalent in their high school. Even if cyberbullying is more prevalent than in-person bullying, the focus of cyberbullying seems to be similar to the focus of bullying: the most common foci for cyberbullies were someone’s appearance and/or who they dated or befriended. Cyberbullying seems to evoke bullying behaviors among some adolescents who otherwise might not bully. Only 13 percent of the college students in MARC’s 2007 study (above) expressed the opinion that most cyberbullies “would bully no matter what;” instead, they saw bullying online as an opportunistic crime (“easier because you don’t see the person” (69 percent)), done because “you can do it anonymously” (65 percent). More than two-thirds of the respondents (72 percent) characterized cyberbullies as predominantly female – a stark contrast to the traditional view that males are predominant in aggression (Englander, 2006). Females appear to use cyberbullying predominately for revenge, while boys used it mostly “as a joke. ” These data suggest that different approaches may need to be tried with boys and girls regarding cyberbullying, and that cyberbullying “attracts” more female offenders than traditional bullying ever did. Clearly, cyberbullying throws a wider net than traditional “in-person” aggression, and more and different types of offenders should be expected to emerge.