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56–926 PDF 2010

ENSURING STUDENT 

CYBER SAFETY 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTHY 

FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES 

COMMITTEE ON 

EDUCATION AND LABOR 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JUNE 24, 2010 

Serial No. 111–69 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor 

( 

Available on the Internet: 

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/education/index.html 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR 

GEORGE MILLER, California, Chairman 

Dale E. Kildee, Michigan, Vice Chairman 

Donald M. Payne, New Jersey 

Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey 

Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott, Virginia 

Lynn C. Woolsey, California 

Rube ́n Hinojosa, Texas 

Carolyn McCarthy, New York 

John F. Tierney, Massachusetts 

Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio 

David Wu, Oregon 

Rush D. Holt, New Jersey 

Susan A. Davis, California 

Rau ́l M. Grijalva, Arizona 

Timothy H. Bishop, New York 

Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania 

David Loebsack, Iowa 

Mazie Hirono, Hawaii 

Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania 

Phil Hare, Illinois 

Yvette D. Clarke, New York 

Joe Courtney, Connecticut 

Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire 

Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio 

Jared Polis, Colorado 

Paul Tonko, New York 

Pedro R. Pierluisi, Puerto Rico 

Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, 

Northern Mariana Islands 

Dina Titus, Nevada 

Judy Chu, California 

John Kline, Minnesota, 

Senior Republican Member 

Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin 

Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon, California 

Peter Hoekstra, Michigan 

Michael N. Castle, Delaware 

Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan 

Judy Biggert, Illinois 

Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania 

Joe Wilson, South Carolina 

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington 

Tom Price, Georgia 

Rob Bishop, Utah 

Brett Guthrie, Kentucky 

Bill Cassidy, Louisiana 

Tom McClintock, California 

Duncan Hunter, California 

David P. Roe, Tennessee 

Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania 

[Vacant] 

Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director 

Barrett Karr, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTHY FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES 

CAROLYN McCARTHY, New York, Chairwoman 

Yvette D. Clarke, New York 

Robert C. ‘‘Bobby’’ Scott, Virginia 

Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire 

Paul Tonko, New York 

Jared Polis, Colorado 

George Miller, California 

Judy Chu, California 

Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania, 

Ranking Minority Member 

Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon, California 

Brett Guthrie, Kentucky 

David P. Roe, Tennessee 

Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on June 24, 2010 ............................................................................... 1 

Statement of Members: 

McCarthy, Hon. Carolyn, Chairwoman, Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities ................................................................................... 1 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 3 

Additional submission: Willard, Nancy, M.S., J.D., director, Center 

for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, prepared statement of ......... 61 

Platts, Hon. Todd Russell, Senior Republican Member, Subcommittee 

on Healthy Families and Communities ...................................................... 3 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 4 

Statement of Witnesses: 

Aftab, Parry, Esq., the Kids Internet lawyer, author, and child protection 

and cybersafety advocate .............................................................................. 28 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 30 

Finnegan, Dave, chief technology bear, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. ........ 43 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 45 

McGraw, Phillip C., Ph.D., syndicated daytime television talk show host 

and best-selling author ................................................................................. 6 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 8 

Napolitano, Dominique, on behalf of Girl Scouts of the USA ....................... 11 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 13 

Paris, Barbara-Jane ‘‘BJ,’’ board of directors, National Association of Secondary School Principals .............................................................................. 22 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 24 

Srabstein, Jorge C., M.D., medical director, clinic for health problems 

related to bullying, Children’s National Medical Center ........................... 15 

Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 17 

(1) 

ENSURING STUDENT CYBER SAFETY 

Thursday, June 24, 2010 

U.S. House of Representatives 

Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities 

Committee on Education and Labor 

Washington, DC 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:05 a.m., in room 

2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Carolyn McCarthy 

[chairwoman of the subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives McCarthy, Clarke, Scott, Shea-Porter, 

Platts, Guthrie, and Thompson. 

Staff Present: Andra Belknap, Press Assistant; Calla Brown, 

Staff Assistant, Education; Daniel Brown, Staff Assistant; Jose 

Garza, Deputy General Counsel; David Hartzler, Systems Administrator; Liz Hollis, Special Assistant to Staff Director/Deputy Staff 

Alex Nock, Deputy Staff Director; Director; Alexandria Ruiz, Administrative Assistant to Director of Education Policy; Melissa 

Salmanowitz, Press Secretary; Dray Thorne, Senior Systems Administrator; Bryce McKibben Staff Assistant, Education; Sadie 

Marshall, Chief Clerk; Kim Zarish-Becknell, Education Counsel, 

Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities; Mark 

Zuckerman, Staff Director; Stephanie Arras, Minority Legislative 

Assistant; Kirk Boyle, Minority General Counsel; Barrett Karr, Minority Staff Director; Brian Newell, Minority Press Secretary; 

Susan Ross, Minority Director of Education and Human Services 

Policy; Mandy Schaumburg, Minority Education Policy Counsel; 

and Linda Stevens, Minority Chief Clerk/Assistant to the General 

Counsel. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. A quorum for taking testimony must be 

present by House and committee rule, two members constitute a 

quorum for this purpose. No bipartisan requirement, two members 

of the same party will suffice. A quorum is present for the hearing 

for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee 

on Healthy Families and Communities on Ensuring Student Cyber 

Safety will come to order. 

Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to make sure 

that everybody has their BlackBerrys, their cell phones, put them 

on silent or turn them off, appreciate that. 

Before we begin, without objection, the subcommittee is joined 

today by our colleague, Representative Judy Biggert, who will be 

here soon to participate in the hearing and to ask questions. 
2 

I now recognize myself, followed by the Healthy Families and 

Communities ranking member, Todd Platts. I would like to welcome our witnesses to this hearing on ensuring student cyber safety. As a nurse for over 30 years, I have seen firsthand the damage 

and the loss families can experience from bullying. The emerging 

world of cyber-bullying is taking a toll on our students in ways we 

couldn’t even imagine just a few years ago. Traditional acts of bullying extend beyond the halls of our school buildings and have 

found a new home on the Internet. Through this hearing we will 

explore areas of concern related to cyber-bullying and how it is 

compounded by additional forms of bullying. 

While the overwhelming number of our students are safe, it is 

a parent’s worse nightmare to learn that their child has become a 

victim of crime or other incident. Acts of bullying can quickly escalate into cyber-bullying which, as we know, is far reaching and can 

lead to outbreaks of violence. 

According to a February 2010 Pew report, 73 percent, 73 percent 

of wired American teens now use social networking Web sites. A 

significant increase from previous surveys. 

Another recent Pew report found that daily text messaging 

among American teens has shot up in the past year and a half. 

Thirty-eight percent in February of 2008 to 54 percent in September 2009. It is not just frequency, teens are sending enormous 

quantities of text messaging every single day. Half of our teens 

send 50 or more text messages a day, and 1 in 3 more send more 

than 100 text messages a day. 

For a parent, knowing your child has been a victim of any form 

of bullying can be heartbreaking. So too can learning that your 

child is a bully. 

These days, cyber-bullying can have dire consequences, the emotional and physical impacts to cyber-bullying have become more severe than ever, and we need to be proactive in dealing with this 

serious problem. Students cannot learn and teachers cannot teach 

in environments that are unsafe and frightening. Students ought 

to be able to focus on learning and gaining the tools they need to 

succeed in life, not worrying about physical or emotional violence. 

Another theme that I think is important that you will hear running throughout this hearing is that effective cyber safety efforts 

must include coordination between all interested parties, especially 

the students. The students know what is happening to them and 

to their peers and often way before adults do. They are critical 

partners in any cyber safety efforts. I look forward to hearing ideas 

on this. Students’ cyber safety is necessary for a successful academic career. 

We cannot legislate morality, nor insist on kindness and we cannot criminalize meanness. Awareness and education hold the key 

to any solution. As the committee continues our work on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act we must give 

serious consideration to the testimony before us today and determine how Congress can best move forward to prevent further tragedies. 

I want to thank you all for being here, and I look forward to your 

testimony. I now recognize the distinguished ranking member of 
3 

the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee, Mr. Platts, 

for his opening statement. 

[The statement of Mrs. McCarthy follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Carolyn McCarthy, Chairwoman, 

Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities 

I’d like to welcome our witnesses to this hearing on ensuring student cyber safety. 

As a nurse for over 30 years, I have seen firsthand the damage and loss families 

can experience from bullying. 

The emerging world of cyber bullying is taking a toll on our students in ways we 

didn’t imagine just a few years ago. 

Traditional acts of bullying extend beyond the halls of our school buildings and 

have found a new home on the internet. 

Through this hearing we will explore areas of concern related to cyber bullying 

and how it is intertwined with and compounded by traditional forms of bullying. 

While the overwhelming number of students are safe, it is a parent’s worst nightmare to learn their child has become the victim of a crime or other incident. 

Acts of bullying can quickly escalate into cyber bullying which, as we know is far 

reaching and can lead to outbreaks of violence. 

According to a February 2010 PEW report, 73% of wired American teens now use 

social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys. 

Another recent PEW report found that daily text messaging among American 

teens has shot up in the past year and a half, from 38% in February of 2008 to 

54% in September 2009. 

And it’s not just frequency—teens are sending enormous quantities of text messages a day. 

Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, and one in three send more 

than one hundred texts a day. 

As a parent, knowing your child has been the victim of any form of bullying can 

be heartbreaking, so too can learning that your child is a bully. 

These days, cyber bullying can have dire consequences. 

The emotional and physical impacts of cyber bullying have become more severe 

than ever and we need to be proactive in dealing with this serious problem. 

Students cannot learn and teachers cannot teach in environments that are unsafe 

and frightening. 

Students ought to be able to focus on learning and gaining the tools they need 

to succeed in life, not worrying about physical or emotional violence. 

Another theme that I think is important and that you will hear running through 

this hearing is that effective cyber safety efforts must include coordination between 

all interested parties, especially the students. 

The students know what’s happening to them and to their peers, and often before 

adults do. 

They are critical partners in any cyber safety efforts and I look forward to hearing 

ideas on this. 

Student cyber safety is necessary for a successful academic career. 

We cannot legislate morality, nor insist on kindness, and we cannot criminalize 

meanness. 

Awareness and education hold the key to any solution. 

As the Committee continues our work on reauthorizing ESEA, we must give serious consideration to the testimony we have heard today and determine how Congress can best move forward to prevent further tragedies. 

Thank you all for being here and I look forward to your testimony. 

Mr. PLATTS. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning and welcome to our witnesses and all of our guests here today. Today we 

join together to discuss the important issue of cyber safety issue related to our Nation’s children. As a parent of two school age children, and I am delighted to have my soon to be 6th grader middle 

schooler, my son Tom just 11 this spring, with me. He will keep 

me in line if I misbehave, I think. But as a parent of two school 

age children, the issue of cyber-bullying is very troubling and certainly very personal as a parent. With the growth of technology 

that has included social networking sites, instant messaging, and 
4 

texts and picture messaging on cell phones, bullying is no longer 

combined to brick and mortar classrooms or school playgrounds or 

after-school bus rides. With children growing dependence on computer technology and other forms of technology, it is ever important 

that we address the changing face of bullying one often anonymous. 

Given how rapidly technology changes, the frequency of cyberbullying is not easily determined. However, certain studies have 

shown that up to 53 percent of kids are victims of cyber-bullying, 

and up to 23 percent of children have committed a bullying act 

through the use of technology. 

Most importantly, as parents, we must make it our priority to be 

cognizant of what our children are doing on line and to equip them 

with the proper tools to identify, report and effectively react to instances of cyber-bullying. 

The most severe cases, such as Vermont teenager Ryan Patrick 

Halligan, who committed suicide as a result of persistent abuse on 

line by classmates who questioned his sexuality, and 15-year-old 

Phoebe Prince, who earlier this year also took her own life after relentless bullying about her peers are heart wrenching reminders of 

why our Nation must become better educated on cyber-bullying and 

better prepared, or helping our children become better prepared 

with this issue. 

Fortunately, action is being taken nationwide by school administrators, teachers, parents, students, non profit organizations and 

the technology industry itself, all are working on developing both 

innovative and practical approaches to identify, prevent and curb 

the prevalence of cyber-bullying. As such, I very much look forward 

to the testimony of all of our witnesses. 

I want to especially pay tribute to our Girl Scout Dominique, we 

are delighted to have you here to have representing the Scouting 

program and your peer group, because it is your peers that we are 

trying to do right by and those to come. So again, we appreciate 

all of you being here and being part of this hearing. With that, I 

yield back, Madam Chair. 

[The statement of Mr. Platts follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Hon. Todd Russell Platts, Ranking Minority 

Member, Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities 

Good morning. Welcome to our hearing. Today we have joined to discuss the important issue of cyber safety related to our Nation’s children. 

As a parent of two school-age children, the issue of cyber bullying is one that is 

both troubling and personal. With the growth of technology that has included social 

networking sites, instant messaging, and text and picture messaging on cell phones, 

bullying is not longer confined to brick and mortar classrooms and afterschool bus 

rides. With children’s growing dependence on computer technology, it is ever important that we address the changing face of bullying—one that is often anonymous. 

Given how rapidly technology changes, its frequency is hard to determine. However, certain have studies have shown that up to fifty-three percent of kids are victims of cyber bullying, and up to twenty-three percent of children have committed 

a bullying act through the use of technology. 

Most importantly, as parents, we must make it our priority to be cognizant of 

what our children are doing online and equip them with proper tools to identify, report, and effectively react to instances of cyber bullying. 

The most sever cases, like Vermont teenager Ryan Patrick Halligan, who committed suicide as a result of persistent abuse online by classmates who questioned 

his sexuality, and fifteen-year old Phoebe Prince who earlier this year also took her 

own life after relentless bullying by her peers are heart wrenching reminders of why 

our Nation must become educated on cyber bullying. 
5 

Fortunately, action is being taken nationwide by school administrators, teachers, 

parents, students, nonprofit organizations, and the technology industry itself. All 

are working on developing both innovative and practical approaches to identify, prevent and curb the prevalence of cyber bullying. As such, I very much look forward 

to hearing the testimony from our esteemed witnesses today. Thank you Chairwoman McCarthy, and I yield back. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you, Mr. Platts and thank you 

for your opening statement. 

Pursuant to committee rule 12(a), any member may submit an 

opening statement in writing at this time which will be made part 

of the permanent record. Without objection, all members will have 

14 days to submit additional materials of questions for the hearing 

record. 

I want to just explain the lighting system that we have in front 

of you. When you start speaking, you will see a green light that basically gives you 5 minutes. You will see a yellow light, that is kind 

of a warning. We don’t cut people off in the middle of their statements or anything like that and to be very honest with you, I am 

probably more of a lenient chairman because you all have come 

from all over the country and we appreciate what you are hearing—what we will be hearing. So when I give a little tap, if you 

could finish your statement up, I would appreciate it. 

Our first witness is Dr. Phil C. McGraw, someone who we all 

know as simply Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil is the host of the Dr. Phil Show 

and is the best selling author with six of his books going to number 

1 on the New York Times best seller list. Dr. Phil holds a PA from 

Midwestern State University and an MA and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from North Texas State University, with a dual area of emphasis in clinical and behavioral medicine. 

On his syndicated show, he has focused on the issue of cyber-bullying numerous times and has been called upon by the media as 

an expert voice, raising public awareness on this issue. I welcome 

you, Dr. Phil, and thank you for gracing us with your testimony. 

On our second witness is Ms. Dominique Napolitano—I have 

learning disabilities by the way, just so people know that and I’m 

not ashamed to say that I have that because I know a lot of young 

people have it and I think they should be encouraged to do what 

they can anyhow. Dominique is a rising junior at St. John the Baptist High School and was among a core group of Girl Scouts who 

helped develop Let Me Know, LMK, a leading on line safety Web 

site developed by Girl Scouts in cooperation with Microsoft Windows division. The site is unique because it is designed to cover 

such topics as cyber-bullying, on-line sexual predators, cyber security from the perspective of young people. Welcome, and I want to 

thank the Girl Scouts of America for leading us to you. And I thank 

the Girl Scouts of America for the work that they have done over 

the years on addressing cyber-bullying for their young ladies. 

Our third witness is Dr. Jorge Srabstein, he is a child psychiatrist, at Children’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. At Children’s Hospital, he is the medical director of the clinic for health problems related to bullying. He is an emeritus fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and clinical associate professor of psychiatry at 
6 

George Washington University School of Medicine. Welcome, Doctor. 

Our next witness who came all the way from London this morning is Barbara Paris, principal of Canyon Vista Middle School in 

Austin, Texas. Ms. Paris has been in public education for 30 years. 

Educated both in Europe and the U.S., she has been served as a 

teacher in grades pre K through 12, and as a principal at the secondary level. Currently serving as the past president of the Texas 

Association of Secondary School Principals, Ms. Paris has recently 

taken up office on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. 

Our next witness is Ms. Parry Aftab, executive director of 

WiredSafety. She is an attorney who has represented many of the 

entertainment, Internet and consumer industry. She recently 

founded Wire Trust, a risk management consulting firm to advise 

industry and policymakers and an award winning columnist for Information Week Magazine. 

Finally, we will hear from David Finnegan, welcome, the ‘‘Chief 

Information and Logistics Bear’’ of Build-A-Bear Workshop. Mr. 

Finnegan joined Build-A-Bear Workshop in December 1999 and we 

will hear from him the efforts of Build A Bear to educate kids and 

parents about cyber-bullying using a multiple of media for parents 

that may or may not be Internet savvy. 

I want to welcome all of our witnesses, and again, I thank you 

for the time that you have taken out of your busy lives so with 

that, Dr. Phil. 

STATEMENT OF DR. PHIL MCGRAW, SYNDICATED DAYTIME 

TELEVISION TALK SHOW HOST AND BEST–SELLING AUTHOR 

Mr. MCGRAW. Thank you. Madam Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts, members of the committee, I am really honored—— 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Um—yes. 

Mr. MCGRAW. Am I on now? 

Madam Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts, Members of the subcommittee I am really honored and delighted to 

speak about this because it is something that I am very passionate 

about, and I really hope that we will have cyber-bullying language 

added to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 

The times they are a changing, as we say in the south. When I 

grew up as a boy, all of our fantasies were about the Wild Wild 

West and everybody running around and gun slingers everywhere 

with no law west of the Pecos. Now we are dealing with the wild, 

wild Web. And the gun slingers are keyboard bullies. They are 

these people that can, with anonymity, attack other students in a 

way that can completely destroy their reputations. And it is something that has changed and we have to change with it. 

In the past, you know, the bully had size, they had words, they 

could intimidate someone at school, but as Representative Platts 

comments with MySpace and Facebook, e-mails, chat rooms, there 

are so many of these things with so much power that they constitute Weapons of Mass Destruction when it comes to communication with these kids. And the problem is the bullies are anonymous 

now. So you get even more aggression from them because they 
7 

don’t have to look their target in the eye. And this wild, wild Web 

is completely unbridled. There is no checks, there is no balances, 

there is no accountability. Even if they are caught, there are little 

consequences. 

And when I grew up, I suspect when a lot of you grew up, bullying took place by people writing on the bathroom wall or snickering behind somebody’s back. And even then you could move 

schools if necessary. Somebody could say I just don’t want to put 

up with this anymore, I am going to move schools. You can’t do 

that now. Even if you leave, the bullies and you go to another 

school, all they have to do is Google that person’s name and here 

it comes again. 

If there was a rumor she stuffed her bra in the 5th grade or 

somebody wet their pants at lunch, something that happened that 

really was humiliating and embarrassing, they pick it up at the 

new school and here we go again. They photoshop pictures in 

humiliating poses, ways that can just be so traumatic to a child. 

And believe me, it is impossible to unring the cyber bell, you just 

cannot unring that bell. Once it is out there, it is out there. And 

children that have been impacted by cyber-bullying are 1.9 times 

more likely to attempt suicide than the general population. We 

have seen it. Phoebe Prince, Alexis Pilkington, Megan Meier, on 

and on. 

I get tens of thousands of letters at the Dr. Phil Show of kids 

asking for help about this. It is a serious crisis. Forty-two percent 

of kids say they have been bullied on the Internet. Thirty-five percent say they have actually been threatened. And it is more for minorities, gays, and particularly girls. This is an epidemic and the 

problem is there is no place to hide. You know, used to, at least 

when the child got home, they would be around people who loved 

and care about them and they would be safe at home. 

Now that bully can silently come inside the home. You think 

your child is back doing their homework, but on their desktop or 

their laptop they are getting bombarded by these people that are 

saying ugly things about them, telling them they wish they would 

kill themselves and they are going to beat them up the next day. 

Isolation is the number 1 tool of an abuser. And you can never be 

more isolated than when someone is cyber-bullying you and you 

alone with that screen are looking at everything that is being said. 

Children won’t talk to their parents about this, they feel shame 

and embarrassment. They don’t want to tell mom and dad, hey, 

people don’t like me so parents don’t necessarily know it. Eightyfive percent of the time this goes completely unabated because 

there is no official crime. We have to give educators, administrators, teachers the tools that they need to prevent this, to intervene 

once it happens, to break the pattern and both the bullies and of 

the targets need counseling. 

The bullies don’t understand the gravity of what they are doing, 

they just simply don’t get that. So we have to help them understand, develop empathy to realize when I do this, it is destroying 

someone’s life. 

I see so many people in their 20s, 30s and 40s that were bullied, 

it still affects them. It affects the way they parent their children, 

it leaves scars that run deep. It may end in the 7th grade, but the 
8 

residual is there for the rest of their life. And I really hope we add 

language to address cyber-bullying to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act because teachers in particular are dedicated 

professionals. Look, you don’t go into teaching for the money, you 

go into teaching because you care. 

You go into teaching because you want to impact young people’s 

lives. We need to give them the tools to do that, and I am so proud 

that the committees starting what I think is a long overdue dialogue about this, so we can give them the tools that they need. And 

frankly, all of us adults aren’t nearly as literate on the computer 

as our kids are. We need to close that information gap. We need 

to Google our children’s names. We need to know where their name 

pops up, who is talking to them, what they are saying and how 

they are doing it. 

I am so convinced that by putting this language in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we can raise the awareness and 

give these people the tools to bring this about. And I want to tell 

you that I am going to continue to focus on this on my platform, 

and I invite everyone in the media to use their platform to raise 

awareness about this, to educate parents about this and put them 

on alert. So I commend you all for taking the time to do this. 

Thank you very much. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you very much. 

[The statement of Mr. McGraw follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Phillip C. McGraw, Ph.D., Syndicated Daytime 

Television Talk Show Host and Best-Selling Author 

Good morning. 

Madam Chairwoman McCarthy, members of the Committee I am honored to 

speak to you about Cyber-bullying which I pray will be added to the Elementary 

and Secondary Education Act. 

The ‘‘times they are a changing’’. As a boy growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, 

our fantasies were inspired by tales of the Wild Wild West. It was indeed a wild 

era when there literally was ‘‘no law west of the Pecos’’—when gunslingers like 

Black Bart and Billy the Kid freely roamed the countryside, terrorizing law abiding 

citizens. They were unchecked and unaccountable, the bullies of a time gone by. 

My personal heroes were not the villains, but the marshals! The guys in the white 

hats—men like Matt Dillon and Pat Garrison who did what they could to stop the 

outlaws’ random, brutal attacks on innocent victims. 

Today, we have a new frontier—a new ‘‘Wild Wild West’’. It’s called the ‘‘Wild 

Wild Web’’, and it can be a very dangerous place, especially for our children. The 

gunslingers of the Wild Wild Web are what are called cyber-bullies or Keyboard Bullies—omnipresent, electronic stalkers who can and do go after their targets day and 

night, destroying their reputations if not their lives, and then logging off their computers and riding away. 

In the past a bully had physical size and words. Now the cyber-bully has 

Facebook, MySpace, Email, Texting, Web Postings, Blocked calling via the Internet, 

Instant Messaging, and chat rooms. Each has so much power and affect so many 

that they represent the Weapons of Mass Destruction of human communication for 

students! When students are sitting in class most of them at the junior high or middle school level will have cell phones with text capability. While a teacher may be 

lecturing about English literature or supervising a test, several students in the class 

will be texting each other and their friends. There will be cyber-bullies at work during this time causing clear and unknown danger to those very students in class. It 

is an epidemic in which it is easy to be a bully because a bully remains anonymous. 

Like the old west, the Wild Wild Web is completely unbridled—with no checks, 

no balances, no accountability and no liability. There are seldom if ever, consequences for cyber-bullies’ actions and little punishment even if they are identified—which is not an easy task. We need a new group of marshals, men and women 

in white hats, to once again keep our kids safe. 
9 

Let me try to capture the scope of this crisis. When I grew up—when most of you 

on the panel grew up—there were few if any home computers, few if any cell 

phones, certainly no texting, no Facebook or MySpace. Bullying was limited to 

school playgrounds and lunch rooms. Insults were scrawled on a bathroom wall. 

But in 2010, the havoc caused by cyber-bullies is exponentially greater than whatever used to happen on a playground or was written on a bathroom wall. Today, 

through the cloak of anonymity, a cyber-bully can hack into a student’s Facebook 

page, access their Twitter account, alter their My Space page or steal their email 

accounts. A cyber-bully can post changes to a Facebook page, making it appear the 

owner of the Facebook page has a sexually transmitted disease. A cyber-bully can 

create fake photos of an unsuspecting teenager in what appears to be a very sexually humiliating situation. A cyber-bully can invent shockingly embarrassing emails 

from one child and have them sent to someone else. By using dozens of false identities on social networking sites, a cyber-bully also can make his victim feel that legions of other kids despise him or her as well. 

In a matter of seconds, a cyber-bully can completely destroy a fragile adolescent’s 

reputation. While a bully’s rumors in the 1980s might have reached twenty people, 

a cyber-bully’s rumors will reach millions. While whatever was written on that wall 

in the old days could be erased, the Internet and all of its social networking sites 

can not. It is impossible to un-ring the ‘‘cyber-bell.’’ Drs. Patchin and Hinduja found 

that all forms of bullying lead to increases in suicidal thoughts and victims of cyberbullying were 1.9 times more likely to actually attempt suicide than non victims. 

Members of the committee, we are facing a serious crisis. According to one study 

I’ve read, 42% of kids say they have been bullied while online. 35% say they have 

been threatened online. The National Crime Prevention Council reports that at least 

once per week, 52% of all students read some sort of cyber-bullying message directed at someone else. Much of the abuse is directed at racial and ethnic minorities, gays, Hispanics—and girls are more often the target than boys. 

And what makes it worse for these victims is that there is absolutely no place 

for them to hide. Think about it. In the old days, kids got away from their bullies 

by retreating to the safety of their own homes. If the bullies followed them, you as 

parents would walk out the front door, take down their names, chase them away, 

and call their own parents. Not anymore. Today’s child can be sitting in his own 

house, doing homework in his bedroom, reading, relaxing, or watching television— 

just being a kid. Suddenly, and relentlessly, he or she starts getting emails that say, 

‘‘You’re ugly.’’ ‘‘No one likes you.’’ ‘‘We are going to beat you up tomorrow.’’ ‘‘We all 

wish you would just die.’’ ‘‘No one wants you here, so why don’t you just kill yourself?’’ Even while in the company of their parents, sitting with them in the den, the 

children can be attacked via their cell phone with text messages. Cyber-bullies will 

strike at anytime, and they will follow their targets everywhere—not only into their 

homes, but from school to school, even across the country. In almost every case of 

abuse, no matter what kind of abuse it is, isolation is the abuser’s #1 tool. The 

abuser does everything possible to make a victim feel there is nothing that he or 

she can do to escape. When it comes to cyber-abuse, there is especially no escape. 

I have addressed this issue on the ‘‘Dr. Phil’’ show because I have seen the torment it causes. Some victims suffer in silence and some experience symptoms of 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some decompensate and actually lose touch with 

reality. Their grades drop because they are afraid to go to school. 

Their friends disappear. Because of the shame and embarrassment they feel from 

the cyber-bullying, they often won’t say anything to a parent or any other authority 

figure. They become even more humiliated—and yes, more isolated—as the cyberbullying continues for weeks, months and even years. Eventually, some of these children become so distraught that they do the unthinkable. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, cyber-bullying victims are almost twice as likely to attempt suicide compared to those who have not endured such bullying. You probably 

know about 15- year-old Phoebe Prince, the Massachusetts teenager who, after 

being harassed, mistreated and then cyber-bullied for three months by a group of 

other girls, hanged herself in a bedroom closet. 17-year-old Long Island teen Alexis 

Pilkington, the soccer star and daughter of a New York City police officer also took 

her own life following vicious taunts on social networking sites. 13-year-old Megan 

Meier committed suicide after receiving hateful messages from what she thought 

was a boyfriend—but who reportedly turned out to be the vengeful mother of a 

classmate. 

But there are just as many stories we are asked to help with at the ‘‘Dr. Phil’’ 

show that never make the front pages—like the 11-year-old boy in Massachusetts 

who hanged himself after a group of kinds ganged up on him, using the Internet 

to spread false rumors that he was gay. Or the 13-year-old girl in Florida who took 
10 

her own life after learning, to her horror, that kids at her school were posting a 

revealing photo of her on social networking sites. 

Just as shocking are the studies that show how little is done about what is happening. It is estimated that 85 percent of bullying today goes on unabated. Because 

cyber-abuse almost always happens off campus, teachers and school administrators 

say they have no power to intervene. Because no ‘‘official crime’’ has been committed, the police say there is nothing they can do. And, sadly, parents are almost 

never aware of what is happening. 

Times have changed the challenges we face—and we as a society have to change 

with them. We must change our sensitivities, our policies and our training protocols 

so we do not let the victims of today’s ‘‘keyboard bullies’’ fall through the cracks. 

That is why I am here today to suggest you add language to address cyber-bullying 

to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. A cyber bully in 2010 has the 

weapons to cause pain and suffering to victims that no other generation has had 

to cope with. Cyber-bullies need to be blocked. It is time to lay the foundation to 

protect our children during those critical hours when we are not there to personally 

supervise their lives and interactions. This Committee has an opportunity to enact 

legislation to add language to ESEA on cyber-bullying. By doing so you, will make 

meaningful changes in the lives of millions of children and adolescents who instead 

of suffering in silence may someday become our future leaders. 

On the ‘‘Dr. Phil’’ show, we have taken the lead in dealing with cyber-bullying 

through intervention, education and prevention. These three principles must be kept 

in mind if we truly desire a meaningful outcome to stop the emotional carnage created by this ubiquitous problem. It is important for school officials to think comprehensively about how to address cyber safety and early prevention, how to address incidents that occur, and how to handle ongoing chronic situations. We can 

address the problem through our website with resources for parents and students 

dealing with cyber-bullying. 

I am glad the subcommittee is holding today’s hearing because I believe it begins 

a long-overdue conversation about what cyber-bullying is doing to us. I have been 

saying, over and over, that we have got to start talking openly about this issue. The 

worst thing parents can do is to shrug and stay out of their kids’ on-line life, thinking that some texting or social network posting can’t really be all that serious. They 

need to ask their children directly if they have ever been ridiculed, intimidated or 

humiliated on the Internet. They need to let their children know that they do not 

have to feel isolated and alone because of any cyber-bullying that they have to endure. They need to assure their children that they will do everything they can to 

protect them and to fight for them. 

They also must get very involved in their children’s high-tech lives. The fact is 

that most parents today are fractionally computer literate. They don’t know what’s 

coming across their kids’ computers or phones. Even those who try to limit or supervise their children’s time on line do not understand that video games now have 

Internet capability. 

If the adults in a child’s life are not aware of cyber-bullying, the bullying will not 

go away. Which is why I believe that all parents who are not familiar with the 

Internet need to get familiar with the Internet immediately. Their own children may 

be their best resources. Here is just a sampling of what parents can do: 

• Have their children take them to the sites they frequently visit and to show 

them what they do on those sites. 

• Have their children show them what they have in their profiles on social networking sites to make sure it is accurate and appropriate. 

• Scrutinize their children’s’ ‘‘friends lists’’ on their various accounts and make 

sure they recognize the identity of each ‘‘friend.’’ 

• Make certain their children have never and will never share their passwords 

with anyone, even a friend, to avoid the risk of someone impersonating them. 

• Encourage school-aged children to change their password regularly. 

• Teach school-aged children to encrypt access to their phone and computer. 

• Have a very pointed conversation with them about ‘‘sexting,’’ the risky practice 

of sending sexually explicit photos and/or messages which can easily be forwarded 

without their knowledge. Doing so may actually be defined as child pornography. 

• And establish a family policy for acceptable computer use. 

• List what may or may not be allowed to be done on a computer. 

• Include clear rules about time limits. 

• Keep the children’s computer out of their bedroom and put it in a very public 

area such as a kitchen or the family room. 

At the same time, parents need to make sure that their own children aren’t 

tempted to cross the line and become, even ever so briefly, Internet bullies themselves, secretly getting back at someone they believe has crossed them. As we must 
11 

all remember, when it comes to children, just one single malicious Internet rumor 

can result in unimaginably deep emotional scars that may last a lifetime. I understand the plight of many families in America and realize that a parent may have 

very little time with a child or may not even be involved at all. We must be creative 

in our intervention in order to associate with community leaders who have influence 

and access to our children. 

Finally, we need to give school officials the tools they need to deal with cyberbullying comprehensively, to address early prevention, early intervention when incidents arise, and chronic situations. Some examples of this comprehensive approach 

might be school officials and leaders in the community coordinating Public Service 

Announcements, Special School Programs, banners placed where students congregate, constant website postings prohibiting cyber-bullying, links from various 

websites and the thousands of additional resources we can bring to stop cyberbulling. It is time for the ‘‘Keyboard Bullies’’ to know There is a New Sheriff in 

Town. 

Members of the committee, I thank you for the work you are doing. I’ve devoted 

countless hours of my show to cyber-bullying because I know it’s one of the most 

destructive forces out there, not only for children, but for families as well. It is our 

responsibility as educators, lawmakers, concerned citizens and as parents to stand 

up against this growing, insidious threat. The lightning speed at which technology 

is advancing demands our response. 

Congresswoman McCarthy, Members of the committee, I thank you for the honor 

of addressing you this morning. It has been a privilege. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Dominique. 

STATEMENT OF DOMINIQUE NAPOLITANO, TEEN MEMBER, 

GIRL SCOUTS, USA’S LET ME KNOW (LMK) PROGRAM 

Ms. NAPOLITANO. Good morning, Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts and members of the committee. My name is 

Dominique Napolitano and I am here on behalf of youth across the 

country to learn the teen’s perspective on an important issue facing 

my generation, Internet safety and security, especially the subject 

of cyber-bullying. I am also here as a Girl Scout as a proud member of Suffolk County Troop 2217. 

As a leading girl-serving organization, Girl Scouts is dedicated 

ensuring that girls have the know-how tools and leadership skills 

they need to address life’s challenges, including cyber-bullying. 

I would like to begin by telling a personal story about cyber-bullying. Although I have never been cyber-bullied nor have I ever 

cyber-bullied anyone, it still affects me and my peers. I know people who have been the victims of this terrible behavior, notably my 

classmate, Mary T. A sarcastic boy in my school created a Facebook 

fan club called the Mary T Fan Club that was expressly for the 

purpose of publicly humiliating her. A fan club is typically a group 

made for a whole bunch of people to join because they like the person, place or thing being expressed, such as Leonardo DiCaprio 

Fan Club or the Disney World Fan Club. 

The Mary T Fan Club, however, listed sarcastic things about the 

individual, things that would hurt a typical teenager. It seems unbelievable why someone would hurt anyone in such an emotionally 

devastating way where everyone from the school could see it. I am 

happy to report that this student was disciplined not only in school 

but also outside of school. His pranks socially backfired on him 

when students started joining it to bash him for his cowardly act. 

He realized how bad the idea was when the rest of the school 

agreed that his behavior was one of the most hurtful things you 

can do to another. He tried in vain to remove the comments and 
12 

it was amazing to see that even people who are not friendly with 

Mary stood up for her in unbelievable ways. 

This student received in-school suspension as well as was suspended from the school sports team after dozens of students ran to 

the principal, campus ministry leaders and guidance counselors to 

report him. I am sure Mary will always have the emotional scars 

he left when he made the fan club, though. 

Unfortunately Mary’s experience is not unique. According to the 

National Council of Juvenile Court Judges, 1 in 6 students, grades 

6 to 10, that is 3.2 million students victims of on line bullying each 

year. 

As a girl and a Girl Scout, I realize that cyber-bullying is an important issue for girls. The Girl Scouts Research Institutes report, 

Girls in News Media, we learn that girls say the Internet allows 

them to treat peers more cruelly than they would face-to-face interaction, without having to see the immediate responses to their behavior. Moreover, a Girl Scouts research report, ‘‘Feeling Safe,’’ 

found out the number one safety concern for girls is their emotional 

safety. 

My experience as a Girl Scout really helped me become an advocate on this issue. About 11⁄2 years ago, I was invited by Girl 

Scouts of the USA to become one of the teen editors of LMK. LMK 

which is text speak for Let Me Know, is a girl lead interactive 

Internet site created by Girl Scouts and Microsoft. It is a unique 

place where teens help parents and other teens find information 

about on line safety from a teenager’s point of view. 

I also participated in a Girl Scouts program called, ‘‘It is Your 

World—Change It.’’ This program emphasized the need for healthy 

and respectful relationships and also helped me find my own 

strength and positively handle peer pressure. 

In closing, I would like to reinforce 2 points for your consideration, the first is that cyber-bullying is one of the largest set of behaviors called relational aggression aims to harm an individual’s 

self esteem, feeling of self-worth and relationships with his or her 

peers. Girls especially are prone to relational aggression and cyberbullying is just one way that it takes place. 

As Congress considers various policy proposals to address cyber 

safety, I hope the committee addresses relational aggression. Unfortunately, these issues are often ignored or overlooked by teachers, administrators, policymakers and even other kids. But the victims of relational aggression and cyber-bullying are more likely to 

experience loneliness, depression, anxiety and poor school performance. Teachers, students, administrators and policymakers must 

take the whole spectrum of relational aggression, including cyberbullying seriously. The second point is that youth are part of the 

solution. 

Through the LMK program, Girl Scouts has created one of the 

only Internet safety programs that is for kids by kids. I know from 

my experience that kids don’t always think that adults understand 

their issues or get technology so we need to empower youth to take 

this problem into our own hands and find solutions that work for 

us. I feel that I have had that experience through Girl Scouts, my 

youth group and in school, but far too many kids don’t get that 

chance. 
13 

iMarion K. Underwood. Social Aggression among Girls (Guilford Series On Social And Emotional Development). New York: The Guilford Press, 2003. ii Harris Interactive, Trends and Tudes: Cyberbullying, April 2006. 

iii ‘‘Prevent Cyberbullying Before It Starts.’’ LMK: Life Online. Girl Scouts of the United States 

of America. http://lmk.girlscouts.org/Online-Safety-Topics/Cyberbullying/Stop-Cyberbullying/ 

Prevent-Cyberbullying-Before-It-Starts.aspx 

Thank you again, Chairwoman McCarthy, Congressman Platts 

and other members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity 

to be here on behalf of America’s youth and am happy to answer 

any questions you may have. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you. 

[The statement of Ms. Napolitano follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Dominique Napolitano, on Behalf of 

Girl Scouts of the USA 

Thank you, Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts, and Members of the 

Committee. My name is Dominique Napolitano, and I am here on behalf of youth 

across the country to lend the teen perspective to an important issue affecting my 

generation—cyber safety. I am also here representing Girl Scouts of the USA, and 

girls across the country who are directly affected by this issue. I hope that my testimony will help you all better understand what it’s like for teens today, and also 

highlight how this issue affects girls. 

A tale of cyberbullying 

‘‘An intimidating boy at my school created a Facebook ‘‘fan club’’ called the ‘‘Mary 

T. Fan Club’’ that was created expressly for the purpose of publically humiliating 

my classmate Mary. The ‘‘Mary T. fan club’’ made sarcastic comments about Mary’s 

body, hair and personality, and encouraged her peers to make fun of Mary. 

I’m happy to report that this student was not only disciplined in school, but also 

outside of school. His prank socially backfired on him when students started joining 

the fan club and began standing up for Mary. He realized how bad this idea was 

when the rest of the school agreed that his behavior was one of the most hurtful 

things to do to another person. It was amazing to see that even people who are not 

friendly with Mary stood up for her in unbelievable ways. That said, this bully continues to poke fun of her behind her back. I’m sure Mary will always have the emotional scars he left when he made the fan club.’’ 

Cyberbullying, relational aggression and related cyber threats 

Mary’s story is only one example of the challenges that many youth face today 

in cyberspace. In more heartbreaking cases, we hear stories of Megan Meier, Phoebe 

Prince, and Alexis Pilkington, each of whom ended her life after unrelenting bullying, including cyberbullying. A common theme in each of these cases, is that these 

girls were not the victims of physical violence, but were instead the subjects of a 

form of emotional and social bullying called relational aggression (RA). 

Relational aggression encompasses behaviors that harm someone by damaging, 

threatening, or manipulating her relationship with her peers, or by injuring a girl’s 

feeling of social acceptance. Girls are more likely to use this subtle, indirect and 

emotional form of aggression than boys.i They are also more likely to report feeling 

angry (56 percent), hurt (33 percent), embarrassed (32 percent), or scared (10 percent) after being bullied.ii

Cyberbullying is a perfect example of relational aggression. By using digital media 

such as cell phones, social networking sites, email and other technologies, children 

can frighten, embarrass, harass or otherwise hurt their peers anonymously, without 

engaging in physical aggression, and without seeing the immediate responses to 

their behavior. This type of behavior is also startlingly common. Cyberbullying 

starts as early as 2nd grade and peaks in 4th grade and then again in 7th grade. 

Eighty-five percent of middle school students polled last year said they had been 

cyberbullied at least once, and 70 percent of 13-16 year olds polled said they had 

cyberbullied someone else at least once.iii

While in most instances relational aggression or cyberbullying does not end in suicide, this behavior does pose a very real threat to children’s—especially girl’s—safety. In the groundbreaking original research report Feeling Safe, the Girl Scouts Research Institute found that nearly half of all girls (46 percent) defined safety as not 

having their feelings hurt; girls who face cyberbullying or the threat of 

cyberbullying do not feel safe. Moreover, girls’ number one concern (32 percent) was 
14 

ivParry Aftab. ‘‘What can you do to protect your child from sexual predators online?’’ http:// 

www.wiredsafety.org/askparry/special—reports/spr1/index.html vSex and Tech: Results from a Survey of Teens and Young Adults. The National Campaign 

to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 2007. 

a fear of being teased or made fun of, and 38 percent of girls surveyed worry about 

their emotional safety when spending time with their peers. Girls who feel emotionally unsafe are more likely to feel sad, have trouble paying attention in school, get 

low grades, and have trouble making decisions. 

Because R.A. is not as overt as ‘‘traditional’’ schoolyard bullying, it has not received the same attention from researchers, educators, and parents. However, Relational Aggression is just as harmful as physical bullying to a student’s ability to 

learn, grow, and succeed. It is imperative that we recognize cyberbullying for what 

it is—a symptom of the larger problem of relational aggression. 

Cyberspace poses a number of other threats to young girls, such as online sexual 

predators, inappropriate sharing of information, and the disturbing new trend of 

‘‘sexting’’. One in seven boys and one in four girls reports meeting strangers off the 

internetiv—at clear risk to their own safety. Teens often misjudge ‘‘how much is too 

much,’’ and share personal information or post inappropriate pictures that will hurt 

them when applying to college or for jobs. An extreme example of over-the-edge behavior is the trend of ‘‘sexting,’’ or sending sexually explicit images or messages via 

cell phone. One study found that 31 percent of young men and 36 percent of young 

women have sent nude or seminude images of themselves, and even more have sent 

sexually suggestive messages. Fifty-one percent of teen girls cite pressure from a 

guy as a reason for sexting, while only 18 percent of teen boys cite pressure from 

girls.v This behavior can clearly have life-long consequences for a girl. 

Girl Scouts research and programming 

I am proud to be here today representing Girl Scouts of the USA. Girl Scouts is 

the world’s preeminent organization for building leadership in girls, serving 2.5 million girl members and 900,000 adult members in every corner of the United States, 

Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and ninety-five countries worldwide. 

My experience as a Girl Scout really helped me become an advocate on 

cyberbullying. About 1.5 years ago, I was invited by Girl Scouts of the USA to become one of the teen editors of LMK (text-speak for Let Me Know). This innovative 

program, which was created by Girl Scouts and Microsoft, is a unique online safety 

resource designed by girls, for girls. At LMK, girls are the technology experts on 

subjects that are often best discussed at a teen-to-teen level, like cyberbullying, online predators and social networking. This girl-led campaign allows girls to share 

their online concerns with peer ‘‘tech-perts’’ about the issues that affect them while 

raising awareness about how to help keep girls (ages 13—17) safe while surfing the 

Web. In addition, parents have access to a site specifically geared to their needs, 

equipping them with the tools necessary to understand and act on the rapidly 

changing world of online safety. LMK offers a digital patch to Girl Scouts, motivating them to increase their knowledge of internet safety. For more information, 

please visit: http://lmk.girlscouts.org. 

I have also benefited from Girl Scouts new program, the Girl Scout Leadership 

Experience (GSLE). The GSLE helps girls build the leadership skills they need to 

address the challenges of daily life, including relational aggression, bullying and 

girls cyber safety. The GSLE engages girls in discovering themselves and their values, connecting with others, and taking action to make the world a better place. 

For example, when I was a cadette Girl Scout, my troop did a new Girl Scout 

Leadership Journey program called ‘‘aMAZE: The Twists and Turns of Getting 

Along,’’ where we learned about friendships, cliques and conflicts, bullies, and cyberrelationships. This program helped us recognize and combat cyberbullying and other 

forms of relational aggression, how to safely use social networking websites, and 

how to deal with online friends or acquaintances who want to meet in person. We 

signed an Internet Safety Pledge, through which we promised to not give out personal information online, to follow the rules of Internet sites, to never meet with 

someone they meet online without talking to a parent first, to set up rules with a 

parent for going online, to practice online ‘‘netiquette,’’ and more. 

Policy solutions 

As Congress considers various policy proposals to address cyber safety, Girl Scouts 

stands ready to provide resources, information and solutions. Girl Scouts encourages 

Congress to take a broad, holistic approach, including efforts to build confidence 

among girls, empowering them to prevent cyberbullying before it starts and to stop 

it when they see it. Specifically, we encourage you to: 
15 

• Recognize the significant threat posed by relational aggression and encourage 

schools to adopt and strengthen policies specifically to prevent and address relational aggression and cyberbullying. 

• Educate parents, teachers, administrators, and other school personnel in recognizing, preventing, and mitigating the effects of relational aggression and 

cyberbullying. 

• Support community-based organizations, including the Girl Scouts, that prevent 

cyberbullying and teach about cyber security, online privacy, online sexual predators, and the use of social networking sites and mobile devices. 

On behalf of Girl Scouts of the USA, and girls across the country, thank you, 

again, for your focus on this important topic. 

GSUSA’s Public Policy and Advocacy Office, located in Washington, D.C., works 

in partnership with local Girl Scout councils to educate representatives of the legislative and executive branches of government and advocate for public policy issues 

important to girls and Girl Scouting. 

For further information please contact Sharon Pearce, Director of Public Policy at 

202-659-3780 or advocacy@girlscouts.org. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Doctor. 

STATEMENT OF DR. JORGE SRABSTEIN, CHILD PSYCHIATRIST, 

MEDICAL DIRECTOR, CLINIC FOR HEALTH PROBLEMS RELATED TO BULLYING, CHILDREN’S NATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER 

Dr. SRABSTEIN. Good morning, Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking 

Member Platts and distinguished members of the subcommittee. 

Thank you for your leadership to ensure student cyber safety. I am 

very honored by your invitation to render testimony to support, 

raise an awareness about cyber-bullying and its toxicity and provide recommendations for addressing this important issue in the 

Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act. 

I am a child adolescent psychiatrist and pediatrician testifying 

on my behalf, and that of Children’s National Medical Center, 

which provides leadership in clinical research and advocacy efforts 

to prevent health problems leading to bullying. 

The recent evolving understanding is that cyber-bullying is a 

very serious public health problem, prevalent around the world and 

linked to serious health problems, including suicide. Cyber-bullying 

is manifested by victimization, mistreatment or abuse, through 

electronic chronic forms of conduct from every day Internet and or 

mobile phones. It can include harassment, threats, insults, teasing, 

calling names and spreading rumors. Moreover, it may consist of 

sharing embarrassing picture or videos, incitement to hurt somebody, password theft, privacy violation, like cutting and pasting or 

spreading viruses. 

It has been estimated that at least 14 percent of U.S. adolescents 

in grades 6 to 10 have been electronically bullied in school, this 

doesn’t count the kids who are bullied, cyber bullied outside this 

setting, at least once in the previous 2 months. Cyber-bullying can 

occur in and out of school premises, with the identity of the perpetrator being known by at least 70 percent of the students being victimized. Sixty percent of the known perpetrators are schoolmates. 

Ninety percent of victims do not report cyber-bullying to their parents because they feel that they need to deal with this problem by 

themselves and or they are worried that their Internet privileges 

may be curtailed. Cyber-bullying can occur simultaneously with 
16 

other forms of mistreatment happening in schools and other community settings. 

Victims, perpetrators or bystanders are at significant risk of suffering from an array of health, safety and education of problems, 

including depression, frequent absenteeism, eating disorders, and 

above all, suicidal attempts. 

Traditionally, U.S. schools have been at the forefront of helping 

for more than 100 years, been at the forefront of helping to safeguard the health and safety of their students by contributing to the 

prevention and detection of public health hazards, such as, in the 

first part of the 20th century, communicable diseases and later on, 

psychosocial risk factors. In this context, schools are now being 

challenged to prevent the safety and health risks linked to bullying 

and cyber-bullying with the support of health professionals and the 

full community. 

Since ’94, State legislatures have been addressing the issue of 

school bullying. As of June 2010, 42 States have enacted legislation 

to sign to reduce or prevent bullying and or harassment about public school students. Half of these statutes include language pertaining to harassment through electronic communication, usually 

on school premises. These laws have a wide scope of legal coverage 

and jurisdiction, varying in the definition of bullying, the recognition of its link to health safety risks, and the support and strategies to create an infrastructure for bullying prevention. 

In order to preserve the physical and emotional well-being of 

children and adolescents living and studying in the United States 

of America, it is critical that the United States Congress should 

enact Bullying and Cyber-Bullying Prevention Legislation. Towards 

this end, we respectfully recommend that ESEA reauthorization 

address: 

Promotion of public awareness about the nature, toxicity and 

prevention of bullying and cyber-bullying; 

Development of safe schools through programs that enhance mutual respect, sensitivity and support of others, tolerance to diversity 

and disapproval of bullying and cyber-bullying; 

Implementation of research-based, school-wide bullying prevention programs for all students attending elementary and secondary 

education; 

Fostering the necessity and obligation to report incidents of bullying, as a conscientious community public health attitude, with 

safeguards against any threat of retaliation or liability for those 

who report, and support or guidance in reporting bullying, cyberbullying incidents through a hotline; 

Monitoring and detecting ongoing bullying incidents; 

Providing school interventions through school counselors or 

nurses to protect and support students who are being bullied, perpetrators should be counseled or sensitized about the harm inflicted, while helped to develop respect, empathy, tolerance and 

sensitivity to others; 

Consideration of referral for medical evaluation and treatment 

for victims and perpetrators who experience physical or psychological symptoms linked to bullying. 

I want to thank the Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry for 

their extraordinary support in helping me to prepare this testi-
17 

mony. Thank you for the opportunity to testify, I will be happy to 

answer any questions you may have. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you. 

[The statement of Dr. Srabstein follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Jorge C. Srabstein, M.D., Medical Director, Clinic 

for Health Problems Related to Bullying, Children’s National Medical 

Center, Washington, DC 

Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts and distinguished members of 

this Subcommittee, thank you for your leadership to ensure students’ cyber-safety. 

I am very honored by your invitation to render testimony to support raising awareness about cyber-bullying and its toxicity and to provide recommendations for addressing this important issue through the ‘‘Elementary and Secondary Education 

Reauthorization Act (ESEA).’’ 

I am testifying on my behalf and that of Children’s National Medical Center, 

which provides leadership in clinical, research and advocacy efforts to prevent 

health problems linked to bullying. In the interest of time, I will keep my remarks 

brief; please see my written testimony for more expanded remarks and further information about the programs with which I am involved at Children’s National. 

There is an evolving understanding that cyber-bullying is a very serious public 

health problem, prevalent around the world and linked to serious health problems, 

including suicide.5,7,10,26 Cyber-bullying is manifested by victimization, mistreatment or abuse through electronic forms of contact, primarily the Internet and/or mobile phones. It can include harassment, threats, insults, teasing, calling names and 

spreading rumors. Moreover, it may consist of sharing embarrassing pictures or videos, incitement to hurt somebody, password theft, privacy violation (‘‘cut and pasting’’) or spreading viruses. 1,10,12,15

It has been estimated that 14 percent of US adolescents in grades 6-10 have been 

electronically bullied in school at least once in the previous two months.7 Cyber-bullying can occur in and/or out of school premises, with the identity of the perpetrator 

being known by at least 70 percent of the students being victimized.65 Fifty percent 

of the known perpetrators are schoolmates.65 Ninety percent of victims do not report 

cyber-bullying to their parents because they feel that they need to deal with this 

problem by themselves and/or they worry that their Internet privileges may be curtailed.65

Cyber-bullying can occur simultaneously with other forms of mistreatment happening in schools and/or other community settings.3,7 Victims, perpetrators or bystanders are at significant risk of suffering from an array of health, safety and educational problems, including depression, frequent absenteeism, eating disorders and, 

above all, suicidal attempts.4,5,16,18,21,22,25,30,32 34,36,45,66

Traditionally, US schools have been at the forefront of helping to safeguard the 

health and safety of their students by contributing to the prevention and detection 

of public health hazards such as communicable diseases and psycho-social risk factors. In this context, schools are now being challenged to prevent the safety and 

health risks linked to bullying and cyber-bullying with the support of health professionals and the whole community.26,49

Since 1994, state legislatures have been addressing the issue of school bullying.45

As of June 2010, 42 states have enacted legislation designed to reduce or prevent 

bullying and/or harassment among public school students.46,47 Half of these statutes 

include language pertaining to harassment through electronic communication.46

These laws have a wide scope of legal coverage and jurisdiction, varying in the definition of bullying, the recognition of its link to health/safety risks, and the support 

and strategies to create an infrastructure for bullying prevention.45

In order to preserve the physical and emotional well-being of children and adolescents living and studying in the United States of America, it is critical that the 

United States Congress should enact Bullying and Cyber-Bullying Prevention Legislation. Towards this end, we respectfully recommend that ESEA reauthorization address: 

• Promotion of public awareness about the nature, toxicity and prevention of bullying and cyber-bullying; 

• Development of safe schools through programs that enhance mutual respect, 

sensitivity and support of others, tolerance to diversity and disapproval of bullying 

and cyber-bullying; 

• Implementation of research-based, school-wide bullying prevention programs for 

all students attending elementary and secondary education; 
18 

• Fostering the necessity and obligation to report incidents of bullying, as a conscientious community public health attitude, with safeguards against any threat of 

retaliation or liability for those who report, and support or guidance in reporting 

bullying/cyber-bullying incidents through a hotline; • Monitoring and detecting ongoing bullying incidents; • Providing school intervention through school counselors or nurses to protect and 

support students who are being bullied. Perpetrators should be counseled or sensitized about the harm inflicted, while helped to develop respect, empathy, tolerance 

and sensitivity to others; • Consideration of referral for medical evaluation and treatment for victims and 

perpetrators who experience physical and psychological symptoms linked to bullying 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. 

Background 

Cyber-bullying: Challenges to its prevention 

The evolving expansion of modern communication technologies have exposed 

young people to the risk of being mistreated in an infinite number of social settings, 

unknown to mankind until few years ago.1 15 The frequent occurrence of cyberbullying outside school premises as well as the occasional anonymity of cyber-perpetrators may interfere with strategies for its prevention. Furthermore, educational 

policymakers may encounter a delicate balance between the authority to establish 

formal discipline to a student’s right of free speech and the responsibility of preserving student’s safety.11

Cyber-bullying, in spite of its unique aspects, occurs simultaneously with other 

forms of bullying, and shares with them a significant link to serious health problems. It is therefore important that strategies and policies to prevent cyber-bullying 

should be developed both within the framework of its distinct nature and its similarities and association with other forms of victimization or mistreatment.3 5,7,8

Bullying-Related Public Health Risks 

Over the past few years, a series of reports have highlighted the serious public 

health and safety risks associated with bullying. Numerous scientific studies have 

shown that bullying adversely affects the health and development of both victims 

and perpetrators of the bullying, as well as other children in the environment.16 35

There is an urgent need to address longstanding cultural perceptions that bullying is a normative part of child development that is mostly associated with modest 

physical pestering among children and adolescents. Indeed, many parents, teachers 

and others see bullying as ‘‘just a part of growing up.’’ This is a dangerous and erroneous assumption. Instead, it is quite clear that bullying is a multi-faceted and toxic 

form of abuse, prevalent on a global scale and across the lifespan.17,18

Bullying is a serious form of mistreatment manifested by the repeated exposure 

of one person to either physical aggression by one or more people, and/or being hurt 

with teasing, name-calling, mockery, threats, harassment, taunting, social exclusion 

or rumors. It can be simultaneously prevalent in different social settings, widening 

the scope of prevention efforts, beyond the school milieu. We need to be alerted to 

its occurrence in ‘‘after-school’’ programs; in the neighborhood; over the Internet and 

cellular phones; at home between siblings; in dating relationships; summer camps 

and organized athletic activities. In short, when tolerated, bullying takes place everywhere in our communities. 

The developmental link between school bullying and its occurrence in adulthood 

challenged us to extend the range of our responsibility to prevent bullying through 

college and into the workplace.20,23,24,37 It is estimated that some thirty percent of 

US students (higher in some other countries) are involved in bullying, as victims 

and/or bullies, with others being adversely affected as passive participants (witnesses or encouragers).38,39 All those involved in bullying have now been shown to 

be at significantly increased risk for multiple problems when compared to their uninvolved peers. Children involved in bullying suffer from a wide spectrum of physical and emotional symptoms, including depression, irritability, anxiety, sleeping difficulties, headaches and/or stomachaches.16 33 Furthermore, there is an evolving 

array of reports documenting that bullying-related illnesses increasingly include 

such serious problems as eating disorders, school absenteeism, running away, alcohol and drug abuse and, above all, self-inflicted or accidental injuries and suicidal 

behavior.18,19,22,29,36

Students who are in the dual roles of both being bullies and victims (victim-perpetrators) have been found to be the most vulnerable among those who participate 

in bullying and appear to experience a wide display of problems. They are especially 
19 

at risk in attempting or completing suicide before age 25, as well as to committing 

repeated criminal offenses between ages 16 and twenty-five.21,22,25 Moreover, they 

are usually misunderstood and less protected when they are judged to be responsible for their victimization as they also mistreat others. 

New studies indicate that those students who are bystanders and/or witness episodes of bullying are also at higher risk for mental health problems than are their 

peers.23 Most of all, bullying is linked to premature mortality, due to suicide, homicide or accidental injuries.26

The responsibility to prevent the consequences of bullying extends into adulthood 

as there is evidence of a significant association between childhood bullying behavior 

and later psychiatric illness.24 Moreover, adults bullied in the workplace are prone 

to suffer from a variety of problems, including depression, cardiovascular problems, 

fibromyalgia, absenteeism and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.41 43

A systematic review44 of school-based interventions to prevent bullying has determined that ‘‘the chance of success is greater if the intervention incorporates a whole 

school-based approach, involving multiple disciplines and the entire school community.’’ 

Preventative interventions should include whole community awareness campaigns 

about the nature of bullying and its dangers.26,49 Efforts should also be made to enhance the emotional and organizational environments in school settings by promoting sensitivity, mutual respect and tolerance to diversity while prohibiting bullying.26,49 Bullying incidents should be reported to ensure a consistent and organized response, including support of the victim and counseling for the perpetrator 

by sensitizing him/her to the harm they have inflicted.26,49 Referral to appropriate 

health services will be required to alleviate the physical and emotional consequences 

of bullying, as well as to help those who continue bullying behavior in spite of organizational counseling.26,49 The efficacy of this public health approach should be 

monitored by a periodic assessment of the prevalence of bullying-related morbidity 

and mortality.26,49

Children’s National and its anti-bullying prevention efforts 

Children’s National Medical Center, a 283 bed not-for-profit academic medical 

center in Washington, DC, has provided hope to sick children and their families 

throughout the metropolitan region for nearly 140 years. The mission of Children’s 

National is to improve health outcomes for children regionally, nationally and internationally; to be a leader in creating innovative solutions to pediatric healthcare 

problems; and to excel in care, advocacy, research and education to meet the unique 

needs of children, adolescents and their families. Children’s National is ranked 

among the best pediatric hospitals in America by U.S. News & World Report and 

the Leapfrog Group. It is a Magnet recognized pediatric hospital, one of a handful 

of elite healthcare facilities nationwide. 

For the past several years, Children’s National has supported efforts to prevent 

bullying and its related health risks, through clinical, research and advocacy activities. This work has led to the development of a Coalition for the Prevention of Bullying,50 which was conceived as a volunteer partnership of representatives of different community sectors. The main objectives of this initiative were to 1) promote 

awareness about the nature and toxicity of bullying; and 2) advocate for the implementation of strategies and policies for a whole-community approach to the prevention of bullying. 

The Clinic for Health Problems Related to Bullying51 at Children’s National Medical Center provides psychiatric evaluation and treatment of children and adolescents who participate in bullying as bullies and/or victims, and who experience frequent physical and emotional symptoms or educational problems. The goal of this 

clinic is to provide a stabilization of impulsivity and mood difficulties that may lead 

to bullying others, as well as provide treatment for physical and emotional consequences of being bullied. 

In 2008, Dr. Srabstein testified52 before the Maryland General Assembly in support of House Bill 199, which added terms ‘‘bullying’’ and ‘‘cyber-bullying’’ into statute concerning policies to report harassment. The bill also required schools to establish policies for the prevention of bullying. The bill was enacted into law in 2008. 

In addition to his legislative advocacy, Dr. Srabstein participated in an ad-hoc 

working group providing support to the Maryland State Department of Education 

in the development of a Model Bullying Prevention Policy.53

Children’s National has supported the development of symposiums54 64 and the 

publication of research studies16,18,25,26,27,45,49 to raise international awareness 

about the significant health problems associated with bullying along the lifespan. 

In a recent editorial published by the World Health Organization Bulletin, Drs. 
20 

Srabstein67 and Leventhal68 have highlighted the global public health significance 

of bullying with an international call for the development of public health policies.26

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fibromyalgia: prospective cohort study. J Psychosom Res 2004; 57(5):417-22. 43Mikkelsen EG, Einarsen S. Relationships between exposure to bullying at work and psychological and psychosomatic health complaints: the role of state negative affectivity and generalized self-efficacy. Scand J Psychol 2002; 43(5):397-405. 44 Vreeman RC, Carroll AE. A systematic review of school-based interventions to prevent bullying. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2007; 161(1):78—88. 45Srabstein JC, Berkman BE, Pyntikova E. Antibullying legislation: a public health perspective. J Adolesc Health 2008; 42(1):11-20. 46 National Conference of State Legislatures, Education Bill Tracking Database http:// 

www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/Education/EducationBillTrackingDatabase/tabid/12913/Default.aspx 47 Bully Police USA http://www.bullypolice.org/ 48 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System http://www.cdc.gov/ 

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Clinic%20for%20Health%20Problems%20Related%20to%20Bullying last accessed 06/21/10 52Testimony of Children’s National Medical Center presented by Jorge C. Srabstein, MD, Before the Maryland General Assembly, Ways and Means Committee, February 20, 2008 http:// 

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Annual Meeting, October 25, 2008, Boston, MA 
22 

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Children’s National Medical Center http://www.childrensnational.org/FindADoctor/ 

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Research http://www.rfmh.org/nki/welcome/administration.cfm last accessed 6/22/10 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Ms. Paris. 

STATEMENT OF BARBARA–JANE PARIS, PRINCIPAL, 

CANYON VISTA MIDDLE SCHOOL 

Ms. PARIS. Good morning. Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking 

Member Platts, members of the committee, thank you for having 

me here today. I am currently a principal in Austin, Texas. I have 

1,200 middle school students of whom approximately 40 percent 

are minority students. I am fortunate it is a highly successful 

school, we have the highest ranking exemplary in the State of 

Texas, and we are very proud of that. However, what brings me 

here today is not something we are terribly proud of, cyber-bullying 

is one of those issues that transcends everything else in education. 

We can sit all day long and talk about dropout rates, standardized 

achievement, college readiness, but this particular thing transcends 

all of those things. Because if a child doesn’t feel safe at school, all 

of those other issues are non starters. 

I am also here on behalf of the National Association of Secondary 

School Principals, they are the preeminent organization for principals and their purpose is to be a voice for middle and high school 

principals. I am also a volunteer for bullypolice.usa, and you will 

know why in a second. 

Basically I am here to be a voice to those people who can’t be 

a voice for themselves, the students who are too disempowered by 

cyber-bullying and several of whom have gone on to commit suicide, so I am here to be a voice for them, and for the principals that 

serve them in our public schools every day. 

Our challenge, and it is yours and mine, is to protect them 

against the risks from that technology, while still protecting their 

First Amendment rights and allow them to use technology as a legitimate tool. And there is a preconceived notion in education that 

this is a State issue and not a Federal issue. But I would say to 

you today the same thing I tell my staff on a daily basis, where 

we put our time and our money sends a clear message to our community and our stakeholders about what we value, and we need 

your help at the Federal level. 

Here is how this happened, a few years ago, a high school principal in east Texas and I had a student come to me and tell me, 

this student is going to kill herself over cyber-bullying, do something, Ms. Paris. And I said, I shall. And I thought, what am I 

going to do? I was clueless, I was powerless. I was not a new prin-
23 

cipal, I had been in administration for several years, but I did not 

have the tools to know where to go next. All I could tell this child 

was, I will do something. If it hadn’t been for the research of Parry 

Aftab, who is a fellow speaker here today, and she did not know 

I was going to say that. I did some research and she helped me, 

her work helped me immensely. It gave me practical tools to have 

the bashing sites shut down and moved. 

It gave me legitimate ways of working with fellow administrators. And then I took that work on the road because my mission 

then became I don’t want another principal ever to have that situation in their school. It is a powerlessness and we need your help 

to take it away. What we really need is some backbone. We need 

courage. We need somebody who is behind us when we say, knock 

it off, it is not okay to behave that way in the culture that we have 

developed in our campus. We need backing to say that when parents come to us and say First Amendment right to free speech. We 

need your help with those issues. 

Here is why, it took me years and a huge amount of time to come 

up with systems to train other principals. And the truth is the 

campus administrators says it is not our focus, we are supposed to 

be instructional leaders. If we are going to have the time to focus 

on those things that we value, then we need systems in place that 

deal with issues such as cyber-bullying because it will suck your 

time dry. 

I later had a situation where the police department in Austin 

had to shut my campus down because of Internet threats that had 

been sent out on an e-mail. If you can imagine that disrupts the 

learning environment and the educational process, imagine how 

those parents felt in my community? So it is interfering with learning. 

What I found out was that 13 million students were being cyberbullied 5 years ago in middle school, and those students were 

dying. Dr. Phil had already mentioned several, and Mr. Platts, you 

did too, you mentioned high profile cases. But what I found were 

stories about Matt Efron and Jared High and Carl Hoover and 

Kelly and Jeff. Here is something Jeff’s mom told us in the book 

Bully Side. ‘‘The bully murdered my son using the keyboard as his 

weapon, just as surely if had he crawled through a broken window 

and choked the life from him with his bare hands. It was a not a 

death that was quick and merciful. It was a death that was full it 

was slow and torturous carried out day after day with lies and rumors and gossip.’’ 

In 2008, GLSEN worked with NASSP and they found that twothirds of principals coast to coast are very desperate for help in developing professional development to deal with these issues. I 

would venture to say that 2 years later, if you were to go back and 

ask the other third, they would say put my down for that too. 

There is this huge disparity between knowledge and wisdom on 

the Internet. Mr. Platts, your son is sitting behind you now, I venture to say if he were like my child, he would probably text his 

friends a thousand times since we had been sitting there. It is inherent to our culture and their age group. 

Mr. PLATTS. He would like, to, but my 6th grader and 8th grader 

don’t yet have their own cell phones. 
24 

Ms. PARIS. That is what you think. 

Mr. PLATTS. We are holding out. 

Ms. PARIS. And this disparity, bear in mind, technology is everything that was invented after I was born and frankly that include 

the 8 track. So I don’t have—I mean, that is the truth. I don’t have 

that knowledge, but the point is the kids have the knowledge, but 

we are the ones with the wisdom. They don’t have the wisdom to 

know how to navigate that technology in a safe and meaningful 

way in and out of a school environment. If we as the responsible 

adults in their world don’t share that wisdom in a structured and 

strategic way, then we are letting them down, we are not going to 

be able to educate them. These kids are so desperate to belong to 

something that good kids are posing naked and sending photographs to their selected peer group, and we all know how that 

turns out for them, don’t we? 

As a member of National Safe Schools Partnership, NASSP has 

endorsed the policy recommendations to prevent bullying and that 

is embodied in your Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would 

amend the safe and drug free school so that this work is eligible 

for Federal grants. The programs that I promote and have principals implement coast to coast are not funded. These are unfunded 

BJ Paris mandates. We do this because it is a good thing, we need 

your help with that. 

We have to break that code of silence. In 84 percent of school 

shootings that are related to bullying, the student told somebody 

first. We have to have systems in place that enable students to 

speak up on behalf of their peer group. 

My mother always told me don’t speak unless you have something to add to the silence. I would like to think that today the stories that we share help fill the silence in a way that will make sure 

that no other names get added to the list that I shared with you 

today. 

We appreciate your time and your support and make ourselves 

available to you as a resource at any opportunity. Thank you for 

your time. 

[The statement of Ms. Paris follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Barbara-Jane ‘‘BJ’’ Paris, Board of Directors, 

National Association of Secondary School Principals 

Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking Member Platts, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to speak on the issue of cyberbullying and its 

effect on student achievement. My name is BJ Paris, and I am the principal of Canyon Vista Middle School in Austin, TX, where I have served for 3 years. Of my 30 

years in education in three countries, I have spent the last 10 in administration. 

Our school serves more than 1,100 students, representing more than 20 countries, 

in grades 6—8. A small percentage of our students are eligible for free and reducedprice meals, but more than 10% are considered at risk. Thirty-five percent of our 

students are Asian/Pacific Islander, 6% are Hispanic, and 1.7% are Black. Our 

scores for the 2008—09 school year were excellent in reading, math, social studies, 

and science, and Canyon Vista has received an exemplary rating by the Texas Education Agency. 

The Round Rock School District, where my school is located, covers approximately 

110 square miles that encompass high-tech manufacturing and urban retail centers, 

suburban neighborhoods, and farms and ranches. Our district consists of 30 elementary schools, 9 middle schools, 4 high schools, a ninth-grade center, and 2 alternative learning centers. 

Today, I am also appearing on behalf of the National Association of Secondary 

School Principals, where I will begin a four-year term on the board of directors in 
25 

July. In existence since 1916, NASSP is the preeminent organization of and national 

voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and aspiring 

school leaders from across the United States and more than 45 countries around the 

world. Our mission is to promote excellence in middle level and high school leadership. 

NASSP 

NASSP has a long history of supporting the personalization of the school environment as a condition for student engagement and achievement. In 1996, we published Breaking Ranks: Changing an American Institution in which we called for 

sweeping change in schools. Recommendations from that and later Breaking Ranks 

publications focus on areas that the school principal can influence directly. NASSP 

believes that ensuring student safety is the highest priority in schools because no 

learning can take place without it. Because of these foundational beliefs, we have 

been a strong and ongoing advocate of all efforts to promote a safe and orderly 

learning environment. 

In 2000, as a direct result of these beliefs, NASSP hired Bill Bond to be the 

NASSP Specialist for School Safety. Before coming to NASSP, Mr. Bond served as 

principal of Heath High School in West Paducah, KY, where on December 1, 1997, 

incidents of bullying led to a tragic school shooting at the school. This shooting, 

along with others across the nation, has precipitated Bond’s involvement in safe 

school awareness, and since joining NASSP, Bond has been a resource for schools 

and principals’ organizations across the nation. As you well know, however, bullying 

no longer requires face-to-face interaction—the Internet and the ever-expanding use 

of electronic communications and social networking Web sites have taken bullying 

to another level. For the past five years, Mr. Bond and I have traveled the country 

working with school officials and other stakeholders to minimize the impact of 

cyberbullying. The school leader’s persistent challenge is to protect students against 

online predators and prevent cyberbullying while safeguarding students’ First 

Amendment rights and encouraging the use of the Internet as a legitimate educational tool. Sadly this need to protect students has too often resulted in avoiding 

the same high-tech tools with which students must be familiar to be competitive in 

the workplace or to succeed in postsecondary education after graduating from high 

school. 

To help meet this challenge, in 2007 the NASSP Board of Directors adopted a position statement on Internet safety that states that ‘‘Internet service providers and 

social networking Web sites have an obligation to offer their clients safeguards 

against predators and other cyber criminals.’’ But this in itself is not enough; the 

position statement also encourages schools to ‘‘formulate clear guidelines to protect 

students and teachers against cyber bullying and other criminal activities.’’ 

Personal Testimony 

As a high school principal five years ago in east Texas, I had a student who became suicidal after a cyberbullying incident, and I had no idea what my responsibilities, options, limitations were to deal with it. I knew I could not take the easy way 

out and pretend it was not my problem because the bullying hadn’t taken place on 

school property or during school hours. I vowed to find out everything I could about 

cyberbullying so that I could limit its impact on other students in the future. Among 

other things that dragged me into the technological world, I learned to block certain 

Web sites at the school and began looking at best practices around the country. This 

was how I first learned of the work of Parry Aftab, my fellow panelist here today 

and Bully Police USA, a watchdog organization that advocates on behalf of bullied 

children and reports on state antibullying laws. Bully Police USA was instrumental 

in providing me with strategies for navigating the inherent problems of cyberspace 

in our schools. I began working with the Texas affiliate as a volunteer and also became friends with the organization’s founder, Brenda High. A year later, my first 

as a middle school principal, my campus was locked down by police because of 

threats made in an off-campus e-mail. Once again, I vowed to learn more and share 

my experience with other principals so that they would not find themselves feeling 

powerless at a critical time. More importantly, I hoped that by sharing what I knew 

were the pitfalls and outcomes of cyberbullying, I could educate school personnel 

about how to develop preventative systems so that they might never be faced with 

similar situations. 

I regularly speak to principals across the country about cyberbullying and offer 

recommendations for those schools and districts that do not currently have policies 

in place. I have also become an advocate at the state level, testifying in Austin before the state legislature with my students in support of legislation that would em-
26 

power campus leaders to develop systems for dealing with cyberbullying in their 

communities and to provide professional development for all educators. 

Research 

Cyberbullying has gained national attention with a number of high-profile incidents in Massachusetts and Missouri. In 2006, more than 13 million children and 

adolescents ages 6-17 were estimated to be victims of cyberbullying, with a majority 

of these incidents occurring at the middle school level. In a September 2008 column 

in the NASSP publication Principal Leadership, Ted Feinburg, the assistant executive director of the National Association of School Psychologists, and Nicole Robey, 

a school psychology intern, wrote that victims of cyberbullying ‘‘suffer equal if not 

greater psychological harm because the hurtful information can be transmitted 

broadly and instantaneously and can be difficult to eliminate. Aggressors can remain anonymous and are hard to stop. Not knowing who an aggressor is can cause 

adolescents to be hypervigilant in terms of surveying their social environment, both 

cyber and real, to avoid harmful encounters. Cyberbullying also may be worse than 

face-to-face bullying because people feel shielded from the consequences of their actions and often do or say things online that they would not in person. In some cases, 

cyberbullying can lead to severe dysfunction, externalized violence, and suicide.’’ 

In 2008, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), in collaboration with NASSP, published The Principal’s Perspective: School Safety, Bullying 

and Harassment. The survey explored the perspectives of elementary and secondary 

public school principals on student bullying and harassment and on the policies, 

programs, and training that principals have instituted in their schools to address 

these issues. Some pertinent findings of the report include that: 

• Half of public school principals (49%) report that bullying, name calling, or harassment of students is a serious problem at their school 

• Bullying or harassment is a particularly prominent problem at the junior high 

or middle school level 

• Most principals speak to the perpetrator and the victim when incidents of harassment are reported to them, but few believe that the majority of bullying or harassment incidents come to their attention. 

One question specifically asked principals how often their students engage in 

cyberbullying or harassment—that is, bullying or harassing others using text messaging, e-mail, instant messaging, Web sites, blogs, social networking sites, and so 

forth. The report explains that ‘‘technological advances have opened up new frontiers for harassment. Both teachers and principals are at a disadvantage in being 

able to observe many types of cyberbullying. * * * When asked about the extent of 

this type of activity, most principals (72%) report that students at their school engage in cyberbullying to some extent. However few (8%) believe that students frequently engage in this behavior.’’ Incidents of cyberbullying increased as students 

aged: ‘‘20% of secondary school principals reported that their students frequently engage in cyberbullying compared with only 1% of elementary school principals. 

Younger principals (under 45) were also more likely to report that cyberbullying frequently occurs at their school (12% vs. 6% of those 45 years or older). Also, principals of suburban schools are more likely to report that cyberbullying ever occurs 

at their schools (81%) than principals of urban (66%) or rural (68%) schools.’’ 

The report also speaks to the need for additional professional development to prevent bullying and harassment from occurring: ‘‘Bullying and harassment intervention and prevention is an area in which a majority of principals indicate their school 

currently provides professional development. Yet, despite this fact, principals are 

most likely to indicate that this is the non-academic area in which the staff at their 

school needs support or training, as 62% believe that their staff needs the most support or training in this area.’’ 

Recommendations 

On the basis of my personal philosophy and experiences with cyberbullying, I offer 

the following recommendations to guide schools in developing their policies on 

cyberbullying to create a positive, supportive environment that promotes the academic growth and personal development of every student at the school. 

School leaders must: 

• Understand that cyberbullying is an aggressive and prevalent threat to the 

learning environment and that even if it did not happen at school or on a school 

computer, it can directly affect the educational process and the school environment 

and must be taken seriously 

• Familiarize themselves and their staff members about all aspects of technology, 

including cell phones, computers, the Internet, blogs, instant messaging, and social 
27 

networking Web sites as well as the legal and liability issues associated with the 

use of these technologies • Create a team composed of staff members, parents, and students to establish 

guiding principles for the acceptable use of technology at school, when completing 

assignments and related activities, and during events taking place off-campus • Provide staff members with professional development on how to ensure student 

safety while using technology as an educational tool, including recognizing the signs 

and possible effects of cyberbullying • Formulate clear policies that protect students and teachers from cyberbullying 

and other criminal activities that are related to technology; ensure that students 

and parents are aware of these policies and the penalties for abusing them • Instruct all students on the safe use of technology and the impact of 

cyberbullying and how to recognize and report it when it occurs • Create user-friendly procedures to encourage students to report cyberbullying 

when it happens to them or to others • Conduct orientation sessions for parents about cyberbullying and include information on how they can reinforce safety guidelines and monitor technology use at 

home and set the expectation that no derogatory statements will be sent or posted 

about other students or staff members. 

A recurring theme in these recommendations is the need for both students and 

educators to recognize and act to limit cyberbullying. Recognizing students’ reluctance to report on classmates, our school acquired an anonymous messaging system—supported with Safe and Drug-Free Schools funding—that allows students to 

report incidences of bullying without having to identify themselves. This system has 

contributed greatly to a 70% reduction in students’ belief that bullying is a problem 

at Canyon Vista Middle School. 

Fundamentally, school policies must acknowledge the disparity between students’ 

knowledge of technology and their wisdom to manage it effectively. Students, many 

of whom have remarkable technology knowledge, are so desperate to belong to something that they’ll post naked photographs of themselves to a trusted few on the 

Internet. Education for today’s world must help students develop that wisdom so 

they can recognize and navigate around the dangers of electronic media while also 

using it for its maximum benefit. 

As a member of the National Safe Schools Partnership, NASSP has endorsed federal policy recommendations to prevent bullying and harassment in our nation’s 

schools, which will have a dramatic impact in improving school safety and, correspondingly, student achievement for all students. Specifically, our coalition of national education, health care, civil rights, law enforcement, youth development, and 

other organizations call on Congress to ensure that: 

1. Schools and districts have comprehensive and effective student conduct policies 

that include clear prohibitions regarding bullying and harassment 

2. Schools and districts focus on effective prevention strategies and professional 

development designed to help school personnel meaningfully address issues associated with bullying and harassment 

3. States and districts maintain and report data regarding incidents of bullying 

and harassment to inform the development of effective federal, state, and local policies that address these issues. 

Our recommendations are embodied in the Safe Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 

2262), which would amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program so that 

antibullying and harassment programs are eligible for federal grants. The legislation is championed by many members of the subcommittee, and NASSP hopes that 

it will be enacted into law as part of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 

We also understand, Madame Chairwoman, that you will soon be reintroducing 

the Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) Act. NASSP was very supportive 

of a provision in the SAVE Act that would have expanded the Safe Schools/Healthy 

Students grant program to allow schools to administer a schoolwide climate survey 

of students, parents, and school personnel. The climate survey would have measured 

the degree to which collaborative leadership and a professional learning community 

exist; the personalization of the school environment; and the strength of the curriculum, instruction, and assessment—factors that we believe will lead to student 

achievement, as outlined in our Breaking Ranks publications. 

Conclusion 

Our students are using ever-changing technology more than ever, and for most 

of them, the Internet is not simply an after-school activity or a quick and convenient 

way to research a school assignment—it is a major part of their social life. Texts, 

instant messages, e-mail, and social networking are as common to them as using 
28 

the telephone is to most adults. And in this cyberworld, just as in the face-to-face 

world, bullying and harassment does happen. 

Children in the United States do not have a choice about whether they come to 

school. It is the law, and if we are going to require them to be there, then we have 

the moral imperative to ensure that they are in a safe, secure, and productive environment that protects them against all forms of bullying and harassment. If we, the 

responsible adults, do not purposefully define the culture of our schools, our students will do it for us. How we interact and communicate with one another—whether by oral, written, or electronic means—help define the school culture. As school 

leaders, we must ensure that every student entrusted in our care is in an environment that promotes safety and security; therefore, we must do everything possible 

to eliminate all forms of cyberbullying and harassment and to minimize their impact 

on student achievement should they occur. 

Madam Chairwoman, this concludes my prepared testimony, but I would be happy 

to answer any questions you or the other committee members may have. 

Thank you again for this opportunity. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you. Ms. Aftab. 

STATEMENT OF PARRY AFTAB, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

WIREDSAFETY 

Ms. AFTAB. I would like to thank Chairwoman McCarthy and the 

Ranking Member Platts and the rest of the subcommittee, and 

frankly, the entire committee. It is a very incestuous issue, cyberbullying. Ms. Paris indicated that she came to us for help, the medical center that the doctor works at had come to us for help. I wrote 

LMK for the Girl Scouts, and Dr. Phil’s offices call mine all the 

time. And Build A Bear cares a great deal and have come to us. 

If you look at this, you recognize that there are 6 degrees of separation from everyone who cares about cyber-bullying. I am a cyberbullying expert, not a bullying one, and there is a difference. I 

would caution people to stop thinking of bullying and cyber-bullying as only the difference in the technologies that they use. We 

find that different kids will cyber-bully than others. I always say 

the girls and the geeks are empowered by technology, often they 

will take on the most popular kids in school. 

I will share something I hadn’t put in my testimony. I was called 

by one of the top medical centers that deals with children who are 

very seriously physically challenged. I am in a different place every 

day. I donate my time to running WiredSafety and fund it largely 

from my pocket. I got the phone call and they said we have a serious problem here at the medical center with all of these children 

and cyber-bullying and I cancelled my speaking engagement. I got 

in my car and drove far faster than I can put in testimony here 

before you today. 

While I drove up into the school, I said I want to talk to the students. I drove up and I walked in and I was late as usual. They 

handed me a microphone and in front of me was a room full of children who were typing with a device in their teeth who had breathing apparatus, who couldn’t walk, many of them couldn’t talk, 

many couldn’t see. And I stood up and I said I am so angry that 

this has happened to you. I am so angry that people are taking the 

one technology that gives you access to the world, the one road 

without ramps and they are doing this and hurting you. 

And the head of the medical center and she tapped me on the 

shoulder and she said, Parry, um, they aren’t being cyber-bullied 

they are cyber-bullying others. And I know you are not supposed 
29 

to cheer with this, but you need to recognize that you never really 

truly know who is on the other side of the device. It is not just 

Internet, it is not just the social networks, it is not just Flickr and 

not just handheld gaming devices where kids are now insulting 

each other on PictoChat through DS. It is not just the Xboxes and 

Playstations of the world where the kids are game bullying. It is 

not just the cell phones, where they are saying terrible things to 

each other. Actually there are 67 different way the teens who work 

for me who model the Girl Scouts, my guess is we can get some 

answers here as well—67 different ways you can use the cell phone 

to cyber-harass and cyber-bully someone. The kids they are very inventive. If they spent as much time studying as they did finding 

ways to torment each other, we could all go home. 

I agreed to cancel a major event that I was doing with Build a 

Bear for mommy bloggers to be here today. One of the reasons was 

because of a very strong bipartisanship of the leadership of this 

particular subcommittee. You do things, you don’t just talk. I don’t 

have time for people who just talk. We have to find ways of doing 

it. 

So how do we do that, we reach out to everyone. We reach out 

to the Dr. Phils of the world, we get Diane Sawyer to do a town 

meeting on sexting on Good Morning America, first time ever in 

the morning. And every time Matt Lauer or Meredith have a question about cyber-bullying you make sure you are in studio no matter where you started out the day before. 

As we look at this, there are other cyber safety experts in the 

world, and many of them say it is not so bad. I think many of those 

are not in the trenches. You don’t have to ask me how bad it is, 

you have someone who’s involved in a middle school to tell you how 

bad it is. I spoke to 44,0000 middle schoolers across the United 

States a couple of years ago and asked if they had ever been cyber 

bullied, not that way. It all depends on definition, you lay out the 

things that constitute cyber-bullying. 

Has anyone ever taken a picture of you and put your head on 

someone’s naked body, or took a real one of you and passed it out? 

Told your secrets, gone in, done something terrible on your social 

networking page, and changed your password so you can’t change 

it back. Do they take your cell phone that was out on a counter unattended and send terrible things to your friends that you are 

going to get blamed. The answers go on and on as to what constitutes cyber-bullying. The answer is generally minor to minor, 

using technology as a weapon to hurt another. 

What do we do? We need help, nobody has any money, I work 

for free, I think a lot of others do as well. Unfunded programs in 

Texas. The good thing is we share. In the olden days, if you wanted 

to bake a cake, you would ask somebody to bring some flour, and 

someone else to bring some eggs, and someone else to bring sugar. 

At the end, everybody got a few pieces to take home. That is what 

we have to do here. The proposals on the Hill look at funding these 

issues, but I don’t need funding right now, I just need partners. 

So when the Girl Scouts said we want to do something, I said 

tell me how fast we can. Two and a half million girls are now 

change agents. It started with my Teen Angels program. And 

Ranking Member Platts, I want your son in my Tween Angels pro-
30 

gram. Tell him we will be advising Toys R Us and Nintendo my 

guess is he might join us. We need to get out and do this. 

The industry, and today I am not speaking as the head of Wired 

Safety, the oldest and largest cyber safety charity or an advisor to 

the industry, today I am going to tell you that in addition to all 

of the bad news we have been taking about, about cyber-bullying 

and how much it is out there and how often it hurts our children 

and how the technologies are affected, there is a lot of good news 

too. Good news you are seeing and hearing here, attention being 

paid to it, and Dr. Phil’s shows and others, from Build A Bear, and 

I am not going to steal Dave’s thunder, from schools and teachers 

and school administrators who care so much, and mental health experts and young people. But you have MTV’s, a Thin Line. I got 

a phone call a year and a half ago from head of public affairs, he 

said we want to do something like Rock the Vote, but we want to 

rock the world on what is happening with kids on digital abuse, 

they created something that will live on long beyond what we started designing. 

You have Microsoft that paid for the LMK program, and so many 

others. You have Disney that started in cyber safety in 1997 when 

they first called and I even did a designing spaces for them on how 

to design a safer room for kids in cyber technology. You have 

Facebook that just put five people on the safety advisory board, I 

am one of them. And you have the OSTWG, all of these things that 

are happening. The industry is behind this, and all of them want 

to be there. Why? Because they are parents, because they have customers, because they have people who they care about, because 

they have an obligation to create safer communities, safer networks, they are creating new technologies, they are branding themselves with best practices seals, they are saying we have employees, come in and talk to 5,000 of our employees about these things. 

IBM commissioned Ceridian to put it out to all of their employees, 

and we put together some podcasts and videos. 

Industry already has stores, industry already has employees, 

they have distribution arms and communication networks, and 

they are very happy to share them for free. And they now understand that being safe for kids is good for business. So as we look 

at this, we need to include them, because sometimes they are the 

only place where money exists, and even if they don’t have money, 

they have got in-kind expertise that they are happy to share. We 

need to recognize there are a lot of bad things industry does, but 

in this case, I have seen a lot more good than bad. I am here to 

answer any questions I can and help in any way I can. And thank 

you so much for inviting me to speak. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you. 

[The statement of Ms. Aftab follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Parry Aftab, Esq., the Kids Internet Lawyer, Author, 

and Child Protection and Cybersafety Advocate 

Cybersafety involves protecting ourselves, our children, our community and our 

networks. When minors are involved the programs and messages have to be relevant, involve young people in their framing and be quick and easy for parents. 

Schools often find themselves in the crossfire, especially when cyberbullying among 

students or sexting images arise. At the same time, the power of digital networks 

and interactive technology to spur creative educational methods and engage students, parents and educators in forward-thinking ways means we can’t sink our 
31 

heads in the sand and have to find a way to balance the benefits while containing 

the risks. 

If we view cybersafety as a risk-management issue, it is often easier to tackle. 

It includes copyright infringement and plagiarism, responsible use, information literacy, digital literacy and digital hygiene, privacy, security, misinformation and 

hype, sexual exploitation (including the rapid growth of sexting), cyberbullying, ID 

theft and inappropriate, violent and sexual content. While my books and non-profit 

role, as Executive Director and Founder of WiredSafety.org, span all risks for consumers and families online, my particular passion is the prevention and ways to address cyberbullying. I created StopCyberbullying.org to help parents, schools, students, law enforcement and all stakeholders address the growing problem of children hurting each other online. 

To address cyberbullying adequately, in addition to understanding the stakeholder 

perspectives, we have to develop educational programs and materials, awareness of 

the issue and help for victims and their families. We have to focus on character education, role modeling good behaviors for our children and ways to get everyone involved and informed. 

We also have to make it easier to understand the scope of the risks and solutions 

to those risks. When it comes to addressing a big problem from multiple perspectives, industry’s involvement is crucial and welcome. Over the years the Internet, 

technology and offline trusted family brands have stepped up to the plate to help 

design programs, materials and resources, provide expertise and distribute them to 

their communities online and offline. Their approaches are as varied as their businesses. And our children are safer and our parents better informed because of their 

involvement. 

Offline and online resources and intervention points tying the schools together 

with industry and community organizations, as well as the families they serve, must 

be developed and adopted. We need a cybersafety ecosystem that addresses the most 

common as well as the most serious risks, and we can continue to look to the technology, entertainment, device and software manufacturers, service providers and 

Internet industry as advisors for their valuable help.3 

Defining the cyberbullying problem 

We can’t address a problem until it is defined. While there are several attempts 

to define ‘‘cyberbullying’’ as more than ‘‘you’ll know it when you see it,’’ WiredSafety 

defines it as when minors use digital technology as a weapon to hurt another minor. 

We have been doing this since 1995, longer than any other group, and find that this 

definition is practical, realistic, and separates adult cyberharassment from minorto-minor attacks. To meet WiredSafety’s definition of cyberbullying, the actions 

must be intentional, minor-to-minor and must use some type of digital technology 

(cell phones, Internet, social networks, gaming devices, IM, email, images, YouTube, 

virtual worlds/games, etc.). The actions can range from a one-time serious threat to 

repeated and unwanted insults, can be conducted as direct one-to-one attacks (direct 

cyberbullying), postings intended to be viewed by many (indirect cyberbullying) or 

schemes designed to set up the victim and have someone else do their dirty work 

(parents when the text bill arrives, Facebook when false reports are made to them, 

etc.). 

Cyberbullying is growing in epidemic proportions- just ask any middle school 

teacher, counselor or principal. Over the last two years the number of kids experiencing cyberbullying has increased by more than 30% with attacks becoming increasingly more hateful and vicious. It is also starting earlier and earlier as first 

and second graders are getting online and stealing virtual world and online games 

points and passwords from their friends and classmates. However, children’s’ motives and methods change as they get older and often by gender. Boys tend to use 

technology tools and infiltrate accounts (hack) or threaten their targets, while girls 

tend to use social exclusion and reputational attacks. Unlike in face-to-face bullying, 

size and gender are often irrelevant: girls cyberbully boys, boys cyberbully girls, 

smaller kids cyberbully the big tough ones. Technology levels all playing fields. As 

a result, the only way to tackle the problem of cyberbullying is to combine all stakeholders and to be as inventive as children who cyberbully. In short, we need to find 

what works and seek solutions everywhere, from everyone. We have to think outside 

of the box. 

Educating students to stop cyberbullying 

Industry has an important stake in both keeping children and teens safe online 

and educating parents and their communities. Fortunately, leaders and newcomers 

alike are interested, involved and generous in sharing their expertise, funding and 

access. I founded and run WiredSafety, a charity that began its work in 1995 
32 

through its unpaid and loosely-organized volunteers by rating websites and helping 

victims of cyberabuse and cybercrime online; in 15 years there is little we haven’t 

encountered, but cyberbullying and cyberharassment prevention and help is one of 

our core missions. When I wrote StopCyberbullying.org several years ago as a joint 

project with WiredSafety, it quickly became the most popular cyberbullying awareness site online. Families, schools and communities needed help grappling with this 

growing problem, and StopCyberbullying.org delivered what they needed. 

This September, WiredSafety and I will release the StopCyberbullying Toolkit I 

authored in time to help students and educators headed back-to-school. The Toolkit 

contains $1 million worth of animations, computer games, lesson plans and classroom activities, videos, posters, coloring sheets and worksheets, guides, tip lists and 

community campaigns for educators, parents, school administrators, guidance counselors, school resource officers and community policing agents, parent teacher organizations and K-12 students. It is a single free downloadable resource for US schools 

that can be customized to address local and regional concerns and students with 

special needs. How can a million dollar resource be developed and distributed for 

free without government funding? We turned to the industry for help and they responded in droves. 

I have attached information about cyberbullying, how it works and ways to address it in the Appendix, along with my one-page bio.4 

Microsoft, Facebook, MySpace and LG Phones joined as platinum sponsors. AOL, 

Procter & Gamble, Spectorsoft, myYearbook, KidZui, Build-A-Bear Workshop and 

others also joined as sponsors. The Girl Scouts of the USA, National Crime Prevention Council, ADL, Rachel Simmons, Michele Borba, Bonnie Bracey, Art Wolinsky, 

Dr. Deanna Guy, Dr. Tom Biller, Teenangels and Tweenangels, Cynthia Logan, 

Debbie Johnston, Chris Hansen, XBox, Disney, WebKinz, Zynga, Yahoo!, Nickelodeon, MTV, Pantilla Amiga, Adobe, Unity, Pace University, McAfee, Verizon, 

Nokia, MiniClip, Candystand (FunTank), Dolphin Entertainment, Hearst, Conde 

Nast, Seventeen Magazine, ToysRUs, Readers Digest, People Magazine, YouSendIt, 

the Child Safety Research and Innovation Center, WiredTrust, Marvel and vast 

numbers of others contributing expertise, support and in-kind to help create and 

distribute this multi-stakeholder resource with the best available content and activities available. 

The charity I run in volunteer-capacity, WiredSafety, also works to bring together 

all stakeholders through summits, conferences and events sponsored by industry 

leaders. The first International Stop Cyberbullying Summit was hosted by 

WiredSafety in 2008 and Verizon’s Chairman and CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, delivered 

the luncheon speech to explain how committed Verizon is to stopping cyberbullying. 

Since then, they have been important leaders in the industry and brought together 

other stakeholders to help address the problem. LG Phone and Nokia are becoming 

engaged in cybersafety messaging and educating the parents who buy their products 

for their children. 

Many other industry players have joined forced with us as well as worked on their 

own to create programs and raise awareness about cyberbullying. For example: 

• Facebook is developing a cyberbullying and harassment page in its safety section to teach parents, teens and users of all ages how to avoid becoming a victim 

of cyberbullying or being seen as a cyberbully. They have revised their privacy settings to help keep cyberbullies from abusing users’ information and posing as them. 

(The more a network authenticates a user, the less likely cyberbullying can gain 

ground.) Recently, Facebook partnered with the National Parent Teacher Association to help deliver cyberbullying and other programs to parents at the local level 

and share wonderful resources and information from the National PTA with others 

on Facebook. They have also committed the help of their five chosen safety advisory 

board members (including WiredSafety). 

• McAfee partnered with Facebook to provide free long-term trial security software products to all Facebook users. By using a good security product, cyberbullies 

can be locked out of computers, devices and accounts. 

•ToysRUs is partnering with me and WiredSafety’s Tweenangels, WiredMoms to 

develop information for parents about different interactive toys and devices and how 

to make the right choice for their children. This will involve in-store information, 

online tutorials and content, and training and engagement of their employees, as 

well as Tweenangel and WiredMoms reviews of their favorite products. 

• XBox and Microsoft have developed the Pact, a contract for parents and their 

children that addresses time spent playing games and using media and rules. The 

Pact can be customized for each family and each child. They have also created an 

advisory board that includes one of our Teenangels and me. 

• MTV’s A Thin Line campaign started with a survey on teens and young adult 

practices and risks related to sexting and cyberbullying. A documentary program on 
33 

the consequences of sexting for both those taking the nude picture and those forwarding it was broadcast with a wide viewership. The athinline.org site engages 

young people and challenges them to take charge. It informs them what to do when 

they encounter cyberbullying, how to respect themselves and others and how to tell 

when their actions and those of others have ‘‘crossed the line.’’ They address 

cyberspying by friends and romantic partners and the right of privacy. 

• Seventeen Magazine has announced a large campaign to activate and empower 

youth especially girls and young women, to tackle cyberbullies and step up when 

they see others being harmed online. I will be working with them on this campaign, 

as will my Teenangels 

• Liz Claiborne expanded its free dating abuse campaign and curricula to include 

digital dating abuse, asking me to create that segment of the curricula 

(loveisnotabuse.org). 

• Taser International is creating cybersafety and cyberbullying training and resources for members of law enforcement using their certified trainers. They are also 

helping develop resources for local law enforcement agencies and community policing agents to use in delivering programs to their communities on cybersafety and 

cyberbullying. Having learned about the concerns parents and the law enforcement 

community had addressing distracted driving risks and cyberbullying and other cell 

phone-related abuses, Taser developed a cell phone and in-car technology to prevent 

driver cell phone and other distractions and to give parents better control and ability to supervise their children’s cell phone activities, including prohibiting the sharing of ‘‘sext’’ images and receipt of phone calls from strangers. The two products will 

be released this year and are part of a broader campaign to address risks to our 

families. 

• Microsoft Window funded a comprehensive cybersafety and cyberbullying 

awareness and educational initiative for the Girl Scouts of the USA entitled ‘‘Let 

Me Know’’ or ‘‘LMK’’ developed by me using our Congressionally-honored 

Teenangels program as the model. (This is intended to serve the 2 million plus 

members of Girl Scouts.) 

• The gaming companies, such as Lego, FunTank (Candystand.com), Zynga, Disney, Nickelodeon, and Nintendo are developing technologies and methods to better 

protect their users of all ages. Specifically, Nickelodeon is teaching parents and 

young users how to use games and online networks in safer ways and to avoid being 

the target of a cyberbully. Zynga (of Farmville and Mafia Wars fame) is developing 

safety messaging on game bullying, security and safety with WiredSafety and with 

me. Nintendo added parental controls to its DSi to help parents better address their 

concerns. 

• Disney uses its TV programming and product messaging to teach safer web 

surfing and cyberbullying prevention, including on its netbooks and Club Penguin. 

Disney has created a corps of kids who act as ‘‘secret agents’’ to Club Penguin to 

spot cyberbullying and other code of conduct violations in the game. I worked with 

them on a segment of HGTV’s Designing Spaces where I appeared helping a Florida 

parent understand the best way to create a ‘‘cybersafe’’ room for her son and together with Teenangels in 1998 helped design Toowtown’s safety features. 

• The community approach, where the millions of users are engaged in looking 

out for themselves and others, is becoming more robust and filters adopted by BuildA-Bear Workshop help prevent their younger users of buildabearville.com from targeting each other. They partnered with us in StopCyberbullying month last year, 

offering in-store materials for parents and pledges for children and added a ‘‘stop, 

block and tell!’’ move in their game to help make cyberbullying awareness fun. They 

are founding members of the StopCyberbullying Coalition and Maxine herself blogs 

to her millions of fans about what parents need to know to keep their kids safer. 

• KidZui is delivering our Sumo-Wrestler Panda Cybersafety animations, teaching children how to avoid and respond to cyberbullying. 

• AOL is heavily involved in supporting mom digital literacy and awareness and 

is a sponsor of WiredMoms, WiredSafety’s mom group with more than 70,000 followers on Twitter (@wiredmom and @wiredmoms) 

• Cisco commissioned us to create cybersafety guides for kids, tweens, teens and 

parents for promotion on their sites and other sites online. 

• Ceridian and IBM commissioned me to create a tour of the teens’ Internet for 

parents in video and podcast/audio formats as an employee benefit for IBM employees worldwide and US military families. 

• Microsoft sponsored the development of the Alex Wonder Kid CyberDetective 

Agency Bootcamp Computer Game, teaching tweens how to identify and address 

cyberbullying as well as our first Marvel Internet Superheroes Comic on 

cyberbullying. 
34 

• In 2004, Marvel donated an exclusive license to use Spiderman, The Incredible 

Hulk and others in their Superhero studio in comics offering cybersafety, security 

and digital technology-related issues. • Adobe donates expertise to us on special-needs accessibility to allow for adaptation of cybersafety materials and resources for the families of special-needs children 

and the children themselves. • Google and Yahoo! support public service messaging and search promotions to 

select Internet child safety advocacy groups. • Oracle operates Think.com, a popular educational resource for educators on digital use and empowerment. 

Socially safety 

Finally, many general audience industry leaders have started to provide 

cyberbullying training for their moderators and address cyberbullying risks through 

programs and policies. In the case of those sites designed exclusively as tween and 

preteen networks, in addition to complying with COPPA, many are delivering materials to parents and schools, as well as resources directed to their preteen audiences. 

The Socially Safe Best Practice Seal and the Socially Safe Kids Seal are providing 

a framework for safety, best practices and risk-management to the Internet, online 

game and digital technology provider industries. In addition we are delivering training and certification programs for moderators and, together with privacy and security think tank experts, will launch Pathway, a screening and moderation technology for use by networks, game sites and technology providers to help monitor 

their services and deliver a safer environment and experience. These steps go a long 

way to help professionalize Internet safety and best practices. 

This new approach of branding safety and best practices works because, in addition to being good for communities, families and schools, keeping all users, especially children safer is also good for business. Trusted brand names and responsible 

newer companies recognize these opportunities and their responsibilities to their 

customers, users and the community. A representative of Google, while speaking at 

one of our StopCyberbullying Coalition events, stated that creating safer networks 

is ‘‘an issue of competition.’’ If your competitors are helping make things safer, you 

have to as well. That was welcomed news. But while it may be a competitive advantage to make your networks and technologies safer, it also makes sense to join forces 

with and cooperate with your competition and all industry players to create safer 

online environments and better prepared young people and parents. An example on 

how they are working together for the good of all Internet and digital technology 

users is our StopCyberbullying Coalition. The StopCyberbullying Coalition is a 

multi-stakeholder group organized by WiredSafety and run by me to bring together 

all viewpoints and expertise to tackle this growing problem from all perspectives. 

Without the creativity, access, distribution channels and support of the above-mentioned companies and many more, non-profits, schools and families would not have 

the help they need to address cyberbullying, cyberhate and the harassment of minors in the digital world. 

Conclusion 

Thank you for including my testimony on this critically important issue for our 

nations’ youth. Cyberbullying is reaching epidemic proportions, touching kids at 

every age and grade level. Thankfully many within industry, schools and communities have begun to answer the call to provide training programs, materials, and 

educational efforts to ‘‘Stop Cyberbullying’’. I stand ready to answer any questions 

the Subcommittee may have and provide additional information and offer the support of both WiredSafety and its thousands of volunteers. 

APPENDIX TO TESTIMONY OF PARRY AFTAB, ESQ. 

Snapshot of U.S. minors online and cyberbullying 

It is estimated that approximately 93% of minors in the Unites States 10 and 

older access the Internet either from home, schools, community centers and libraries 

or from some newer Internet-capable device. This is up more than fifteen-fold since 

1996, when only 6 million U.S. minors were online. Now our children are using cell 

phones with video and camera features as well as Internet and text-capability, 

iTouches and iPads with cell phone-like features, interactive gaming devices (such 

as XBox and Sony Playstation 3) with voice-over-Internet, webcams and live chat 

features, handheld devices with Internet, Bluetooth and other remote-communication technology (such as DS and DSi), community broadcasts like Twitter and social 

networking profiles (such as Facebook, MySpace and myYearbook) where they can 

share their thoughts, when they last brushed their teeth, and anything else they 

want the world (or their closest friends) to know. 
35 

Fifteen years ago, when our volunteers first began helping victims of 

cyberbullying and cyberharassment things were easier. There was one way to access 

the Internet—a computer with a slow dial-up modem. The Internet was too rare and 

access to expensive for kids and teens to use and ‘‘central locations where parents 

could oversee their kids’ surfing made sense. But this has changed radically over 

these few short years. Now our kids and teens have more power in their backpacks, 

pockets and purses than large corporations had a few years ago. They have ‘‘apps’’ 

for everything, change their status on Facebook, share pictures on Flickr, Tweet, 

upload videos on YouTube, send thousands of texts (and sometimes ‘‘sexts’’) and live 

out-loud online. 

Now, instead of looking over our children’s shoulders when they are connected, 

we have to teach our children to use the ‘‘filter between their ears’’ and exercise 

good judgment and care when using any interactive device wherever they are and 

however they are connected. While teaching parents how to supervise their children 

online was a challenge, teaching children to ‘‘ThinkB4uClick’’ is much harder. 

When I was growing up (in the days before electricity and indoor plumbing, when 

we had to walk up hill, both ways in blizzards to get to school), parents used to 

blame us for not behaving. We were disciplinary problems. Now pediatric neuro-psychologists tell us that preteens and teens are hardwired, through immature brain 

development, to be unable to control their impulses at this age. Either way, we recognize that preteens and teens take risks, don’t appreciate the consequences of their 

actions and act before they think. This puts them at risk for many things, including, 

but not limited to being cyberbullied or being the cyberbully. (Often the only difference between the two is which clicked the mouse last.) 

Thirteen years ago, when I first wrote the first book in the world on Internet safety for parents and told them to put the computer in a ‘‘central location,’’ that made 

sense. It was a central point, where parents could get involved and supervise their 

children’s interactive communications and surfing activities. Now, where they are 

connected through handheld devices, cell phones and game boxes, it is no longer relevant. 9 

In middle school and elementary school, we call it ‘‘cyberbullying.’’ High schoolers 

think that ‘‘cyberbullying’’ is a middle school thing and they are too mature for it. 

They call the same activities that constitute ‘‘cyberbullying’’ ‘‘digital drama’’ or ‘‘digital abuse.’’ 

Statistics and a Snapshot of Cyberbullying Trends 

A few years ago, I visited schools around the U.S. doing presentations to students 

in elementary, middle and high schools. During each presentation, I asked students 

if they had been cyberbullied. Instead of asking that way, since each student defines 

cyberbullying in different ways, I listed the kinds of things that constitute 

cyberbullying, asking if they had experienced any of those. (They included having 

someone access your profile, posting something hateful and then changing your 

password so you can’t remove it, passing vicious rumors, posing as you and saying 

mean things to your friends or breaking up with your girlfriend or boyfriend, etc.) 

I spoke to a total of more than 44,000 middle school students and no matter where 

I went in the U.S.; I never found less than 85% of the students reporting that they 

had been cyberbullied at least once. In a much smaller poll, 70% of the students 

polled admitted to having cyberbullied someone else at least once. Students are inventive and cyberbullying is often a ‘‘crime of convenience, ‘‘committed when they 

are bored, jealous, vengeful or looking for an audience. 

Cyberbullying spans all digital technologies, from cell phones where students may 

grab an unattended cellphone and reprogram the victim’s best friend’s or romantic 

interest’s number to their cell number. Then they send a mean text message that 

would come up as the best friend or a break-up message ostensibly from their 

girlfriend or boyfriend. The victim would blame their friend and two students are 

victimized for the price of one cyberbullying tactic. (They should spend half the time 

studying as they do dreaming up these kinds of schemes!) 

Key statistics on cyberbullying from stopcyberbullying.org and teenangels: 

• 85% of middle schoolers polled reported being cyberbullied at least once. 

• 70% of teens polled reported cyberbullying someone else. 

• 86% of elementary school students share their password with their friend(s). 

• 70% of teens polled said they share their password with their boyfriend/ 

girlfriend or best friend. (Sharing your password is the digital generation’s equivalent of a ‘‘friendship ring.’’) 

• Cyberbullying starts in 2nd 

• 3rd grade and peaks in 4th grade and again in 7th-9th grade. 

• Only 5% of middle schoolers would tell their parents if they were cyberbullied. 

• Middle schoolers have identified 63 different reasons not to tell their parents. 
36 

• Teens have identified 71 different ways to cyberbully someone. 

• Cellphones are used 38% of the time in cyberbullying incidents. 

• Social networks are used 39% of the time in cyberbullying incidents. 

• Password theft or misuse accounts for 27% of cyberbullying. (There is 

overlap between this and social networking cyberbullying.) 

• The number of cyberbullying and sextbullying (when sexting incidents are used 

to intentionally destroy a minor’s reputation and self-esteeem) is increasing rapidly. 

• 52% of boys in high school reported having seen at least one nude image of a 

classmate. 

MTV’s wonderful multi-year campaign to address cyberbullying, digital dating 

abuse and sexting risks was launched in late 2009 and can be found at 

athinline.org. It explains the scope of the teen and young adult issues. I serve as 

a member of its advisory board, along with Casi Lumbra, one of my Teenangels.10 

• 1000 Wisconsin teens identified cyberbullying as a risk or a serious risk. 

• An equal percentage of boys and girls admit to taking and sharing a sext of 

themselves. 

• 71% of girls use their webcam in their bedroom, and 21% regret something they 

did on a webcam. 

• 5% of 10—12 yr olds polled admitted to taking and sharing a sexually provocative or nude photo of themselves. 

• Within a 48 hour period, more than 200,000 myYearbook users took a pledge 

against cyberbullying. 

What are the different types of cyberbullies? 

It is impossible to change behavior when no one understands what is behind it. 

Cyberbullying occurs for the same reasons schoolyard bullying occurs. It also occurs 

by accident when students are careless about cyber communications. It might come 

from impulsive and thoughtless reactions to something that has upset the 

‘‘cyberbully.’’ They may be defending themselves and each other from offline bullies 

or other cyberbullies. Lumping them all together will lead nowhere, fast. 

Every type of cyberbullying requires a different response and method of prevention 

The four types of cyberbullies include: 

• The Vengeful Angel 

• The Power-Hungry (or Revenge of the Nerds sub-type) 

• The Mean Girls 

• The Inadvertent Cyberbully ‘‘The Vengeful Angel’’: In this type of cyberbullying, 

the cyberbully doesn’t see themselves as a bully at all. They see themselves as righting wrongs, or protecting themselves or others from the ‘‘bad guy’’ they are now victimizing. The Vengeful Angel cyberbully often gets involved trying to protect a 

friend who is being bullied or cyberbullied. They generally work alone, but may 

share their activities and motives with their close friends and others they perceive 

as being victimized by the person they are cyberbullying. 

Vengeful Angels need to know that no one should try and take justice into their 

own hands. They need to understand that few things are clear enough to understand, and that fighting bullying with more bullying only makes things worse. They 

need to see themselves as bullies, not the do-gooder they think they are. It also 

helps to address the reasons they lashed out in the first place. If they sense injustices, maybe there really are injustices. Instead of just blaming the Vengeful Angel, 

solutions here also require that the situation be reviewed to see what can be done 

to address the underlying problem. Is there a place to report bullying or 

cyberbullying? Can that be done anonymously? Is there a peer counseling group that 

handles these matters? What about parents and school administrators. Do they ignore bullying when it occurs, or do they take it seriously? The more methods we 

can give these kinds of cyberbullies to use official channels to right wrongs, the less 

often they will try to take justice into their own hands.11 

The ‘‘Power-Hungry’’ and ‘‘Revenge of the Nerds’’: Just as their schoolyard counterparts, some cyberbullies want to exert their authority, show that they are powerful enough to make others do what they want and some want to control others with 

fear. Sometimes they just don’t like the other kid. These are no different than the 

offline tough schoolyard bullies, except for their method. Power-Hungry cyberbullies 

usually need an audience. It may be a small audience of their friends or those within their circle at school. Often the power they feel when only cyberbullying someone 

is not enough to feed their need to be seen as powerful and intimidating. They often 

brag about their actions. They want a reaction, and without one may escalate their 

activities to get one. 

Interestingly enough, a sub type of the Power-Hungry cyberbully is often the victim of typical offline bullying. They may be female, or physically smaller, the ones 
37 

picked on for not being popular enough, or cool enough. They may have greater technical skills. Some people call this type the ‘‘Revenge of the Nerds’’ cyberbully. It is 

their intention to frighten or embarrass their victims. And they are empowered by 

the anonymity of the Internet and digital communications and the fact that they 

never have to confront their victim. They may act tough online, but are not tough 

in real life. They are often not a bully but ‘‘just playing one on TV.’’ 

This kind of cyberbullying usually takes place one-on-one and the cyberbully often 

keeps their activities secret from their friends. If they share their actions, they are 

doing it only with others they feel would be sympathetic. The rarely appreciate the 

seriousness of their actions, and often resort to cyberbullying-by proxy. Because of 

this and their tech skills, it can be the most dangerous of all cyberbullying. 

Power-Hungry cyberbullies often react best when they know that few things are 

ever anonymous online. We leave a trail of cyber-breadcrumbs behind us wherever 

we go in cyberspace. And, with the assistance of a law enforcement or legal subpoena, we can almost always find the cyber-abusers and cybercriminals in real life. 

Shining a bright light on their activities helps too. When they are exposed, letting 

the school community know about their exposure helps prevent copycat 

cyberbullying. 

Helping them to realize the magnitude of their activities is also helpful. Often 

their activities rise to the criminal level. The more this type of cyberbully understands the legal consequences of their actions, the more they think about their actions. 

Ignoring them can also be very effective. But sometimes, instead of going away 

when ignored, they escalate their actions to get others involved, through a 

cyberbullying-by-proxy situation. Whenever a Power-Hungry cyberbully is suspected, it is crucial that law enforcement is notified and that the victim keeps a 

careful watch on themselves online, through ‘‘googling themselves.’’ They can even 

set a Google Alert to notify them by e-mail if anything new is posted online with 

their personal contact information.12 

‘‘Mean Girls’’: The type of cyberbullying occurs when the cyberbully is bored or 

looking for entertainment. It is largely ego-based and the most immature of all 

cyberbullying types. Typically, in Mean Girls bullying situations, the cyberbullies 

are female. They may be bullying other girls (most frequently) or boys (less frequently). 

Mean Girls cyberbullying is usually done, or at least planned, in a group, either 

virtually or together in one room. It may occur from a school library or a slumber 

party or from the family room of someone after school. This kind of cyberbullying 

requires an audience. The cyberbullies in a Mean Girls situation want others to 

know who they are and that they have the power to cyberbully others. This kind 

of cyberbullying grows when fed by group admiration, cliques or by the silence of 

others who stand by and let it happen. It quickly dies if they don’t get the entertainment value they are seeking. 

The most effective tool in handling a Mean Girls cyberbullying case is blocking 

controls. Block them, block all alternate screen names and force them to go elsewhere for their sick entertainment. In addition, if threatened with loss of their 

Facebook or AIM accounts, they wise up fast! 

In all cases of which I am aware, the sexting and cyberbullying-suicides and attempted suicides in the US involved Mean Girls cyberbullies. 

The ‘‘Inadvertent Cyberbully’’: Inadvertent cyberbullies usually don’t think they 

are cyberbullies at all. They may be pretending to be tough online, or role playing, 

or they may be reacting to hateful or provocative messages they have received. Unlike the Revenge of the Nerds cyberbullies, they don’t lash out intentionally. They 

just respond without thinking about the consequences of their actions. 

They may feel hurt, or angry because of a communication sent to them, or something they have seen online. And they tend to respond in anger or frustration. They 

don’t think before clicking ‘‘send.’’ 

Sometimes, while experimenting in role-playing online, they may send 

cyberbullying communications or target someone without understanding how serious 

this could be. They do it for the heck of it ‘‘Because I Can.’’ They do it for the fun 

of it. They may also do it to one of their friends, joking around. But their friend 

may not recognize that it is another friend or may take it seriously. They tend to 

do this when alone, and are mostly surprised when someone accuses them of 

cyberabuse. 

They also may be careless, typing too fast and being unclear or leaving our crucial 

words, like ‘‘not.’’ They may send a message to the wrong person or hurt someone 

by accident. 

Education plays an important role in preventing Inadvertent Cyberbullying. 

Teaching them to respect others and to be sensitive to their needs is the most effec-
38 

tive way of dealing with this kind of cyberbully. Teaching them to Take5! is an easy 

way to help them spot potentially bullying behavior before it’s too late.13 

Methods of cyberbullying 

Kids have always tormented each other. Just think about Lord of the Flies. Now 

with the help of cybertechnologies, sadly, they are doing it more and more online, 

using mobile phones and interactive games. I spend as much time protecting kids 

from each other online these days as from cyberpredators. What is Cyberbullying?: 

Cyberbullying is any cyber-communication or publication posted or sent by a minor 

online, by instant messenger, e-mail, website, diary site, online profile, interactive 

game, handheld device, cell phone or other interactive device that is intended to 

frighten, embarrass, harass or otherwise target another minor. If there aren’t minors on both sides of the communication, it is considered cyberharassment, not 

cyberbullying. A one-time rude or insulting communication sent to a minor is generally not considered cyberbullying. Cyberbullying needs to be repeated, or a threat 

of bodily harm, or a public posting designed to hurt, embarrass or otherwise target 

a child. 

How does it work?: 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 or without the accomplice’s knowledge). Because 

cyberbullying by proxy often gets adults involved in the harassment, it is much 

more dangerous. 

Direct attacks 

1. Instant Messaging/E-mail/Text Messaging/Inbox or PM Harassment 

2. Kids may send hateful or threatening messages to other kids without realizing 

that unkind or threatening messages are hurtful and very serious. 

3. Warning/Report Abuse/Notify Wars—Many Internet Service Providers offer a 

way of reporting or ‘‘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/Notify/Report Abuse buttons as a game or prank. 

4. A kid/teen may create a screen name that is very similar to another kid’s name. 

The name may have an additional ‘‘i’’ or one less ‘‘e.’’ It might use a lowercase ‘‘L’’ 

instead of the number ‘‘1.’’ They may use this name to say inappropriate things to 

other users while posing as the other person. 

a. Text wars, text-bombs, or text attacks occur when kids gang up on the victim, 

sending thousands of text messages to the victim’s cellphone or other mobile device. 

The victim is then faced with a huge cellphone bill and angry parents. 

b. Kids send death threats using IM and text messaging as well as photos/videos 

(see below). 

Stealing passwords 

a. A kid may steal another child’s password and begin to chat with other people, 

pretending to be the other kid. He/she may say mean things that offend and anger 

this person’s friends or even strangers. Meanwhile, the others won’t know it is not 

really that person they are talking to.14 

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. 

e. A stolen password can allow the cyberbully to steal points, loot, and game 

‘‘gold.’’ 

Blogs 

Blogs are online journals. They are a fun way for kids and teens to post 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 blogs about his breakup with his ex-girlfriend, explaining how she 

destroyed his life and calling her degrading names. Their mutual friends read about 

this and criticized her. She was embarrassed and hurt, all because another kid posted mean, private, and false information about her. Sometimes kids set up a blog 

or profile page pretending to be their victim and saying things designed to humiliate 

them. 
39 

Websites 

a. Children used to tease each other in the playground; now they do it on 

websites. Kids sometimes create websites that may insult or endanger another child. 

They create pages specifically designed to insult another kid or group of people. 

b. They select and register domain names designed to inflame or otherwise hurt 

their victims. 

c. Kids also post other kids’ personal information and pictures, putting those people at a greater risk of being contacted or found. 

Sending pictures through e-mail and cellphones 

a. There have been cases of teens sending mass e-mails to other users that include 

nude or degrading pictures of other teens. Once an e-mail like this is sent, it is 

passed around to hundreds of other people within hours. There is no way of controlling where it goes. 

b. Many of the newer cellphones allow kids to send pictures to each other. The 

kids receive the pictures directly on their phones and may send them to everyone 

in their address books. After viewing the picture at a website, some kids have actually posted these often pornographic pictures online for anyone to see, spread, or 

download. 

c. Kids often take a picture of someone in a locker room, bathroom, or dressing 

room and post it online or send it to others on cellphones. 

Internet polling 

Who’s hot? Who’s not? Who is the biggest slut in the sixth grade? These types 

of questions run rampant on the Internet polls; all created by yours truly—kids and 

teens. Such questions are often very offensive to others and are yet another way 

that kids can bully other kids online.15 

Interactive gaming 

Many kids today are playing interactive games on gaming devices such as Xbox 

360 and Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, and Sony PSP. These gaming devices 

may allow students to communicate with anyone they find themselves matched with 

in an online game or people within a certain defined physical area. Sometimes the 

kids verbally abuse the other kids, using threats and lewd language. Sometimes 

they take it further, locking them out of games, passing false rumors about them, 

or hacking into their accounts. 

Sending malicious code 

Many kids will send viruses, spyware, and hacking programs to their victims. 

They do this to either destroy their computers or spy on their victim. Trojan horse 

programs allow the cyberbully to remotely control their victim’s computer and can 

be used to erase the victim’s hard drive. 

Sending porn and other junk e-mail and IMslc 

Cyberbullies often will sign up their victims for e-mail and IM marketing lists, 

lots of them, especially porn sites. When the victim receives thousands of e-mails 

from pornographers, their parents usually get involved, either blaming them (assuming they have been visiting porn sites) or making them change their e-mail or 

IM address. 

Impersonation/posing 

Posing as the victim, the cyberbully can do considerable damage. While posing as 

the victim, they may post a provocative message in a hate group’s chatroom or on 

their forum pages, inviting an attack against the victim, often giving the name, address, and telephone number of the victim to make the hate group’s job easier. They 

often also send a message to someone saying hateful or threatening things while 

masquerading as the victim. They may also alter a message really from the victim, 

making it appear that they have said nasty things or shared secrets with others. 

Social networking attacks 

Most teens (and many preteens) are using social networks such as MySpace and 

Facebook. They build a profile and share whatever they want to share with the 

world or their close friends. They post pictures and videos (especially on video networks like YouTube), pass rumors, exclude those they want to target, create quizzes 

and polls, and use anonymous networks (such as JuicyCampus.com) or applications 

such as Honesty Box to attack their victims. They impersonate their victims, take 

over their accounts, or report them to their school, parents, or the police. 

Aside from cellphones, social networking is the technology of choice for 

cyberbullying and harassment. 
40 

Misappropriation of cellphones 

While the predominant method used to cyberbully someone through a cellphone 

is texting and prank calling, students are lifting an unattended cellphone and reprogramming it to do their dirty work. 16 

Cyberbullying by proxy (third party cyberharassment or cyberbullying) 

Often people who misuse the Internet to target others do it using accomplices. 

These accomplices, unfortunately, are often unsuspecting. They know they are communicating irate or provocative messages, but don’t realize that they are being manipulated by the real cyberharasser or cyberbully. That’s the beauty of this type of 

scheme. The attacker merely prods the issue by creating indignation or emotion on 

the part of others, and can then sit back and let others do their dirty work. Then, 

when legal action or other punitive actions are taken against the accomplice, the 

real attacker can claim that they never instigated anything and no one was acting 

on their behalf. They claim innocence and blame their accomplices, unwitting or not; 

their accomplices have no legal leg to stand on. 

It’s brilliant and very powerful. It is also one of the most dangerous kinds of 

cyberharassment or cyberbullying. Children do this often using AOL, MSN, or another ISP as their ‘‘proxy’’ or accomplice. When they engage in a ‘‘notify’’ or ‘‘warning’’ war, they are using this method to get the ISP to view the victim as the 

provocateur. A notify or warning war is when one child provokes another until the 

victim lashes back. When they do, the real attacker clicks the warning or notify button on the text screen. This captures the communication and flags it for the ISP’s 

review. If the ISP finds that the communication violated their terms of service 

agreement (which most do), they may take action. Some accounts allow several 

warnings before formal action is taken, but the end result is the same. The ISP does 

the attacker’s dirty work when they close or suspend the real victim’s account for 

a terms of service violation. Most knowledgeable ISPs know this and are careful to 

see if the person being warned is really being set up. 

Sometimes children use the victim’s own parents as unwitting accomplices. They 

provoke the victim and, when the victim lashes back, they save the communication 

and forward it to the victim’s parents. The parents often believe what they read 

and, without having evidence of the prior provocations, think that their own child 

‘‘started it.’’ 

This works just as easily in a school disciplinary environment. 

Students may not understand that their attacks, if designed to hurt someone’s 

reputation, may be defamatory and subject them to discipline, lawsuits, and in some 

cases harassment charges. They may not understand that they can be tracked quite 

easily most of the time and held accountable for their actions. They may not understand that their actions may be a terms of service violation and cost them (or their 

family) their online accounts. They may repeat rumors and take action based on 

false information, and then find themselves facing liability when the person who 

started it all hides behind them. They should know that repeating lies, even if you 

read them online, is no excuse under the law. 

WiredSafety advises not to respond to cyberbullying. So, it is important that we 

caution to all who believe things without confirming their accuracy not to confuse 

silence or failure to defend or rebut any rumors with an admission of guilt or confirmation that a lie told by someone is true. Sometimes silence is smarter, especially 

when the real fight may not occur online at all. The smarter ones don’t fight their 

battles in public online, not when defamation, cyberbullying or harassment is involved.17 

Just a reminder to teach students to thinkB4uClick. Otherwise they have become 

what they say they are fighting. They have become a cyberharasser or cyberbully 

themselves. Teach them not to be used. Teach them to use their heads. 

The problem with some prominent surveys 

Major survey companies and educational institutions have studied cyberbullying. 

While they all conclude that cyberbullying is a serious and growing problem, they 

(in our opinion) under-report the problem. It’s not their fault. It’s the nature of how 

surveys with minors are conducted. Most take place after the parents are asked for 

their permission to survey their kids. Since there are 57 different reasons identified 

by students for why they would not tell their parents if targeted by a cyberbully, 

it is unlikely that they will be candid with the surveyor in their parents’ presence 

or after their parents are informed about the survey. 

The second problem with the surveys is that they ask, ‘‘Have you been 

cyberbullied?,’’ without defining what they mean. Like ‘‘obscenity,’’ which, according 

to a former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, ‘‘you know it when you see it,’’ it’s easier 

for people to spot than to define. But many students think that harassment and cru-
41 

elty online comes with the territory, and unless it’s a death threat or text-bomb (see 

Talk the Talk), it’s not cyberbullying. For any survey to be effective, it needs to define situations that constitute cyberbullying and ask the students if they have ever 

been involved in one of those situations. 

Interestingly, students are more likely to own up to being a cyberbully than a victim. 

A Conspiracy to Conceal It WiredSafety’s surveys reflect that only 5% of students 

would tell their parents if they were being targeted by a cyberbully. When 

Teenangels conducted a survey of their own, they learned that less than 25% of the 

students would tell anyone if they were being cyberbullied. 

Why? The answer is different for parents than another trusted adult. Parents 

have the power to make their lives miserable. They can turn off the Internet, take 

away cellphones, computers, and gaming devices, pick up the phone and call other 

parents, the school, or their lawyers. They run too hot and overreact, or too cold 

and underestimate the pain the cyberbully causes. 

The students don’t want their parents to discover that they are not as popular 

in school as hoped. They don’t want to look like they can’t take care of themselves. 

They don’t want their parents to find out that they were doing things they shouldn’t 

or to learn the information the cyberbully is threatening to expose. 

Parents might start monitoring or filtering everything, spying, or being overly attentive to what the student is doing online. The parents may demand passwords to 

all accounts and use them, confront the cyberbully or their parents, call the police, 

or blow things out of proportion. The cyberbullying may become the topic of discussion over the Thanksgiving table or the source of teasing or bullying by siblings. 

If their current or former friends were the cyberbullies, the victim, interestingly, 

may try and protect them or avoid having them punished. They don’t want to be 

termed a ‘‘tattletale’’ or have the cyberbully18 escalate their actions because they 

‘‘told.’’ They may have responded using inappropriate language or threats of their 

own. The list goes on and on. They are reluctant to share with their ‘‘friends’’ and 

not sure if the cyberbully is one of those in whom they are confiding. With anonymous cyberbullying they can’t be sure if the cyberbully is their best friend or worst 

enemy. Friends are armed with their secrets and passwords and sometimes the 

cyberbully poses as one of their friends. They don’t know where to turn or whom 

to trust. 

Trusting their teachers, guidance counselors, and school administrators is a bit 

different. In this case, they worry that the school will refuse to get involved. (This 

fear is often well-founded.) They fear their uninformed involvement even more. 

When well-meaning school administrators get involved, they often call everyone in 

and try to get to the bottom of things. This only makes things worse and sets up 

the victim for more harassment from the cyberbully, their friends, and everyone in 

the class who sees the victim as ‘‘squealing.’’ 

Even when the school administrators do the right thing, it can backfire. On a recent Tyra Banks Show, Parry met a young student who had reported her classmates 

taking her picture with their cellphone while in the locker room at school. (She and 

other girls were dancing in various stages of undress.) The cyberbully threatened 

to post the pictures on Facebook and the girl panicked and went to the principal, 

who promptly called in the girls and confiscated the cellphone. The entire class 

turned on the victim, saying she had blown it all out of proportion. She was victimized twice—once by the girls and again by the class. 

An interesting exercise for students is to ask them to see how many reasons they 

can come up with why they wouldn’t tell their parents about being cyberbullied. 

Parry has never gotten them to come up with more than 57 different reasons. See 

if you can beat her record and share the reasons you find. They can be illuminating. 

If we understand why they don’t share this or trust their parents, we can find ways 

to address their concerns and change this pattern. We can also find ways to make 

sure that they trust guidance counselors, teachers, and school administrators so 

they don’t have to face this alone. 

The challenge we all face is how we can intervene without feeding the 

cyberbullies. There are no easy answers on this one, just some approaches that have 

worked for others. An effective strategy is to get peer counselors involved and create 

a cyberbullying taskforce for the school, including students in crafting responses and 

consequences of cyberbullying activities. Make sure you include the consequences for 

bystanders. 

Whatever you do, do it carefully and thoughtfully. Ask the victim first before you 

take any action other than those needed to protect them or others. Remember, 

cyberbullying hurts. The first thing we need to do is address that hurt. Bring in 

the guidance counselors to help. The more advance preparation and planning the 

school does, the faster and better you can respond when these things occur. 
42 

Starting young—the Sumo Pandas 

WiredSafety has created the Sumo Panda digital safety and cyberbullying prevention program to help teach cybersafety to kids from kindergarten to grade six. It 

uses a series of twelve short and cute Flash and Quicktime animations of the Pandas, their friends and rivals—the Polar Bears from Polar Bear19 Academy. Each animation is paired with a teaching kit that contains things like lesson plans, activity 

sheets, coloring pages, pledges, and lesson certificates 

Artemus and his cousin, Precious Panda live in the Forest of Kind with their families. Artemus and Precious attend Panda Elementary School with the other animals 

in their forest and love to sumo wrestle in their spare time! Like any other kid, they 

also love to play online. Too bad Artemus isn’t the most cyber savvy and Precious 

often has to guide him to find the right path. Unfortunately, Artemus is often influenced by his ‘‘friends’’ Herbert the panda and Chops the pig who don’t always have 

his best interests at heart. Artemus is also often the target of cyberbullying by his 

rivals, the Polar Bears from Polar Bear Academy. But with the support of his true 

friends, especially Precious, Artemus always learns important lessons in cybersafety 

by the end of the day. Teaching them the consequences of their actions, and that 

the real ‘‘Men in Black’’ may show up at their front door sometimes helps too. Since 

many cyberbullying campaigns include some form of hacking or password or identity 

theft, serious laws are implicated. Law enforcement, including the FBI, might get 

involved in these cases. Remind your students that they could easily be implicated 

in a cyberbullying case commenced by one of their friends. (But be careful, this may 

end up backfiring if the kids are intrigued by what would happen if the FBI did 

knock on their door. It’s happened.) 

But few cyberbullying campaigns can succeed without the complacency and the 

often help of other kids. If no one votes at a cyber-bashing website, the cyberbully’s 

attempts to humiliate the victim are thwarted. If no one forwards a hateful or embarrassing e-mail, the cyberbully is left standing all alone. It’s rarely fun to act out 

unless you can show off to someone who will appreciate your antics. By denying the 

cyberbully an audience, the antics quickly stop. 

In addition, the ‘‘mean girls’’ cyberbullies need an audience. That’s the reason 

they do it, to show everyone that they can. It reinforces their social status and ranking. It reminds everyone who believes it that they can do anything they want to 

anyone they want. Denying them their audience and ego fix takes the fun out of 

cyberbullying. Hopefully they can then move on to something else a little less destructive. 

If we can help kids understand how much bullying hurts, how in many cases (unlike the children’s chant) words can hurt you, fewer may cooperate with the 

cyberbullies. They will think twice before forwarding a hurtful IM or e-mail, or visiting a cyberbullying ‘‘vote for the fat-girl’’ site, or allowing others to take videos or 

cell phone pictures of personal moments or compromising poses of others. And, in 

addition to not lending their efforts to continue the cyberbullying, if given an anonymous method of reporting cyberbullying websites, profiles and campaigns, students 

can help put an end to cyberbullying entirely. School administration, community 

groups and even school policing staff can receive these anonymous tips and take action quickly when necessary to shut down the site, profile or stop the cyberbullying 

itself. They can even let others know that they won’t allow cyberbullying by supporting the victim, making it clear that they won’t be used to torment others and 

that they care about the feelings of others is key. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said 

‘‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our 

friends.’’ 

We need to teach our students that silence, when others are being hurt, is not 

acceptable. If they don’t allow the cyberbullies to use them to embarrass or torment 

others, cyberbullying will quickly stop. It’s a tall task, but a noble goal. And in the 

end, our students will be safer online and offline. We will have20 helped create a 

generation of good cybercitizens, controlling the technology instead of being controlled by it. 
43 

APPENDIX ON RESPONSES TO MASSACHUSSET’S MIDDLE SCHOOL SURVEY OF 500

STUDENTS ON TEXTING—2009

Student Survey—770 Middle and High School Wisconsin Students Winter 2010 

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT CYBERBULLYING? 

Answer options 

What is your grade? Response 

percent 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 

I don’t know what it is .................................................................................. 15 5 4 33 34 11.8% 

It’s no big deal .............................................................................................. 1 3 2 39 24 9.0% 

I have heard about it on TV or in magazines, but don’t know much more 4 17 17 63 42 18.6% 

It happens in middle school only .................................................................. 0 3 1 2 4 1.3% 

It’s when you say mean things online, in a text or by IM ........................... 11 55 64 194 120 57.7% 

It’s when you take an embarrassing pic using a cell phone and send it to 

others to hurt someone ............................................................................. 11 47 64 144 70 43.6% 

I have heard about someone in my school or town that was cyberbullied 5 26 20 74 29 20.0% 

Friends of mine have been cyberbullied, but I haven’t ................................ 4 17 7 35 16 10.3% 

We’ve had cyberbullying incidents in my school ........................................... 3 21 16 69 29 17.9% 

I have seen cyberbullying messages designed to hurt or embarrass someone else ...................................................................................................... 3 20 20 83 44 22.1% 

I have cyberbullied others .............................................................................. 0 3 2 7 18 3.9% 

I have said nasty things to others online, but don’t consider it 

cyberbullying .............................................................................................. 0 4 14 29 22 9.0% 

I have been cyberbullied by a close friend ................................................... 1 9 4 23 13 6.5% 

I have had someone steal my password and pretend to be me .................. 0 14 13 40 24 11.8% 

I have had someone cyberbully me on Facebook .......................................... 0 5 4 18 14 5.3% 

I have seen others cyberbullied on Facebook ................................................ 2 9 7 64 28 14.3% 

I should report cyberbullying to the FBI ........................................................ 0 20 5 20 8 6.9% 

I know how to report cyberbullying to Facebook and other sites ................. 3 18 20 51 24 15.1% 

You can be arrested if you cyberbully someone ............................................ 3 35 29 70 29 21.6% 

Teens have committed suicide when they were cyberbullied ....................... 5 46 60 138 57 39.7% 

I’ve cyberbullied someone with my friends just for fun ............................... 0 1 6 20 12 5.1% 

I have been harassed and embarrassed by text messages sent by others 2 11 15 33 15 9.9% 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Mr. Finnegan. 

STATEMENT OF DAVE FINNEGAN, CHIEF INFORMATION AND 

LOGISTICS BEAR, BUILD–A–BEAR WORKSHOP 

Mr. FINNEGAN. Good morning, Chairwoman McCarthy, Ranking 

Member Platts and Members of the subcommittee. My name is 

Dave Finnegan, I am the Chief Technology Bear at Build-A-Bear 

Workshop. I am honored to be the only one with ‘‘bear’’ in my title 

on the panel. I appreciate the invitation to come. 

Build-A-Bear started in 1997 and has since grown to be the ninth 

largest toy retailer in the United States with over 400 stores worldwide. A number of years ago, we saw the play patterns of kids go 

from traditional play to a blend of on-line and off-line play. During 

that time, we launched a kids virtual space called 

buildabearville.com. Since then, we have grown to over 15 million 

Avatars, and we get roughly 4 to 5 million visits from kids each 

month. We have earned a number of awards in the space, including 

awards from iparenting, Wired Kids, and have earned Parry 

Aftab’s socially safe seal from WiredSafety. 

The Internet bullying, and cyber-bullying initiative is obviously 

from all the testimony that we have heard an important issue for 

kids, and because of that, it is an important issue for Build-A-Bear 

Workshop. We think that we are uniquely positioned in this space 

because we have stores that we can get the message out through. 
44 

We also think that if we can capture kids early on and teach them 

and help educate them early on and give them the tools that are 

needed, that we will serve them well, especially as they get into 

their teenage years. 

So we believe that success comes when kids are educated and 

parents, as Dr. Phil indicated, are actively involved in their kids’ 

Internet experience. We also believe that as we joined together, industry, lawmakers, educators and others that we have a lot of 

things that we can share together to help keep this space safe for 

kids. 

So in October 2009, we launched a ‘‘Stop Cyber-Bullying Month’’ 

campaign where we taught kids and parents the importance of 

playing on line. To reach kids, we decided that we would reach 

them in their native place. So we went online and we created some 

educational games and quizzes that kids could take where once 

they were finished with those things, they earned different virtual 

prizes, including dance moves and things like that for their 

Avatars. Since that launch of that campaign online, we have had 

over 2.6 million impressions on the stop block and tell message 

from Parry’s group. We have had over 165,000 of our guests who 

have taken the stop cyber-bullying pledge, and we have had over 

200,000 kids take the cyber safe quiz. 

We also took one of our store calendars and dedicated that calendar issue to the stop cyber-bullying pledge. So we put on something that we were already doing, we layered on all of the safety 

information about what we could do to make a difference. And we 

dedicated that calendar in October to that topic. We gave away 

350,000 calendars that went into the hands of kids and moms and 

dads so they could talk about these topics together. That is what 

we did for kids. 

From a parent’s perspective, we reached out in more traditional 

media. Parents aren’t online like their kids are. We reached out 

with online and traditional media. We created a family feature 

with content we got from Wired Kids to talk about how to open the 

dialogue between you and your kids about how to keep your family 

safe, and how to deal with cyber-bullying. 

That was picked up by newspapers and magazines and we have 

reached about 70 million media impressions so far with this media 

campaign. 

As we have been working on this issue, we have noticed something: We have noticed that there is a common thread, a shared 

commitment between industry and policymakers, educators all 

have the commitment to keep kids safe. We think, however, there 

is a huge opportunity to bring these organizations closer with 

events like this that allow us to share ideas and concepts. 

To that end, last October we cosponsored an event on Capitol 

Hill, the Stop Cyber-Bullying event, in which we brought major 

companies and different organizations throughout the United 

States together to talk about this topic, to share ideas and to open 

up what we are doing from a technology perspective that we can 

share with others so that we can keep kids safe. 

At Build-A-Bear Workshop, we are happy to stand shoulder to 

shoulder with kids and with parents, educators and policymakers 

and companies to help make a difference to kids online. We ap-
45 

plaud the work that you are doing to help bring focus to this issue 

and we are happy to participate in any way we can. 

[The statement of Mr. Finnegan follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Dave Finnegan, Chief Technology Bear, 

Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. 

Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. is the only global company that offers an interactive 

make-your-own stuffed animal retail-entertainment experience. The company was 

founded in 1997 and currently operates more than 400 Build-A-Bear Workshop 

stores worldwide, including company-owned stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, 

the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, and franchise stores in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East, and Mexico. 

Goal—Internet Safety and cyberbullying are important issues to Build-A-Bear 

Workshop and are especially relevant to protecting kids in this generation. We are 

committed to working together with other stakeholders to make the Internet a safer 

place for kids through education and awareness. Build-A-Bear Workshop partners 

with others to achieve the goal of providing safer internet spaces for kids. 

In October of 2009, Build-A-Bear Workshop launched the ‘‘Stop Cyberbullying 

Month’’ campaign to reach kids and their parents with a cyber safety message in 

order to educate them on the importance of playing safely online. Our objective has 

been to be a part of the solution to stop cyberbullying. 

The company is committed to children and families and protecting kids is paramount to us. We believe that to accomplish our goal we need the partnership of parents, kids, industry, policymakers, law enforcement and educators. 

Reaching kids: Build-A-Bear Workshop is an organization that addresses and 

stops cyberbullying by diligently educating, equipping and monitoring our virtual 

space. The Build-A-Bear Workshop companywide Stop Cyberbullying program is 

comprised of several online, in store and media elements. The reason we employ a 

variety of tools is to ensure that we are able to reach as many kids as possible. We 

are educating kids by creating awareness of what they can do to protect themselves 

online. With our campaign, we generated 2,600,000 impressions with our ‘‘Stop, 

Block and Tell’’ event. 

In addition, over 165,000 Guests have taken the Stop Cyberbullying pledge online 

and there have been over 200,000 Guests online who have taken our Cyber Safe 

Quiz to help them understand the best ways to remain cybersafe. We continue to 

add games and online tools to educate and integrate with their play. Reaching parents and others: Because Build-A-Bear Workshop believes that internet safety takes 

a commitment from the parent, we incorporated a number of communications channels to reach out to parents and others in the community with the Cyber Safety 

Message. 

Since October 2009, 350,000 Instore Calendars have been distributed to Guests 

in stores throughout the country. In addition, media outreach has extended to print, 

online, broadcast and bloggers to achieve over 70,000,000 media impressions. 

In addition to its outreach to kids and parents, Build-A-Bear Workshop has 

partnered with other key groups to communicate the message of cyber safety. In October 2009, the company sponsored the Stop CyberBullying Event, meeting with 

other corporate leaders and child advocacy groups in a first ever Coalition event in 

Washington D.C. on Capitol Hill. Experts representing many different areas of the 

cyber safety attended for the discussion along with Build-A-Bear Workshop and 

other companies to share cyber safety policies and practices. 

We continue to partner with parents, policymakers and industry leaders to generate awareness and encourage internet safety. In order to reach the goal of providing safer internet spaces we propose that the industry, policy/law enforcement, 

teachers and educators, parents and children and internet safety organizations work 

together to strategize around this topic to implement the agreed upon outcomes. 

For additional information please visit: http://www.pwrnewmedia.com/2009/ 

babw90930/index.html 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you so much, thank you everybody for your testimony. I think everybody probably found it, number one, very enlightening. We can do a lot of research here, we 

have great people to do that for us, but again, I think when you 

have great people that come in front of us, and basically talk about 

the experiences they have had, I think about going back even be-
46 

fore cyber-bullying was that popular, but Columbine, those shooters, those kids were all being bullied, so it can turn to violence. 

We know that over 200,000 kids a day are not going to school 

because they are being bullied, and they are scared. We know that 

young people join gangs because they feel they need to be protected 

from bullying. 

So these are the problems that society, and especially our young 

people are facing on a daily basis. And that is something that I feel 

that this committee should be very committed about, because 

again, these are our future leaders of this country. They are going 

to be here in Congress one day, they are going to be in the business 

world, and we have to make sure that they are very well adjusted. 

We have to make sure they are secure, mainly because you want 

them to have good, happy lives. And as Dr. Phil had mentioned, 

those affected by bullying, that is carried on for many, many, many 

years into their life, even when they are adults. And with any kind 

of wound like that, that can’t be seen, it is something that will always be there and affect that person and could affect future relations, future—their children, so it is something that I believe is the 

time that we do something about it. 

Dr. Phil, I know you have been talking about this on your show, 

I know you have mentioned that you have young people calling in, 

but overall, when you have people calling in or writing to you on 

letters, do you feel that the American public are seeing the crisis 

that, which I personally feel is a health care crisis by the way, are 

you feeling that you are getting through to the parents, because obviously, an awful lot of parents watch your show. 

Mr. MCGRAW. Well, I think you have to answer that in a couple 

of ways. I think when you raise the awareness about it, very clearly, parents are surprised because they are not aware because their 

kids don’t come to them and say this is happening to them. So they 

are simply not aware of it. 

Once they are made aware of it, then all of a sudden, it becomes 

a priority for them, and they can support the child. One of the biggest mistakes we see, so often parents say look, this is just kids 

being kids, we can’t run up there and get involved every time 

something like this happens. That is exactly the wrong attitude 

here. When a child is being isolated and attacked in this way, it 

is the loneliest time of their life. That is when they need someone 

to put an arm around their shoulder and say, look, I am here for 

you, I have got your back, we are going to figure a way to deal with 

this. 

And I have had many bullies on the show, cyber-bullies on the 

show, and they invariably will say they had no idea the gravity 

this had on another student. They had no idea that it hurt them 

so deeply, I have had them on 10 years after the fact, and they see 

the devastation it caused in someone’s life, even to the point that 

maybe they home schooled their children or they are over protective of them because they don’t want to put them into the mix 

again. They are shocked at this. 

So part of it is not just educating the parents and supporting the 

targets, but also counseling the bullies, the kids that would do this 

and their parents. These bullies have parents, we need to talk to 
47 

those parents to counsel their kids to teach them to be empathetic 

about the impact of what their doing. 

And when we talk about that, I do see it get through, I do see 

it come through. The power of it comes from hearing from people 

like Dominique and those that are in that window, in that time 

frame that makes the biggest difference. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you. 

And Dominique, we have you on this panel because you are the 

voice, you are on the ground, as they say, so with the program that 

you have been working with the Girl Scouts of America, how do 

you see your fellow students react to it? Is it positive? Do they give 

you suggestions on how to make it better? 

Ms. NAPOLITANO. Well, I feel that people don’t really want to 

look at the issue of cyber-bullying, people that are my age because 

I think they really feel that, you know, its just something that you 

kind of, everyone kind of does. I mean, I don’t partake in cyber-bullying, but I think a lot of people they just think oh, well, they are 

more focused on their self-image in school and about popularity 

rather than another person’s feelings. So I think it is hard to get 

the message across because I don’t think everyone wants to listen, 

but I think by showing the effects of cyber-bullying it’s—I think it 

gives a more positive impact on people that are my age. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. One of the things, and I am not sure 

exactly yet, I believe it was Dr. Phil’s testimony on keyboard bullies, namely because I think young people don’t understand when 

they write something—I know that if I feel angry, I do not send 

out an e-mail. I can talk to someone and certainly let them know 

that I am dissatisfied, but for some reason, when you put it on a 

BlackBerry and before I push that send, I say this sounds terrible, 

that is not who I am, that is not what I am trying to do. 

So I can even imagine that young people, when they are sending 

these things, and they might think they are even funny, they don’t 

understand what the consequences are on the other end. 

Mr. MCGRAW. You have an edit button a lot of people don’t have. 

And children, certainly in their teens, their brains aren’t through 

growing yet. And the last thing that grows is the inhibition center. 

So they don’t have that edit button. So they do hit send. That is 

the problem. We need your edit button, is what we need. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. I agree. I wish I could use it all the 

time. I wish I had a big red button and just squash it. I am going 

to hold off so the rest of my committee can ask questions. 

Mr. Platts. 

Mr. PLATTS. Thank you, Madame Chair. Thanks to each of you. 

Just a wealth of knowledge that you have all shared with us, and 

some news that my son will—maybe one piece of news he will like 

and one that he won’t that one of the things that came through, 

and Dr. Phil, you mentioned in your testimony that being from the 

old school, having to get up with today’s times, that sticks and 

stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me, well, 

yeah, they can. And I have to admit to pleading guilty to having 

said that to my boys when the sibling rivalry is getting a little 

strong and say you have to take it. So I think Tom will be glad to 

hear that. 
48 

The one news he won’t like as I mentioned, we are not ones who 

have given into the craze that everybody has to have a cell phone, 

so our boys don’t, and we try to be very guarded where our computers are and our engagement with them. 

And after hearing all of your testimonies, including the 67 ways 

to use a cell phone to bully, it might be a while, Tom. So sorry. I 

was overprotective before this hearing. I am even more overprotective after hearing all of the testimony. 

Dominique, I wanted to, one, commend you and your classmates 

who rose to the occasion with your classmate Mary T, and turned 

what was a bullying effort into an important lesson that your students were sharing, teaching each other and rising to the defense 

of a classmate, even those who didn’t really know her, but stood 

up to the individual who was bullying. 

What do you, from your perspective as a teen—and as a parent, 

we would love to know this answer and I guess it is a tough one 

to come by—but that makes it hard for teens or any age children 

to talk to their parents that they are being bullied and to reach out 

for help as opposed to staying isolated and suffering in that isolation. 

Ms. NAPOLITANO. I think the main reason why the person being 

cyber-bullied won’t want to tell a parent is I think they are afraid 

that if the cyber-bully is notified that you know what they are 

doing is wrong and they are going to suffer a consequence from it. 

I think they are afraid what are other people going to think about 

me. And I think that is really the main reason is because they are 

kind of afraid of what are other people going to think. Are they 

going to side with me or side with the cyber-bully, and am I going 

to be cyber-bullied even more from it. 

So I think that is really the main reason why they want help. 

Mr. PLATTS. So a very simplistic sense that kind of tattletale, 

and you went and got somebody in trouble, and you will suffer 

more consequences in response. 

So how for us to educate the kids that you need to come forward 

and educate other kids to see that as doing the right thing as opposed to the wrong thing. 

Ms. Paris, you talked about your programs in your school and 

how you have educated yourself, and then with the NASSP. In 

what ways do you reach out to parents to try to give them that 

knowledge, or to engage them maybe, through your district to have 

that be at that partnership. 

Ms. PARIS. We have parent summits, and it is interesting that— 

I am not denouncing what you said about Tom and his cell phone, 

but I spoke to 700 elementary school parents in my district a year 

and a half ago, and I asked them—it is elementary and middle— 

and I asked them to raise their hands if their child had a MySpace. 

And very few hands went up. And I told them how to find out if 

a child had a MySpace. And the next day, I had 200 e-mails from 

parents saying I had no idea. We don’t even have a computer in 

the home, and my child has a MySpace account. 

So just as I think Dr. Phil said, it is an awareness issue. Ninety 

percent of it is being aware of the impact of what is going on and 

what tools do we have. It is not good enough any more. I can’t go 

to principals and say hey, this is a big problem. I need to be able 
49 

to go to principals and say I know you know that it is a big problem now. Epic problem now. Here are some things you can do preemptively, proactively to address the issue. And a big piece of that 

is educating your kids, educating your parents, getting them on 

board with the mission. 

Mr. PLATTS. Just really kind of a basic, if more active the engagement of the parent and the knowledge sharing, the more likely 

then they are going to look into like the 200 e-mails go home and 

say hey, I didn’t know, but now they do so they can be more aware. 

Mr. MCGRAW. Congressman, one of the things that I would like 

to add to what Ms. Paris is saying, is we have to, as part of the 

education, we have to teach teachers how to intervene in these situations. I mean, they have to understand. We have got to put out 

a program that we talk about on the Dr. Phil Show is trying to 

teach kids that telling is not tattling. If you are going to a responsible adult and identifying, that is not tattling because we have 

taught our kids that is not the thing to do. 

And we need to get them to understand, and I have written so 

extensively about this, and my son, Jay, wrote a New York Times 

best seller about bullying and how to stop it. And in there we talk 

about the fact that if you are watching someone bully someone else, 

cyber-bully or any other way, and you do nothing about it, you are 

as guilty as the person that is doing it. So you have to close the 

ranks and support. 

And peer interventions don’t help as far as them stepping up and 

saying ‘‘don’t do this.’’ But you have to support the target and you 

have to be willing to talk to the teachers and counselors and administrators. We have to get all of the bystanders involved. 

Mr. PLATTS. In a sense in law school, we had a strict honor code 

where if you are aware of cheating and don’t report it, you are then 

responsible as well. That mentality out there—with parents who I 

think one of the challenges is that the old guard, us guys who 

didn’t grow up with all of this technology, that, you know, the parents kind of shrug it off. 

What do you think is the best way to make the case? Is it telling 

the stories of what happened to parents who understand? This isn’t 

something you can shrug off. It is a real threat to your kids. 

Mr. MCGRAW. It truly is. It is not a talk that you have with your 

children. It is a dialogue. It is an ongoing dialogue. It is not something where you sit down to talk. You have to constantly be in a 

dialogue with them about what is happening and not only about 

whether or not someone is demeaning them or writing things about 

them or posting pictures, but also making sure that they are not 

part of this, that they are not doing that. 

I have never talked to a parent of a bully that knew that their 

child was doing this. It is always, I had no idea they were picking 

on this child. I had no sense of it whatsoever. We have got to get 

them to talk about it. And the only way they can do this is they 

understand the technology, which a lot of us parents don’t. They 

don’t understand the Facebooks and all of that. 

But that information is out there. I mean, if you go nowhere except to Parry and all of the things that you guys do, that is onestop shopping right there. You get what you need to know right 

there. 
50 

Ms. AFTAB. If I may explain, cyber-bullying is not one thing. It 

is a lot of things. We found that 85 percent of the elementary 

school students share their password with at least one other person, and 70 percent of high schoolers do, especially the best friend 

or someone they are dating. If someone is armed with your secrets 

and your passwords they can do really serious destruction when tomorrow you hate each other which happens several times a day. 

If we can deal with digital hygiene, teaching kids a password 

that is easy to use, not easy to guess, easy to remember. And the 

Girl Scouts came up with something they called designer passwords when we were doing the training. Twizzlers and Clueless, 

your favorite candy and your favorite movies. Something that you 

remember and other people won’t. If we can lock other people out 

of their account, keep their passwords protected, use a good cybersecurity software. And if your son really wants a cell phone, I will 

introduce you to Taser with their new product on cell phone security that you can actually see what he’s doing. 

But if we can put it together so the easy things are out of there, 

so that the kids are better protected, better secured, we have 

locked our doors, then the rest is just behavioral. 

And when we talked about Columbine, I was getting 10,000 emails a day from parents saying how do I know if my kids have 

one of those Web sites. My answer was ask. When we did a survey 

of kids who were using computer games, parents had no idea what 

they were doing on these computer games, that they could use 

Internet over phone. And I said to the kids would you tell your parents? They said sure, but they never ask. 

Even though a dialogue is crucial, if you just start with, ‘‘Do you 

have one of these things?’’ and although it is hard to find the experts and none of the parents are, and frankly, I am not an expert 

on how the technology works. That is why I work with kids. Ask 

your teens. They are free and they do house calls. So what you say 

is if you want this new device for Christmas, tell me what it does. 

Three Cs: Content, contact and cost. Tell me what the content risks 

are, tell me what the contact, how you can talk to people, people 

can talk to you. Can you get into trouble by downloading music you 

are not supposed to be doing or something that is going to cost me 

money that I didn’t agree to. 

If the kids can answer those questions they might be old enough 

for it. My guess is that Tom can do that. And I will help you get 

him on to cell phones when you think he is ready. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. I hope my granddaughter is not watching because she will be 10 in October and for the last 3 years, she 

thought she could bully grandma into getting a phone and I said 

absolutely not. 

Ms. AFTAB. Never underestimate the power of grandparents in 

this whole issue of bullying. 

Mr. Scott. 

Mr. SCOTT. Thank you, Madame Chair. I serve on this committee, Education and Labor, and also chair the crime subcommittee, so this has interest to me on this committee and also 

my other committee. And so I would like to start with Dr. 

Srabstein. Could you say a little bit about the effect of cyber-bul-
51 

lying or bullying in general on suicide, dropping out of school, delinquency, and gang members. 

Dr. SRABSTEIN. There is a whole array of medical, educational 

and risk problems associated with bullying and cyber-bullying. To 

start with, there are cross-sectional studies based on national prevalence in the United States that shows that at least 5 percent of 

U.S. adolescents may suffer from a combination of frequently occurring physical and emotional symptoms linked to their participation 

in bullying as bullies, perpetrators or bullies victims. With the latter, being the youngsters that have the worst broken noses, not 

only in terms of health problems but also in terms of death. And 

they are usually misunderstood because in school they will say, 

Well what do you expect, if you are doing this, this is what they 

are doing to you. 

And we need to recognize that those children and adolescents 

and sometimes adults may have both situations. They are victims, 

and we need to support them and we need also to help them as a 

public health issue for them not to hurt others. 

Now, the kind of array of problems may include a cluster of frequently occurring symptoms like depression, irritability, anxiety, 

headaches, stomachaches, dizziness, difficulty in sleeping. All of 

them happening at the same time. This is 5 percent of at least of 

U.S. adolescents grade 6 to 10 that may have these symptoms 

linked to their participation. 

Now, within this group, 50 percent of them are at risk of hurting 

themselves. We don’t know the rate of mortality. We do know that 

there are at least 250 cases of deaths reported in newspapers in 

the last decade. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, 

they are more at risk of suffering from accidental injuries besides 

the suicide attempts. They are more prone to abuse over-thecounter medication, get into fights, run away from home, and be 

frequently absent from school. And again, those that are bullies 

and victims are in the worst prognosis. 

Mr. SCOTT. We know the problems that result from bullying. Do 

bullying prevention and intervention programs work? Can they be 

replicated? And while—I am going to run out of time—and do activities that involve live interaction like Girl Scouts and others, are 

they helpful in reducing cyber bullying and bullying generally? 

Dr. SRABSTEIN. What we do now is a prevention intervention programs for the whole bullying at large, and cyber bullying is very 

much intertwined with bullying in general because it happens in 

different settings. We can probably apply that to cyber bullying as 

well although cyber bullying itself as it is being discussed this 

morning has its own peculiar aspects that doesn’t happen in the 

other setting. 

Mr. SCOTT. I want to know whether or not we are talking about 

putting something in ESEA, do the bullying prevention and intervention programs work and what should we be putting into ESEA? 

Dr. SRABSTEIN. They only produce, in the best chance, up to 50 

percent but in general, not more than 20 or 30 percent, and therefore, you need a three-level intervention: primary, secondary, and 

tertiary intervention having the whole village involved in this. It 

is not just the schools, health professionals, the parents, the whole 
52 

community. Primary prevention in terms of raising awareness and 

creating better environment in the schools. 

Secondary intervention in terms of detection of incidents not only 

in the schools, but by all health professionals when they meet with 

children and adolescents for any particular reason being an accident or being just a regular physical just to ask them, explain to 

them that they are here concerned as health professionals that bullying is a problem, ask the children if they are being bullied and 

then ask them if they have any health problems related to that. 

The problem remains in reporting this to the school because most 

of the kids are very afraid because of the culture of the reporting 

things, and so the last element is tertiary intervention. Many of the 

kids, no matter what may be done in the schools, especially the 

perpetrators, they may not be able to stop bullying even if they are 

sensitized and counseled for a lot of different reasons, including 

their impulsivity, mood instability and so on. 

So at the end of the day, medical treatment of the tertiary provision may be needed. 

Mr. SCOTT. I think some of the others wanted to answer if they 

could. 

Ms. PARIS. The efficacy of the prevention program depends on 

the person who is implementing it. You will hear that 90 percent 

of the schools having programs. That is not indicative of how effective they are at all. You have to front end it and backload it. You 

have to say right up front there is an expectation. If we don’t define purposefully the culture on our campuses, our students are 

going to do it for us. 

So as administrators, we have to say right up front this is the 

culture of our campus and that conduct is not permissible. Then 

when we implement our programs, we implemented an anonymous 

program and the surveys went from 80 percent of students who 

said bullying was a problem on our campus. Within 1 year of having that program, it dropped to under 20 percent. So was that an 

effective program on our campus? Absolutely. Why? Because we 

took it seriously, we communicated that to the students, and on the 

back end of that the consequences for violating that expectation 

were swift. 

So is it effective? Depends on entirely on who is implementing 

the program. 

Ms. AFTAB. I think it depends on who is delivering it. Not just 

as the expertise, but whether it is kids or adults. We are finding 

as a peer-driven program those of the Girl Scouts, those that are 

coming out of the Thin Line campaign at MTV, those that come 

from our Teen Angels are working, and what you need to do is tell 

the stories. Although in cyber-bullying I caution not to just look at 

the suicides, because so many more kids are hurt every day. 

If you tell the real stories, if you tell the story of Megan Meier, 

if you tell the story of Jesse Logan, if you tell the real stories as 

real kids, you see changes of behavior immediately. We have 

500,000 kids who took a pledge against cyber-bullying, 200,000 of 

them took it in a 48-hour period when it was posted on line. 

If you let them know what it means, you can let them know what 

to do to stop it in themselves, and when to report it and what will 

happen when they do? You see changes, remarkable changes, but 
53 

what we need to do is use their language, and make it meaningful 

and make it real. 

Mr. SCOTT. Can you tell us where we can find the research on 

this, on effective bullying prevention programs? 

Ms. AFTAB. I was part of the NTIA OSTWG report and I was also 

part of the Berkman Center, and I don’t think they are very good 

academic research on this because kids lie often. So when you ask 

them questions, when you are doing academic research, you don’t 

often get the answer. I will share the research that we have done 

from the Teen Angels asking kids—it is not academic, but there are 

500 to 1,000 responses to each of their surveys, and I will share 

that with you on this. But we need to recognize we can’t give up, 

and even if you stop one kid or a few kids and you let them know 

what they are doing crosses that line, you will stop some of it. That 

is what we have to do. 

Our stop cyber-bullying toolkit comes out in September. It is totally free. It has professional development surveys and everything 

for LMK, and it is a free download for any schools that want it and 

the industry helped put it together, a million dollars worth of stuff 

that hopefully, if I am hit by a truck we will be able to perpetuate 

the work. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Mr. Guthrie. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. Thank you for coming today. 

Are your parents with you today? 

Ms. NAPOLITANO. My mom is with me. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. You have got to be very proud because you have 

done a very good job. My youngest is a rising seventh grader as 

well, so the issues that you talked about in my house we try to 

monitor everything we can do. And as a parent as a rising seventh 

grader, just advice on how I can monitor my daughter from what 

you have seen and learned that would be interesting to learn and 

hear for the rest of the committee as well. 

What things do you think—and what point do you think it is getting too much into seventh graders’ business I guess? 

Ms. NAPOLITANO. I think some of the things that you should do 

to maybe help watch what your kids are doing on the Internet, or 

maybe to be like what my mom did, since she has my passwords 

to Facebook. I know people don’t want to give parents their passwords because they want to keep what they have private. But I 

think it is important for parents to have their children’s passwords, 

because I think they should be monitoring, because if you don’t 

have somebody’s passwords, I know, for example, with Facebook 

you can look at somebody’s page and not see really know what is 

going on. You can maybe see a couple of their pictures, but you 

really can only see what they are writing and other people are 

writing about them if they have their passwords and personal information to get on the Web site. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. My wife got into Facebook for the purpose of monitoring our children, so she is now an avid Facebooker. 

And Dr. McGraw, or anyone really, once parents say this is serious, I know this is what we are trying to do, this is serious. What 

are the steps just as I asked Ms. Napolitano? What should I do as 

a parent? 
54 

Mr. MCGRAW. I think the most important thing to do is put yourself in the child’s position and ask yourself how you would be feeling if your peer group was saying or doing the things that are 

being heaped upon your child because if you stand in their shoes 

for a moment and understand at a particularly vulnerable time— 

I mean, when a child is in middle school or certainly even in upper 

school, this is the time that they are defining themselves socially. 

It is when their self-image is coming together their self-esteem is 

coming together, their body image is coming together. And if that 

is under attack, then you need to take that seriously as something 

that is going to require some attention and some intervention. 

And the problem is if a cyber-bully in any way is sending those 

destructive messages, you might get five of those a day. But the 

child will repeat them cognitively 10,000 times a day. You have got 

to intervene with that internal dialogue, and the best way to do 

that is to get the child to kind of do a test, I call it a litmus logic 

test. Is this true, factually, what they are saying here? Is this true. 

The answer is no. What is true? Is it in your best interest to be 

thinking this. 

Give them a checklist to go through and say if they are saying 

that you are a nerd and nobody likes you, is that true. Then let 

us generate what is true to take place of that. So they understand 

you are not going to be the only voice in your child’s ear, so you 

need to be the best voice. You need to be the most action-oriented 

voice and sometimes you have to put those dots really close together. They are saying this about you is it true. No, it is not. 

What is true. Let us write that down. Let us journal that. Let us 

talk about that. Let us replace this dialogue with something that 

is more constructive and rational. And that is the exchange you 

have to have with your child. 

And just because your child rolls their eyes, they say of course 

you love me, Dad, you have to, and they roll their eyes, that doesn’t 

mean they don’t hear it, it doesn’t mean they won’t replay it a 

thousand times when you get through talking. You have got the 

stand up for your child. 

Mr. GUTHRIE. I only got 30 seconds. I was discussing with some 

people the other day where a mom of another student got on somebody else’s Facebook and posted—and we have that notorious case 

of the bullying with the lady setting up the page. Do you see parents bullying children? How common is that? That was mentioned 

to me. 

Mr. MCGRAW. It is tragically not rare. I mean, truly sometimes 

the kid’s parent will step up and say here is what you should say, 

and pretty soon they are writing on this and it crosses the line. 

They need that edit button that Chairwoman McCarthy is talking 

about. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but they need to not 

become part of the problem. 

Ms. AFTAB. We are seeing a lot of parents will intervene when 

they think their kids are being cyber-bullied, and they will actually 

reach out to the kids who have done something that offended their 

kids directly and start taking them on and identify themselves. But 

I think that it is so important that we are empathetic and understand what to do, but there are some easier things to do that are 

sort of point blank. 
55 

A, today, right now go home and tell your kids that you promise 

that you will not overreact if they come to you when things go 

wrong online. One of the reasons the kids don’t tell their parents, 

and only 95 percent of the kids said they won’t tell their parents, 

is because they are afraid they are going to get into trouble because 

they weren’t supposed to be on Facebook to begin with. So promise 

you are not going to overreact, promise you are not going to pick 

up the phone and start screaming to the other kids or their parents 

or call the FBI. 

Then what you need to do is teach them to stop, block and tell. 

You heard Dave talk about how they put a move in there. Stop. 

Don’t answer back. Block the person, and tell a trusted adult. And 

that works very well with the younger kids. You might have seen 

it on the Front Line special. 

And last is take five. When something bad happens real life, online, put down the mouse or the cell phone and walk away from 

the device until you are calm. For 5 minutes do something that 

helps you feel comfortable, feel strong, read a book, go for a walk, 

play with your puppy, beat up your brother—I know Dr. Phil will 

not be happy that I said that. But do something that helps you find 

your center so you avoid doing something you are going to regret 

like hurting yourself and others. If Megan Meier had disengaged 

from the computer, that 21⁄2 hours might not have killed her. But 

she never disengaged because every time you are cyber-bullied, you 

go back and you reinflict the pain because you see it on line, and 

after a while you start to believe it so you revisit the scene of the 

crime. 

So we need to get them to start doing it. So tell your kids you 

are not going to overreact. Teach them to stop, block and tell teach 

them to take 5 and maybe once in a while teach them to use the 

technology. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. We have been notified that there is 

probably going to be a vote going off in about 15 minutes so unfortunately, I am going to have to probably enforce the red light now. 

Ms. Shea-Porter. 

Ms. SHEA-PORTER. Thank you all for being here. It is a huge 

problem in our culture and it really has reached tragic proportions. 

I am glad to see the attention that we are paying to it here and 

also what all of you out there are doing. 

Dr. McGraw, I wanted to start with you. I read an article recently that this generation has less empathy. Now I have got two 

young adults whom I consider very empathetic and I consider their 

friends empathetic, but I wonder if that is your experience. Can we 

teach empathy because we are not just talking about tools and 

technology, we are talking about the ability of one human being to 

understand and feel for another. And are parents falling down in 

that department? 

Mr. MCGRAW. I do think there is a problem, and I am not sure 

that it can be as simply expressed as a lack of empathy because 

research tells us that it is very difficult to teach and develop empathy if it isn’t there at the developmental stages that it should be. 

But I am not sure that is exactly what we are dealing with. I think 

what we are dealing with is we are not living in the fast lane. We 

are living in the laser lane. And our kids are not developing the 
56 

relational skills that you are required to develop if you don’t have 

all of this technology. 

There was a time when you—we have kids texting their moms 

from their bedroom, Is dinner ready yet; texting their brother next 

door, Quit getting my stuff you idiot. Those stuff are happening. 

Used to be you had to go look someone in the eye and that required 

you to develop the interpersonal skills that simply are not required 

when you are texting or typing. And I think that is what is happening here. 

And it is so easy to write something and not look the person in 

the eye and see the pain that they are experiencing, the pain that 

they are feeling. You wouldn’t say that if you were looking Suzy 

in the eye or Billy in the eye and you saw that this hurt them, that 

their shoulders dropped their head dropped. You get information 

from interpersonal exchange that you don’t get from the one dimensional aspect of cyber communication. And that is a problem. That 

is why we see kids going away further in relationships because 

they are being bombarded with so much stuff on the Internet. 

When we grew up, there were three TV channels you were 

watching, I Love Lucy or Gunsmoke, and we are still waiting for 

Matt to kiss Kitty. And they just never showed that. But now we 

are getting bombarded with all of this sexual content. It is racing 

kids along to a much further level then they are really mature 

enough to handle. 

Ms. SHEA-PORTER. I didn’t know TV was on except for Sunday 

night, and we were carefully controlled. It was a good thing. I 

thought it ended 7 o’clock Sunday night. It was over. 

Mr. MCGRAW. Those of us on during the week and during the 

day, let us not go too far. Let us be reasonable here. 

Ms. SHEA-PORTER. Let me ask Ms. Aftab a question. 

I see a lot of industries are being drawn into this, how about the 

cultural heroes of this generation? Are they too engaging in this because kids will listen to somebody who sings to them or impresses 

them on a film faster sometimes then they will listen to parents? 

Is that part of who you are drawing into this dialogue now? 

Ms. AFTAB. It is. It is a challenge. I will tell you that. Because 

often when we tell kids not to send sexts and we choose somebody 

who can be a role model the next day, we find out that they are 

sending sexts. But that is one of the reasons when we turn to MTV. 

We welcomed that. We got Girl Scouts on one end and MTV on the 

other. And there are a lot of things that MTV can bring to the table 

and others can’t. They can make it cool when other things happen. 

When they ask a question, they will find out that the kids who indicated they were involved in sexting were three to four times more 

likely to indicate that they considered suicide. That you will only 

get on MTV. 

So we are looking at it, but it is hard to find anybody other than 

Spiderman who won’t take off their clothes in front of the camera. 

But we also need to recognize that was part of the real world and 

that was the excitement that we had. We also have Nickelodeon, 

that is going to be stepping out and doing a lot more. You are going 

to be seeing it on television shows and online. Disney is doing a 

lot more online and on the television shows. 
57 

So you find a range of heroes and influencers to the kids and 

touch them. Seventeen Magazine starting a year-long campaign on 

this one starting in August on Letters to Phoebe. So we have to 

find all of the kids you need to reach and all of the different places 

they go for information from Dr. Phil to Girl Scouts. 

Ms. SHEA-PORTER. I thank you all. 

And I just have one last question Ms. Napolitano. 

How did you get, or how did the school come together to stand 

up to it? What is different about your school versus some others? 

Do you have a different atmosphere in school from the time you 

have gone there? Has there been an effort on the part of the administration to keep you all close? 

Ms. NAPOLITANO. I feel like school does a very good job and really working and just not even cyber-bullying, just problems in general. My school, if anyone has an issue, we have a very good, we 

have a campus ministry program. And we even let in freshman 

year know in the beginning of the orientation, or even transfer students are known inside the handbook, if anybody was having a 

problem, whether it be over the Internet or within school, to just 

come to ministry, one of the campus ministers or principal or anybody who is in charge to talk about any of the issues that they are 

facing. 

So I think that my school is very comforting and allows them— 

I think I feel very safe, if I ever had a problem, to go to an administrator. 

Ms. SHEA-PORTER. Thank you very much. 

I yield back. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you. 

Mr. Thompson. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and ranking 

member. Thanks to the panel for very, very important topic that 

we are addressing today. And the work that you have done, your 

leadership in terms of raising awareness and prevention and survival. I think my colleague, Mr. Guthrie, kind of stimulated some 

discussion, actually one of the questions I had. Dr. Phil, you talked 

about being that best voice in your children’s lives and the different 

very practical because, you know, obviously this is something we 

would love to prevent, but reality is we minimize so we need to 

make sure that we are doing what we can to help our kids survive 

this in a very healthy way, emotionally and physically. 

Ms. Napolitano, thank you for being here representing the Girl 

Scouts and representing what your school has done on this issue. 

You mentioned a Web site to particularly educate parents about 

the ever-changing technological world. In your experience, do many 

girls share that Web site with their parents? 

Ms. NAPOLITANO. The LMK Web site? I would say that a lot of 

people, I think when they see anybody who does obviously view the 

LMK Web site I think they would tell their parents because I think 

it is through our mission statement it is not only a Web site for 

teenagers, although it does obviously base around teenagers, but it 

also says parents should look at the Web site as well to learn more 

information about cyber-bullying, not even cyber-bullying, also 

other issues such as sexting and many different issues involved on 
58 

the Internet. So it is not only to educate youth but also to educate 

parents as well. 

Mr. THOMPSON. It seems like it would really help them with raising awareness and information. Do you see it take that next step? 

Does it stimulate the conversation do you find that between the 

girls and their parents? 

Ms. NAPOLITANO. I think it does because I think now not only are 

teens getting involved on like learning about Internet more about 

safety, but I think now that parents know more information, I 

think they feel safer letting their children get a Facebook or a 

MySpace. I mean, even before LMK, I wasn’t allowed to have a 

Facebook because my mom said that is not a very good Web site. 

She didn’t want to let me on it because she didn’t know much 

about it. 

But I think when parents learn more about the Internet, I think 

they will feel more safe allowing their children to enter a Web site 

as long as they know what is going on and what they are writing. 

Mr. THOMPSON. Dr. Srabstein, cyber-bullying is a relatively new 

occurrence. It has been relative as long as this technology has provided, I guess, a new tool for bullies to go from virtual—from there 

into the virtual world. Is the current research on this issue definitive enough to help us understand the problem? 

Dr. SRABSTEIN. It is limited. If one does a search under the National Library of Medicine, one can find not more than 25 papers 

at all of which perhaps three or four, five at the most, may be 

linked to health issues. 

So we are learning, first of all, the whole issue of bullying at 

large, although as it existed forever, we are just learning about it. 

Five years ago, I didn’t know how to spell bullying. The kids were 

parading in front of my eyes and I never asked them about being 

bullied and we were making diagnoses based on other issues when 

they could have post traumatic stress disorder and so on. 

So with that framework, within that context, it is an evolving 

issue. And cyber-bullying is the newest form of this new ‘‘issue’’ of 

bullying. 

Basically what we are dealing with is 45 years after United 

States and Congress learned that there was something called child 

abuse, that was in 1964, we are reexperiencing the same thing 

again right now with the understanding that the whole issue of 

bullying and mistreatment is a serious issue. And without that, the 

whole issue of cyber-bullying is, in itself, different but it is even 

newer. 

So I can’t answer your question, Congressman. It is very new. 

And with all humility, I know more about bullying right now but 

cyber-bullying I am just learning. And in my clinical experience, I 

don’t find many patients that are being cyber-bullied. That doesn’t 

mean that it doesn’t exist there. It means that I may not have been 

asking about cyber-bullying and/or if I asked them, they may not 

have said that, in fact, that was the case because they were afraid. 

Mr. THOMPSON. And looks like my time has expired. Thank you. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. 

Ms. Clarke. 
59 

Ms. CLARKE. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, Ranking 

Member. It is a very, very important hearing, and I am glad to see 

that all of you have come and shared with us. 

One of the things that have concerned me for some time is that 

the despite the fact that we acknowledge the diversity of the types 

of households, parents, guardians, that exist in our civil society, we 

still sort of have a monolithic view to this term ‘‘parent.’’ And I am 

concerned about how that is translated into the various tools we 

use to combat bullying. 

What is the role of religious institutions, social, and public institutions and other vehicles in our civil society to address this technological facet of our lives? Would you share that with us because, 

again, I come from a two-parent household, but a lot of my peers 

didn’t. And so when I say ‘‘parent,’’ I am thinking my mother and 

father. And I have colleagues and friends, my contemporaries, who 

are were in foster care. 

Can we talk a little bit about that? 

Ms. AFTAB. Absolutely. One of the issues you need to recognize 

is our kids have a lot of influencers. We talked about people they 

may look to in the media, but it may be their older brother or sister, a neighbor, baby sitters. It can be a teacher at school, it could 

be faith-based organizations or somebody in Girl Scouts. It could be 

your coach. It might be somebody who is even younger than you 

are. Whoever can influence our kids need to be involved here because they need to be a safe place for our kids to land. They need 

to know what to do. They need to know how to do it. They need 

to know that you don’t call lawyers. You give them a hug first and 

let them know they are okay. And we have to deliver it in a on lot 

of different ways. There are a lot of parents who aren’t on 

Facebook. There are a lot of parents who will walk into a Builda-Bear store in the mall and who may not see it on line. 

It could be parents who have that old VHS that none of us knew 

how to use but thankfully the technology got us past that. So we 

need to take these sessions and put them on tape and allow the 

libraries and the schools to give them out to their parents. Maybe 

you are a secretary somewhere and some one will print out a one 

pager and hand it to you. 

We need to figure out the right language, the right way to reach 

them and what it is we want them to do when they get it. Some 

basic real quick simple sort of three things. I call them cyber-bully 

bytes. 

Someone in Billings, Montana, sent me an e-mail this morning 

at sports events, school because all the parents go to that; they 

don’t come to Internet safety presentations—they are giving out 

these little cards and it says do you know, and on the other side 

they are going to put some facts and let parents know where to go 

for help and all the caretakers. But you are exactly right. And I 

think we are failing people. 

So when they watch Dr. Phil, they are going to learn a lot more 

than a session at school the parents don’t come to. Maybe a sense 

of being home with the students and you teach the kids to teach 

the parents and that way we can engage everyone because without 

it, our kids are really at risk. 
60 

Dr. SRABSTEIN. As a matter of fact, in Maryland, we have created 

an informal Coalition For the Prevention of Bullying with different 

sectors of the community. And we recognize that we want going to 

bring into this coalition representatives of different religious organizations. 

I think in our so society, there is a tremendous role that from 

the pulpit, religious leaders, rabbis, minister, priests and so on, can 

educate us. That with the use of words, we can kill, and so now 

our tradition we should not kill, but we can kill in a way that we 

can hurt definitely and we can kill with a use of words and that 

can not be legislated all of the issues of free speech and so on. And 

we don’t have drivers licenses or license of how we conduct exchange of words. 

Ms. CLARKE. Does anyone else want to chime in on? 

I just wanted to share that I think we also need to look at work 

places. Most people who have access to technology are accessing it 

because they have to use it for their work. And I don’t know whether we have got employers involved in this issue, but I just wanted 

to share that as perhaps another avenue. 

Ms. AFTAB. IBM sent Internet safety a tour of their teens life out 

to all of their employees worldwide. Toys-R-Us came to us to look 

at things, and the first thing they wanted to do was educate their 

employees. We are seeing that Proctor and Gamble is doing the 

same. So if we can reach the large corporations and even the small 

ones. And someone mentioned to me the other day that if you are 

employing teens, you need to know about this because the kids you 

are employing are at risk. But that is an absolutely great way to 

do it and it is cheap because somebody has a photocopier. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you. And I thank you again each 

and every one of you for your testimony and for your time being 

here. 

As I was listening to the testimony you know right now we are 

getting the attention from the media and I appreciate that and we 

are looking at where schools are getting involved and the health 

care are getting involved. 

But this is why I also believe why we need Federal legislation. 

Mainly because I am afraid where are we going to be a year from 

now when Dr. Phil, your producer is going to say to you okay, 

enough, get on to another subject. I have plenty of subjects, by the 

way, you can talk about. 

So this is why I believe on the Federal level we need to put something in place with the educational system because Dominique is 

going to graduate from high school and we are going to have a 

whole new group of children coming up. Technology is going to 

change more rapidly than we can ever do legislation. 

So I think it is important that we do it right. I think that each 

and every one of you have done a tremendous job on working on 

this and being there for our young people. But it is up to us to 

make sure our schools do stay safe. I hope that we can come up— 

one of my colleagues, Linda Sanchez from California, had some 

great legislation on this issue. I plan on working with her on being 

able to bring it into the education bill. 

So with that being said. And I also want to say to take a time 

out and having a hearing like this, I know a lot of people don’t real-
61 

ly pay attention to it. And that is a shame, but I think it is important for Members because believe it or not, if they are not here, 

and they are in their office a lot of time, they do listen to hearings 

that go on. 

But I think that one thing that I want to add is the valuable role 

that the media can play. In the case of Dr. Phil with his work raising awareness on keyboard bulliness, which I think is a great 

sound bite, by the way, he has shown us the valuable role he has 

already played in these efforts which have been tremendous, and 

I hope that other media figures do come through. 

I also want to mention Mr. Finnegan, the organization, your 

business, that is also reaching out because you are reaching out to 

the younger people because hopefully we can catch them before 

they go into the teen years and become maybe a little more obsessed about what they are doing. 

So with that, as you heard the bells going off, we have 11 minutes to get downstairs to vote. So with that from the hearings and 

the guide that you have given us, we move forward with reauthorizing ESEA, and I appreciate you all being here, and as previously—oh, absolutely. 

Mr. PLATTS. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to make a real 

brief statement in closing. 

Again, a sincere thanks to each of you and by your testimony 

here today, and especially by your advocacy every day in your respective roles, we have mentioned a fair number of children who 

have lost their lives because of bullying and cyber-bullying. Your 

efforts is a way that they are being honored and remembered, and 

for them and their families that the tragic loss of their lives will 

not be in vain. Because of your efforts that loss of life will help us 

do better sand protect the lives of others going forward. And so I 

truly commend each of you for what you are doing, and Madam 

Chair, for you in holding this hearing to do just the same. And this 

really is about life and death issues. And each of you are playing 

a key role in honoring those who lost their lives and making sure 

that we prevent every loss of life going forward. Thank you, Madame Chair. 

Chairwoman MCCARTHY. Thank you, Mr. Platts. As previously 

ordered, members will have 14 days to split additional materials 

for the record hearing. Any member who wishes to submit followup questions in writing to the witnesses should coordinate with the 

majority staff within the requested time. 

Without objection, this hearing is now adjourned. Thank you 

again. 

[The statement of Nancy Willard follows:] 

Prepared Statement of Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D., Director, 

Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use 

This statement has been submitted by researchers, risk prevention professionals, 

and others who focus on issues of youth risk online. We appreciate the interest of 

the House Subcommittee Healthy Families and Communities in the issue of 

cyberbullying. We felt it would be helpful for you to gain insight from academic researchers and risk prevention professionals who are applying what is known about 

effective risk prevention to these emerging concerns. 

Youth risk online issues must be recognized as a continuum of risky or harmful 

behavior that includes online and off-line interactions. The young people who are 

at the greatest risk online are those who also are at greater risk off-line. 
62 

The overall approach to address youth risk online must be grounded in the development of strategies to enhance both a positive school community as well as a positive online community-a school-based positive behavior support program with a 

strong focus on helping all students gain effective interpersonal relationships and 

dispute resolution skills. Fortunately, there are excellent research-based prevention 

and intervention programs, including bullying prevention programs, that can be expanded upon to address these new risks. 

In addition to this foundation, young people must gain insight into the specific 

risks associated with communication technologies. There are factors related to use 

of these technologies that are influencing the situations, sometimes in harmful 

ways. Young people may place material in electronic format, such as nude images, 

that can then be used against them. Often the perception of invisibility and the lack 

of tangible feedback can exacerbate the harmful or risky behavior. The technologies 

can allow for the involvement or witnessing of the harm by many others. 

However, there are also ‘‘silver linings.’’ Because ‘‘evidence’’ is in electronic format 

this can allow adults to more fully understand the situation, support effective investigations, and provide early warnings. Additionally, the use of these technologies to 

provide information, support, and crisis intervention to ‘‘at risk’’ youth is demonstrating significant potential for success. 

Research has consistently demonstrated that the majority of young people are 

generally making good choices online and effectively responding to the negative situations that do occur. Therefore, risk prevention professionals can rely on social 

norms risk prevention approaches-which consistently demonstrate effectiveness. Because many times these incidents are occurring outside of adult supervision, a 

strong focus must be on empowering and encouraging young people to be effective 

educators and mediators—and to report online concerns to adults. 

As will be outlined below, we would encourage federal legislation that will: 

• Ensure multidisciplinary coordination at the federal, state, and local level that 

includes safe schools, educational technology, juvenile justice, Internet crimes, and 

mental health. 

• Provide for effective ongoing assessment of youth risk online behavior, as well 

as risk and protective factors and relationship to off-line risk behavior. 

• Support the implementation of innovative prevention and intervention programs to address youth risk online, as well as those that use online technologies 

to address youth risk, that have a substantial likelihood of success. 

• Address concerns related the authority of school officials to respond to off-campus actions of students that have or could substantially disrupt school or significantly interfere with the safety of students or their ability to fully participate in instruction and school activities. 

• Use communication technologies for the provision of risk prevention and intervention services to ‘‘at risk’’ youth. 

Research on Youth Risk Online 

High quality academic research has provided excellent insight into issues related 

to youth risk online. Clearly ongoing research is necessary. Four recommended resources for research insight, two of which are extensive literature reviews, are cited 

at the end of this document. 

The principal research findings in the area of cyberbullying include: 

• Cyberbullying is a significant concern impacting many young people, but with 

different degrees of severity. The reported incident rate of cyberbullying ranges 

greatly, apparently due to differences in research methodology, including how the 

questions are asked. Some surveys have not distinguished between minor and significant incidents. In the surveys that ask, generally half of the respondents say 

they were not distressed. Thus, there is a need in future research to focus more on 

the extent of harm and effectiveness of youth response strategies. 

• There is a significant difference between the less distressing online-only incidents and more distressing known-peer incidents. Teaching students how to avoid 

and effectively respond to online-only or other minor incidents will help make these 

incidents more easily manageable, less distressing, and stop escalation. The continuing incidents between known peers are causing the highest degree of distress. 

Addressing these incidents will be more challenging. Further, these incidents will 

impact schools. They are generally closely intertwined with on-campus bullying and 

are far more likely to lead to retaliation at school. A significant portion of incidents 

appear to involve retaliation, both online and at school. 

• Both the aggressors and targets who are involved in the more significant altercations appear to present significant psychosocial concerns. They report involvement 

in offline aggression, which is more likely to occur where they are physically together. They report disrupted care-giver-child relationships. Therefore, schools will 
63 

be less able to rely on parents for effective supervision, prevention, and response. 

However, there is also emerging evidence of involvement in cyberbullying by young 

people who have not traditionally been perceived as being involved in the bullying 

situations. These are the much more sophisticated, high social-status, youth whose 

aggressive, ‘‘put-down’’ behavior is becoming more evident to responsible adults now 

that they are engaged in these activities online. 

• The vast majority of young people are not reporting these incidents to adults. 

The reasons appear to include: Lack of trust that adults can effectively help them 

resolve these situations. A developmental expectation that they should be able to 

resolve their own disputed—and many times they have. Fear of getting into trouble 

and losing Internet access. It is also important to address the new challenge that 

school administrators are facing, that of ‘‘sexting’’—sending nude images and sexually explicit text messages. There have been three reported studies in this area, 

none of which have been academically reviewed. However, across these three studies, common patterns appear to be emerging. 

• A minority of teens are engaging in sexting activity. Involvement appears to increase with age. Boys and girls appear to be participating in this activity at an 

equivalent rate. 

• A significant amount of this activity is related to personal relationships. This 

includes current relationships and desired relationships. 

• Of significant concern is that many teens, over half in one survey, reported that 

they provided in response to pressure by others to provide these images. There is 

also other survey data that suggests that abusive partners are using these technologies for manipulation and control. 

• An analysis of reported incidents leads to the identification of four basic types 

of incidents: 

• Developmentally normative behavior where there is no intent to cause harm, 

but a mistake may lead to distribution. Most frequently, these are situations in the 

context of personal relationships or exchanges between friends. 

• Situations that constitute harassment by pressuring someone to provide an 

image, distributing the image with intent to cause harm, or sending images that are 

unwelcome. 

• Situations where the youth depicted is engaging in dangerous solicitation activity—seeking sexual ‘‘hook-ups’’ or actually engaging in sexual trafficking. 

• Situations that involve significantly exploitive behavior, including coercion or 

the use of grooming tactics to obtain images and engaging in blackmail upon receipt 

of images. The latter two kinds of situations appear to be the minority. 

Additional areas of youth risk online, especially those related to sexual activities 

and personal relationships are addressed in the two Berkman literature reviews 

identified below. Additional areas of concern that also must be addressed, about 

which there is less research, include youth who are engaging in online communities 

that support or encourage self-harm including self-cutting, anorexia, drug use, and 

other risky behavior, online gangs and hate groups, young people who are engaging 

in or being trafficked for sex online, and addictive access. 

Challenges 

There are significant current challenges in responding to these youth risk online 

situations. 

• There is a significant need for professional development of key safe school personnel, including principals, counselors/psychologists, and school resource officers. 

The education of these professionals is essential to ensure effective outreach to and 

education of parents as well as youth. 

• In the 2010 federal budget, the funds available through the Title IV Safe and 

Drug Free Schools program were cut by 40%. This included elimination of all block 

grant funding for state and local; safe school personnel. Thus, at the point in time 

when it is vitally important for safe school personnel to be expanding their activities 

to address these new challenges, many safe school programs throughout the country 

are vanishing. 

• There is a lack of clarity about when school administrators have the legal authority to respond to off-campus activities of students that are or could impact the 

school environment or interfere with the safety and educational performance of a 

student. Further, there is a lack of clarity about search and seizure standards with 

respect to a review of cell phone records, especially if there is a suspicion that those 

records may reveal nude images. 

Moving Forward 

If there is any way within the context of possible additional stimulus funding to 

the states for use by schools that funds could be directed at preserving the safe 
64 

school personnel, this should have high priority. Schools are losing the very professionals they need to mobilize to address these concerns. 

The following are recommendations for how the Elementary and Secondary Education Act could be amended to more effectively address the concerns of youth risk 

online. • Coordinate youth risk online through interagency cooperation—including Department of Education, Safe Schools and Educational Technology, Office of Juvenile 

Justice and Delinquency Prevention—Juvenile Justice and Internet Crimes, and the 

Department of Health-Department of Mental Health and Center for Disease Control’s Division on Adolescent and School Health. Ensure coordinated interactions 

with Internet and cell phone industry to address ongoing issues related to site and 

services technologies and practices that may negatively or positively impact youth 

safety. • Require that State Education Agencies and Local Education Agencies establish 

a comparative multidisciplinary approach, ensuring the involvement of professionals 

in school administration, school counseling and psychology, educational technology, 

juvenile justice and school resource officers, Internet crimes, and state and community mental health. • Implement a Youth Risk Online Behavior survey that can be delivered as a 

companion to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior survey. This will allow for the better 

understanding of risk and protective factors and the interrelationship between offline and online risk. Given time constraints in administration it is not possible to 

simply add new questions to the YRB. 

• Provide funding to support innovative multidisciplinary programs to address 

youth risk online concerns—and to make use of communication technologies to address the concerns of ‘‘at risk’’ youth. Follow the provisions already present within 

Title IV, Section 4115(a)(3), which allows Local Education Agencies to apply to their 

State Education Agency for a waiver of the requirement to implement programs 

that are scientifically based. The youth risk online prevention and intervention and 

addressing youth risk through online services programs should set forth a rationale 

grounded in effective risk prevention that demonstrates a likelihood of success, with 

strong evaluation and modification built into the process. There also should be a 

way to link these programs through electronic communications—so that the entire 

field can learn from each other and engage in continuous improvement. 

• Include statutory language to address the legal concerns—by making it clear 

that the school programs should address on-campus activities as well as off-campus 

interactions that are brought to the attention of school officials that have caused, 

or there are reasons to predict will cause, a significant interference with the rights 

of students to be secure and receive an education. This standard is in accord with 

the emerging case law. 

RESEARCH RESOURCES

Youth Violence and Electronic Media: Similar Behaviors, Different Venues? Journal 

of Adolescent Health. December 2007 Supplement. http://www.jahonline.org/ 

content/suppl07. 

Internet Safety Technical Task Force. (2009) Enhancing Child Safety and Online 

Technologies: Final Report of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to the 

Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of 

the United States. Appendix C: Literature Review from the Research Advisory 

Board. Harvard University, Berkman Center for Internet & Society. http:// 

cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/ISTTF—Final—Report-APPENDIX—C—TF—Project—Plan.pdf. 

Online Safety and Technology Working Group. (2010) Youth Safety on a Living 

Internet (Collier & Nigam). Education Subcommittee Report (Magid). http:// 

www.ntia.doc.gov/advisory/ onlinesafety/ 

Biegler S. & boyd d (2010) Risky Behaviors and Online Safety: A 2010 Literature 

Review (DRAFT) Harvard University, Berkman Center for Internet & Society. 

http://www.zephoria.org/ files/2010SafetyLitReview.pdf. 

CONCURRENCE

Patricia Agatston, PhD. Cobb County School District Prevention/Intervention Center 

Co-Author of Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age, Cyberbullying: A Prevention Curriculum for Grades 3-5, Cyberbullying: A Prevention Curriculum for 

Grades 6-12 (Hazeldon) Website: http://www.cyberbullyhelp.com Email: 

pagatston@bellsouth.net 

Warren J. Blumenfeld, Ph.D. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State 

University Recent research article: LGBT and Allied Youth Responses to 
65 

Cyberbullying: Policy Implications, International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 

Website: http://www.ci.hs.iastate.edu/profiles/warren—blumenfeld.php and 

http:// www.news.iastate.edu/news/2010/mar/cyberbullying Email: 

wblumen@iastate.edu 

Stan Davis Founding Member of International Bullying Prevention Association Author of Schools Where Everybody Belongs and Empowering Bystanders (Research Press) Website: http://www.stopbullyingnow.com Email: 

stan@stopbullyingnow.com 

Mike Donlin MCD-Consulting. Formerly with Seattle Public Schools Prevention and 

Intervention Services -position eliminated due to budget reductions and loss of 

Title IV funds Co-author of Middle School Cyberbullying Curriculum (http:// 

www.seattleschools.org/area/ prevention/cbms.html) Email: 

mdonlin@hotmail.com 

Elizabeth Englander, Ph.D Professor of Psychology and the founder and Director of 

the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State College 

Delivers anti-violence and anti-bullying programs, resources, and research for 

the state of Massachusetts Website: http://www.bridgew.edu/marc/ Email: 

eenglander@bridgew.edu 

Christopher J. Ferguson, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral 

Sciences, Texas A&M International University Research focus: Examining violent behavior from a multivariate format, examining the combined impact of genetics, family environment, personality, mental health, and media violence. 

Website: http://christopher.ferguson.socialpsychology.org/ Email: 

cferguson@tamiu.edu 

Sameer Hinduja, Ph.D. Co-Director, Cyberbullying Research Center, Associate Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida Atlantic University 

Co-Author of Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to 

Cyberbullying (Sage Publications) Website: http://www.cyberbullying.us Email: 

hinduja@fau.edu 

Robin Kowalski, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Clemson 

University Co-Author of Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age, 

Cyberbullying: A Prevention Curriculum for Grades 3-5, Cyberbullying: A Prevention Curriculum for Grades 6-12 (Hazeldon) 

Website: http://www.cyberbullyhelp.com Email: rkowals@clemson.edu 

Sylvia Martinez President, Generation YES GenYES students help teachers use 

technology in classrooms, supporting effective technology integration schoolwide and providing peer leadership to address issues such as digital citizenship 

and safety Website: http://genyes.com/ Email: sylvia@genyes.com 

Jason Ohler, Ph.D Professor Emeritus, Educational Technology, University of Alaska Professor, Media Psychology, Fielding Graduate University Author, Digital 

Community, Digital Citizen, Taming the Beast- Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle 

Website: jasonOhler.com/dcEmail: jasonohler@gmail.com 

Justin W. Patchin, Ph.D. Co-Director, Cyberbullying Research Center, Associate 

Professor of Criminal Justice, Department of Political Science, University of 

Wisconsin-Eau Claire Co-Author of Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing 

and Responding to Cyberbullying (Sage Publications) Website: http:// 

www.cyberbullying.us Email: patchinj@uwec.edu 

Russell A. Sabella, Ph.D. Counseling Program, College of Education, Florida Gulf 

Coast University Former President, American School Counselors Association 

Website: http://ww.guardingkids.com Email: rsabella@fgcu.edu 

Shaheen Shariff, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Integrated Studies in 

Education/ Principal Investigator, International Project on Cyber-bullying, Faculty of Education, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. Canada Author of: Confronting Cyber-bullying: What schools need to know to control misconduct and 

avoid legal consequences (Cambridge University Press) and Cyber-Bullying: 

Issues and Solutions for the School, the Classroom and the Home (Routledge) 

Website: http://cyberbullying.brinkster.net/ Email: shaheen.shariff@mcgill.ca 

Alison Trachtman Hill, MPA PhD candidate in Sociology at The Graduate Center, 

City University of New York (CUNY), studying the ways in which culture and 

gender socialization impact girls’ identities and relationships in online communities. Critical Issues for Girls Website: http://www.ci4g.com Email: 

hill@ci4g.com 

Jenny L. Walker, Ph.D. President, Cyberbullying Consulting, Ltd. Speaker, consultant and expert on cyberbullying and positive uses of technology among youth 

Website: http://www.cyberbullyingnews.com/ Email: jenny.walker@cox.net 
66 

[Whereupon, at 11:53 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

Æ