Cyberbullying is intentional, repeated, harm or aggression that is transmitted through electronic means such as email, social media, or mobile phones (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015). As technology has become more prevalent in our society, a relatively small portion of the population has begun to use it to harm others. Students have always had to deal with bullies at school, on the bus, on the way home, and other places. Cyberbullying has brought a new and insidious element to bullying because there is no specific place where the bully strikes, therefor, no place to hide from them.
Some may argue that someone who is the victim of cyberbullying can get away from it by staying off the internet. However, if you have spent any time with adolescents lately, you know that their phone represents connection to them and taking this connection away can lead to other problems in their social lives. Also, just because they don’t see the taunting doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening. Classmates are reading/ seeing the posts and may bring it up at school and/ or ostracize the victim because of it. While adults have the benefit of knowing that it will all pass, to most students, their social groups define them and give them a feeling of safety and security. Taking this away can have dramatic effects on them emotionally; sometimes this leads to depression and suicide attempts.
Students who participate in cyberbullying are often boosted by a sense of anonymity online. They can create fake accounts, or ones that have no obvious identifying markers. This gives some students the idea that they can get away with things that they wouldn’t dare do or say in person. The effects of the activity can impact the bully, the victim and many bystanders who may or may not know either of these people. Seeing someone else become a victim can convince some students to behave in ways that they perceive to be less likely to get picked on. It can also give them the idea that cyberbullying is socially acceptable and encourage them to become a bully.
Using a homeroom or morning meeting time to address the issue would be the most impactful on our campus. Our school currently uses a program from Common Sense Education to teach about digital citizenship. Asking students to create some sort of presentation about what they have learned is something we have planned for next semester. Students will have a choice on how they present. They can create a movie, video, infographic, script, artwork, essay, short story, poem, or create their own idea. These will be presented and displayed in our library. Having open conversations and making it known that a school staff is aware of things and it will not be tolerated will help students to feel more comfortable in coming forward when they see cyberbullying happening. It will also help to show them how they can respond to cyberbullying as bystanders in ways that will help the victim.
Knowledge and understanding is key to preventing cyberbullying and promoting kindness. Programs that involve personal connections and first person stories get students' attention. I read a few of the stories from our text to some of my 8th grade classes and asked them for their input. Some of them responded kindly and others thought the kids should just ignore it or put their phones away. I asked them if they felt it was fair to the victim to have to give things up because someone else couldn't control themselves online. They hadn't thought about that. I teach theatre and this class is the perfect forum for students to feel that they can safely explore their feelings and ideas about issues like these. Students can read and perform a play or monologue and understand things from someone else's point of view. They can step into the role of the victim and understand their feelings or into the role of the bully and find out why they are lashing out in this way. Then they come away from the experience with a better understanding of the issue and the different points of view. If I had unlimited resources, I would facilitate students researching and writing a play about the impact the issue has and perform it for our school. Taking it to a bigger scale, I would create lesson plans for others to do the same thing and perhaps even travel with the show to other schools.
References
Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2015). Bullying beyond the schoolyard preventing and responding to cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
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