Facts about Cyber Bullying

Facts about Cyber Bullying

Cyberbullying is the willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text.  It can take place in chat rooms, on social networking websites, through cell phone text messaging, email, and other web-based environments.

#1. Common cyberbullying behaviors include name-calling, spreading of gossip or sensitive information, threats, teasing, sexual harassment, being ignored or disrespected, and being deceived by a bully who is misrepresenting themselves .

#2. Surveys have estimated that between 9% and 34% of kids have experienced cyberbullying in some way over the course of a year, with about 16% targeted monthly or more often.

#3. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention now consider cyberbullying an emerging adolescent health concern.

#4. While traditional bullying appears to peak in middle school and drop off as kids reach high school, cyberbullying tends to slightly increase among kids in high school .

#5. “One avenue to reduce cyberbullying may be to ask youth to have clear statements on their blogs that they will not tolerate negative and rude comments. Also, it may be helpful to suggest that teens express written disapproval if they encounter someone posting offensive or malicious comments or pictures in a Blog”

#6. Youth who interact with strangers online are over 2 times more likely to be sexually solicited and 2.5 times more likely to be cyberbullied.

#7. Cyberbullying happens among youth as young as second grade.

#8. The Department of Justice launched the Delete Cyberbullying public service campaign on June 4, 2008 to address the widespread effects of online bullying.

#9. Flaming - what might start off as a fight between two people then spreads, like flames, to include a number of other people.

#10. Harassment - tormenting someone with hateful and hurtful text messages, emails, posts and IMs that offend, humiliate or intimidate them.

#11. Denigration - putting someone down or ruining their reputation; making others think less of them.

#12. Impersonation - by you pretending to be another person online you could make someone tell you things they wouldn’t normally talk to you about. Lying hurts.

#13. Outing and Trickery - tricking others into believing that you are someone else, and then revealing that someone else is a homosexual is cyber-bullying. This might be done through a fake website, profile, or by editing someone’s profile.

#14. Exclusion - not letting someone participate in an online group, or excluding them from other activities because they haven’t been online.

#15. Cyber-stalking - following someone through cyberspace. Moving with them to different sites and applications; posting where they post.

#16. Things that happen on the Internet, or on your mobile phone, have real-world consequences. Some of the effects of cyber-bullying are:

• anger.
• embarrassment.
• fear.
• poor performance at school.
• loss of confidence and self esteem.
• revenge cyber-bullying.
• self-harm, even suicide.

#17. Cyber-bullying hurts people. It can ruin lives.

• Don’t start it! Cyber-bullying is never acceptable. Think before you post something mean, or send someone a hurtful message.
• Don’t be a part of it! As a bystander, you are part of  the problem. If someone tries to involve you in cyber-bullying, say NO.
• Don’t let it get out of control! You need to tell someone if you are being cyber-bullied so they can help you to make it stop.

#18. You can stay in control by 

• learning how to block communications from cyber-bullies
• finding out your school’s policy in relation to cyber-bullying
• researching what policies your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and any online applications you are using have on cyber-bullying
• telling someone – you should talk to a parent, teacher, or trusted friend.