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Cyber-Bullying is a form of "social" or
"indirect" bullying that uses modern information and communications
technology to harass, tease, intimidate, threaten, coerce, or slander
one or more individuals. Most cyber-bullying occurs on the
Internet, in email messages, instant messages, chat rooms, and websites.
However, not all cyber-bullying is sent and received from computer
users. Cyber-bullies also use cell phones to text-message
threatening or embarrassing information. Cell phones with cameras
pose a particularly difficult threat. Cyber-bullies sometimes
surreptitiously take compromising photographs of others and send them to
their friends, or even post them on the Internet. |
| According to
i-SAFE.org survey results, cyber-bullying is more common than most
parents and educators probably realize:
· 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them
online
· 53% of kids admit having said something mean or
hurtful things to another online
· 42% of kids have been bullied while online
A
more recent poll
by Opinion Research
Corporation on behalf of
FightCrime.org
found that:
• One-third of all teens (12-17) and one-sixth
of children ages 6-11 have had mean, threatening or embarrassing things
said about them online.
• 10 percent of the teens and four percent of the younger children were
threatened online with physical harm.
• 16 percent of the teens and preteens who were victims told no one
about it. About half of children ages 6-11 told their parents. Only 30
percent of older kids told their parents.
• Preteens were as likely to receive harmful messages at school (45
percent) as at home (44 percent). Older children received 30 percent of
harmful messages at school and 70 percent at home.
• 17 percent of preteens and seven percent of teens said they were
worried about bullying as they start a new school year.
Unfortunately, most parents are not aware of the dangers presented by
the Internet and most would be surprised at how much time their children
spend online. We address these issues in our What Can Parents
Do? page.
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A REAL-LIFE TRAGEDY
Life for us will never be the same as
it was before Oct. 7, 2003. There are no words to describe the shock and
horror of finding your 13-year-old son dead from suicide just as another
typical school day was suppose to begin.
- John Halligan, father of Ryan
Patrick Halligan, a victim of cyber-bullying.
Quoted from a
website dedicated to the
memory of Ryan and prevention of cyber-bullying. |
