Cyberbullying is “the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others” (Belsey, in Butler et al, 2009, p. 1).
According to a Bill recently presented to the Queensland government, roughly one in ten Australian schoolchildren has been the victim of cyberbullying (Flegg, 2009). Cyberbullying has become a highly visible and worrying feature of the digital age, and one that receives a great deal of attention in the media, with high-profile cases making national news. A spate of cyberbullying-related suicides in recent years has heightened the profile of this worrying trend (Flegg, 2009, p. 1). While face-to-face bullying was once thought of and tolerated as a “normal part of childhood” (Campbell, 2005, p. 68), the rise of cyberbullying has invoked a greater public interest in this malignant use of information and communication technologies.
As often happens with the advent and adoption of new technologies, the Australian law system is struggling to keep pace with the ever-changing uses of information and communication technologies such as the internet, instant messaging, SMS, social networking sites and related technologies. At present Australia does not have any specifically anti-cyberbullying legislation, and only New South Wales has any legislation addressing face-to-face bullying. For victims who seek redress after a cyberbullying incident, cyberbullies must be prosecuted according to traditional legislation against crimes such as assault, stalking, threats, extortion, harassment and so on (Butler et al, p. 89). The Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995 also includes offences relating to the misuse of telecommunications, which may apply to cyberbullying. However, despite the likelihood of some of the above offences applying to individual cases of cyberbullying, no cyberbullying cases have yet made it to Australian courts, so we have no precedents on which to base a detailed discussion of how it will be handled by Australian law.
What is more worrying to the public than the illegality of cyberbullying, is the psychological damage it can inflict on its victim. Similarly to face-to-face bullying, cyberbullying can cause serious emotional distress to the bullied child, and by its very nature can be relentless. Whereas a child suffering from face-to-face bullying can physically escape their bully in their own home, the use of information and communication technologies to bully mean that the impact can be felt twenty-four hours a day (Butler et al, 2009, p. 2). There is literally no escaping a cyberbully. In addition to this, the Australian Institute of Criminology asserts that many victims appear to be reluctant to report cyberbullying to adults such as parents or teachers (AIC, 2010). This may be partly due to Australia’s “don’t dob” culture and partly due, in the school environment, to the victim’s perceived risk of being punished for using banned equipment such as mobile phones, and internet services such as YouTube, Facebook or MySpace.
The public and enduring nature of content shared on the internet is another reason why cyberbullying is being treated as more serious than traditional face-to-face-bullying. The ability to share bullying content with a very large audience brings with it a greater imbalance of power between bully and victim, and the range of information and communication technologies that a cyberbully may use makes it more difficult for authority figures such as teachers to compel the bully to stop. The large and public audience can exacerbate the effects of the cyberbullying, where the original bully is aided by bystanders who, although not the instigator, exacerbate the humiliation of the victim by viewing, forwarding, commenting on or replying to, and otherwise taking part in the use of ICTs in a manner which is insulting or hurtful to the victim. As an example of the way in which bystanders deepen the impact of cyberbullying, in a 2009 incident in Sydney, a young female victim of cyberbullying was approached by male strangers in Bondi Junction after slanderous statements about her sexual proclivities was posted on a public MySpace profile page (ABC News, 2009). Incidents such as this highlight the potential for ‘real-life’ danger to cyberbullying victims.
The public concern around cyberbullying stems from a general lack of knowledge about information and communication technologies, and an attendant reservation about allowing young people and children to access such technologies without sufficient supervision. While blocking websites and installing internet-censoring products such as Net Nanny can go some way to curtailing inappropriate use of the internet by children, cyberbullies, like face-to-face bullies, will find ways of circumventing technological blocks. The most effective weapon against cyberbullying, just like face-to-face bullying, is likely to still be sufficient adult supervision and open lines of communication with teenagers and children about ICTs, their use of them, and who to go to for help.
Cyber-bullying experts recommend that schools address cyberbullying with a similar strategy as has been applied to other social problems such as drink-driving, unsafe sexual practices and illegal drug use. This strategy involves a whole-school approach which includes the students, their parents, teachers and school administrators, as well as outside authorities such as the police. The strategy aims at crafting a social norm which looks down on cyberbullying and educates young people about the support networks available to them, to encourage victims to speak out (Bazelon, 2010). Such cyberbullying prevention programs should also seek to demystify ICTs and empower parents and teachers to speak with their children and monitor their online activities.
Cyberbullying has become a contentious contemporary issue, but if it is conceptualized as a social ill similar to other youth issues such as drug use, drink-driving or unsafe sexual practices, it can be addressed with similar community health education strategies. These include educating parents about the risks of information and communication technologies, creating a shared culture of disapproval of cruel online behaviours, opening up the lines of communication between young people and adult support networks, and specifically legislating against cyberbullying. With a concerted and shared approach, the prevalence of cyberbullying can be curtailed and ICTs can be harnessed in educational environments for their benefits, rather than mistrusted and restricted for their attendant risks.
Sources:
Bazelon, E., (February 8, 2010) “Could Anyone Have Saved Phoebe Prince?” Slate.com, Washington Post. Accessed at http://www.slate.com/id/2244057/pagenum/all
Butler, D., Kift, S., & Campbell, M. (2009) "Cyber Bullying In Schools and the Law:
Is There an Effective Means of Addressing the Power Imbalance?" eLaw Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, 16(1). Accessed at https://elaw.murdoch.edu.au/index.php/elawmurdoch/article/view/24/8
"Covert and Cyber Bullying: Research in Practice No. 9" (2010) Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra. Accessed at http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rip/1-10/09.aspx
Lifeline Australia, http://www.lifeline.org.au/find_help/cyber_bullying
David Mark, "Elite school's horrific cyber-bullying case", May 8, 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/07/2563942.htm
Reach Out Teachers Network, http://teachers.reachoutpro.com.au/using-technology/supporting-young-people-to-be-safe-online/cyber-bullying.aspx
Showing posts with label cyberbullying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cyberbullying. Show all posts
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Research Journal 10: Cyberbullying and the Law
I am currently reading "Cyber Bullying In Schools and the Law: Is There an Effective Means of Addressing the Power Imbalance?" . This very interesting article explores the criminality of cyberbullying and the potential for cyberbullies to be prosecuted under Australian criminal law. As I have no formal training in law some of the finer definitions are unfamiliar to me, however in general it is an easy to read document.
Butler et al explore the possibility of cyberbullies being prosecuted in the criminal law system. At present only New South Wales has an anti- school bullying legislation, which applies only to bullying on the school grounds and cannot be extended to cyberbullying. However, if cyberbullies were prosecuted under an existing offence such as assault, stalking, threats, extortion, harrassment and so on (Butler et al, p. 89), victims could have some hope of legal redress.
Another means of redress may be via the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995, Section 474.17, which makes it an offence to use telecommunication services to menace, harass or cause offence (punishable by 3 years) (Butler et al, p. 91). Butler et al include the internet in the definition of telecommunication services.
Since there is currently no specific legislation against cyberbullying, victims have to rely on laws such as discussed above for redress against their bullies. The good news is that there appear to be a number of ways in which cyberbullies could be prosecuted - the test will be a precedent in the courts, which has, as yet, not occured in Australia. The bad news is that these remedies are still only available for children who choose to report their victimisation to authorities - and studies such as that by the Australian Institute of Criminology show that children are reluctant to report cyberbullying, meaning that the law is unable to assist children that do not utilise it.
Source:
Butler, D., Kift, S., & Campbell, M. (2009) "Cyber Bullying In Schools and the Law:
Is There an Effective Means of Addressing the Power Imbalance?" eLaw Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, 16(1). Accessed at https://elaw.murdoch.edu.au/index.php/elawmurdoch/article/view/24/8
"Covert and Cyber Bullying: Research in Practice No. 9" (2010) Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra. Accessed at http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rip/1-10/09.aspx
Butler et al explore the possibility of cyberbullies being prosecuted in the criminal law system. At present only New South Wales has an anti- school bullying legislation, which applies only to bullying on the school grounds and cannot be extended to cyberbullying. However, if cyberbullies were prosecuted under an existing offence such as assault, stalking, threats, extortion, harrassment and so on (Butler et al, p. 89), victims could have some hope of legal redress.
Another means of redress may be via the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995, Section 474.17, which makes it an offence to use telecommunication services to menace, harass or cause offence (punishable by 3 years) (Butler et al, p. 91). Butler et al include the internet in the definition of telecommunication services.
Since there is currently no specific legislation against cyberbullying, victims have to rely on laws such as discussed above for redress against their bullies. The good news is that there appear to be a number of ways in which cyberbullies could be prosecuted - the test will be a precedent in the courts, which has, as yet, not occured in Australia. The bad news is that these remedies are still only available for children who choose to report their victimisation to authorities - and studies such as that by the Australian Institute of Criminology show that children are reluctant to report cyberbullying, meaning that the law is unable to assist children that do not utilise it.
Source:
Butler, D., Kift, S., & Campbell, M. (2009) "Cyber Bullying In Schools and the Law:
Is There an Effective Means of Addressing the Power Imbalance?" eLaw Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, 16(1). Accessed at https://elaw.murdoch.edu.au/index.php/elawmurdoch/article/view/24/8
"Covert and Cyber Bullying: Research in Practice No. 9" (2010) Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra. Accessed at http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rip/1-10/09.aspx
Friday, March 26, 2010
Research Journal 9: The Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study
The first thing I have to say about cyberbullying, and bullying in general, is that I object to the tendency to define bullying as necessarily a repeated act. I believe a single, isolated nasty or mean act, whether in person or via ICTs, can be just as harmful to a bullying victim as repeat offences; and that one-off events should not be written off, as the "Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study" does, as not being an instance of bullying.
Taking the case of the Sydney private school girls that I mentioned in a previous post, the publication of a MySpace page dedicated to slandering girls based on their alleged sexual activities, alcohol and drug-related behaviours may have been, for some of the victims, a one-off incident. However I would argue that for some of the victims of that particular incident, being slandered on the internet, even if it was only once, would be just as upsetting as sustained 'real world' attacks could be. Every time a school friend or stranger mentioned that page, those girls would be embarrassed, ashamed, upset. That the page was only created once does not mean that its impact on those girls was felt only once.
My own experience of cyberbullying, which I would prefer not to go into in depth, was a sustained group email about me, which was sent to me by one of the perpetrators. As a recipient in the "Send to all" list, I saw, and was very upset by, what was said about me. In total there would have been between seventy and a hundred emails sent amongst the group. The whole episode lasted about 24 hours and was never repeated. But its effect was nonetheless deeply upsetting and embarrassing. However by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations' definition of cyber bullying, I was not a victim.
Taking the case of the Sydney private school girls that I mentioned in a previous post, the publication of a MySpace page dedicated to slandering girls based on their alleged sexual activities, alcohol and drug-related behaviours may have been, for some of the victims, a one-off incident. However I would argue that for some of the victims of that particular incident, being slandered on the internet, even if it was only once, would be just as upsetting as sustained 'real world' attacks could be. Every time a school friend or stranger mentioned that page, those girls would be embarrassed, ashamed, upset. That the page was only created once does not mean that its impact on those girls was felt only once.
My own experience of cyberbullying, which I would prefer not to go into in depth, was a sustained group email about me, which was sent to me by one of the perpetrators. As a recipient in the "Send to all" list, I saw, and was very upset by, what was said about me. In total there would have been between seventy and a hundred emails sent amongst the group. The whole episode lasted about 24 hours and was never repeated. But its effect was nonetheless deeply upsetting and embarrassing. However by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations' definition of cyber bullying, I was not a victim.
Research Journal 8: "Reach Out" on Cyberbullying
Youth organisation "Reach Out" draws some distinctions between traditional bullying and cyberbullying, one of which in particular I feel cuts to the core of why cyberbullying is being treated as so much more serious than traditional bullying. That distinction is the "24/7" nature of cyberbullying. Where a child is bullied in the traditional, schoolyard sense, once they go home they can effectively escape the torment and have a reprieve. The problem with the highly communicative, tech-savvy world that kids operate in nowadays however, is that even at home they are not safe from cyberbullying. Abusive SMS messages, Facebook and MySpace comments, emails, instant messages and so on can be sent and received at any time, day or night.
As well as the round-the-clock nature of cyberbullying, its publicity is another very harmful aspect. Having a large audience that are easily accessible through mailing groups, discussion boards, Facebook and MySpace friend lists, group email and so on means that a bully can share their antagonism with a wide group. A recent cyberbullying incident at a Sydney private school (see article) highlights the extremely public nature of this form of abuse. The long-term effects of defamatory cyberbullying can be far more damaging than traditional schoolyard bullying. As in the case of the above article, some of the female victims were actually approached by strangers based on defamatory information available about them online. This puts these girls at risk in the 'real world' as well as in the online world. Not to mention if any of this information resurfaces in their futures.
Sources:
Reach Out Teachers Network, http://teachers.reachoutpro.com.au/using-technology/supporting-young-people-to-be-safe-online/cyber-bullying.aspx
David Mark, "Elite school's horrific cyber-bullying case", May 8, 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/07/2563942.htm
As well as the round-the-clock nature of cyberbullying, its publicity is another very harmful aspect. Having a large audience that are easily accessible through mailing groups, discussion boards, Facebook and MySpace friend lists, group email and so on means that a bully can share their antagonism with a wide group. A recent cyberbullying incident at a Sydney private school (see article) highlights the extremely public nature of this form of abuse. The long-term effects of defamatory cyberbullying can be far more damaging than traditional schoolyard bullying. As in the case of the above article, some of the female victims were actually approached by strangers based on defamatory information available about them online. This puts these girls at risk in the 'real world' as well as in the online world. Not to mention if any of this information resurfaces in their futures.
Sources:
Reach Out Teachers Network, http://teachers.reachoutpro.com.au/using-technology/supporting-young-people-to-be-safe-online/cyber-bullying.aspx
David Mark, "Elite school's horrific cyber-bullying case", May 8, 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/07/2563942.htm
Research Journal 7: The Australian Institute of Criminology on Cyberbullying
The Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study (2009) has found that 10% of Year 4 to Year 9 students had been cyber bullied in the term prior to the study being conducted. However the incidence of cyberbullying appears to be flying "under the radar", as its very nature makes it difficult for parents and teachers to monitor it, and students report a reluctance to involve adults in their cyberbullying conflicts.
Source: The Australian Institute of Criminology, "Covert and cyber bullying", Research in Practice no. 9, February 2010. http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rip/1-10/09.aspx
Source: The Australian Institute of Criminology, "Covert and cyber bullying", Research in Practice no. 9, February 2010. http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rip/1-10/09.aspx
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Research Journal 7: Cyberbullying
Lifeline Australia defines cyber bullying as "when someone uses electronic communication tools (such as a mobile phone or computer) to bully and intimidate others. This may include slandering, blackmailing, spreading rumours, excluding from interactions, harassing, threatening or insulting someone."
Lifeline's examples include actions such as spreading rumours online, sending threatening emails, text messages or comments, sharing a person's confidential communications with others, breaking into someone's email or social networking accounts to send messages to others while posing as the victim, changing identity and sending messages which tease, humiliate, threaten, or harrass the victim, and creating web pages to make fun of the victim.
Bullying, and cyberbullying, are not restricted only to children. I have personally been the victim of cyberbullying as an adult. One of the hallmarks of cyberbullying, I think, is that the anonymity of interacting in cyberspace emboldens the bully, who can hide behind a false name or profile, and with less risk of being caught and punished, is more willing to say and do things that they might not have done in 'real life'.
Even though cyberbullying can affect adults as well, for the purposes of this assignment I will be concentrating on cyberbullying for under-18s.
Source:
Lifeline Australia, http://www.lifeline.org.au/find_help/cyber_bullying
Lifeline's examples include actions such as spreading rumours online, sending threatening emails, text messages or comments, sharing a person's confidential communications with others, breaking into someone's email or social networking accounts to send messages to others while posing as the victim, changing identity and sending messages which tease, humiliate, threaten, or harrass the victim, and creating web pages to make fun of the victim.
Bullying, and cyberbullying, are not restricted only to children. I have personally been the victim of cyberbullying as an adult. One of the hallmarks of cyberbullying, I think, is that the anonymity of interacting in cyberspace emboldens the bully, who can hide behind a false name or profile, and with less risk of being caught and punished, is more willing to say and do things that they might not have done in 'real life'.
Even though cyberbullying can affect adults as well, for the purposes of this assignment I will be concentrating on cyberbullying for under-18s.
Source:
Lifeline Australia, http://www.lifeline.org.au/find_help/cyber_bullying
Research Journal 6: Cyberbullying and Cybersafety
I've come across a Bill presented to the Queensland Parliament regarding the institution of anti-cyberbullying legislation. The Shadow Minister for Education and Training, Dr. Bruce Flegg, says that one in 10 schoolchildren are the victims of cyberbullying (Flegg, http://moggill.net/images/stories/cyber.pdf).
Dr. Flegg appears to be concentrating on the practice of schoolyard incidents such as fights or "bashings" being filmed and disseminated via the internet. The process of sharing the video evidence of such an event perpetuates the torment for the bullied child, so that the event lives on, not only in their memory but in a shared space in which their bully, the bully's friends, and the wider school community, can relive the incident again and again.
Part of Dr. Flegg's proposed solution to the problem of cyberbullying is the legalised, permanent confiscation of the equipment that a bully has used to cyberbully, such as the mobile phone that the footage has been captured on. I think Dr. Flegg has, at least partially, missed the point of cyberbullying. Part of the danger of cyberbullying is its ephemeral nature, the way in which the information is disseminated into a broader sphere, cyberspace. Confiscating a single piece of equipment will not remedy this fact for the bullied child. Certainly the confiscation acts as punishment for the bully; however the offensive material is still accessible online.
Dr. Flegg appears to be concentrating on the practice of schoolyard incidents such as fights or "bashings" being filmed and disseminated via the internet. The process of sharing the video evidence of such an event perpetuates the torment for the bullied child, so that the event lives on, not only in their memory but in a shared space in which their bully, the bully's friends, and the wider school community, can relive the incident again and again.
Part of Dr. Flegg's proposed solution to the problem of cyberbullying is the legalised, permanent confiscation of the equipment that a bully has used to cyberbully, such as the mobile phone that the footage has been captured on. I think Dr. Flegg has, at least partially, missed the point of cyberbullying. Part of the danger of cyberbullying is its ephemeral nature, the way in which the information is disseminated into a broader sphere, cyberspace. Confiscating a single piece of equipment will not remedy this fact for the bullied child. Certainly the confiscation acts as punishment for the bully; however the offensive material is still accessible online.
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