HOW CYBERBULLYING AFFECTS THE STUDENT?

INTRODUCTION
According to Belsey (2004) "cyberbullying involves the use of information and

communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an

individual or group that is intended to harm others" (Belsey, 2004). In 2006, the National

Crime Prevention Council worked with Harris Interactive Inc., to create a study on

cyberbullying. The study found that 43% of the 824 middle school and high school-aged

students surveyed in the United States had been cyberbullied in the past year (cited in

Moessner, 2007).

The Pew Internet and American Life Project on cyberbullying conducted a similar

study in 2006 which found that one out of three teens have experienced online

harassment (cited in Lenhart, 2007). Pew also found that the most prevalent form of

cyberbullying was making private information public; which included e-mails, text

messages, and pictures (cited in Lenhart, 2007). The findings ofthe Pew research also

indicated that girls are more likely to be part of cyberbullying than boys. Older girls,

between the ages of 15 and 17, are the most likely to be involved in some form of

cyberbullying, with 41 % of those surveyed indicating that they have been involved in

some type of cyberbuUying (cited in Lenhart, 2007).

Cyberbullying is different from traditional bullying due to the anonymity that the
Internet can provide. Cyberbullies do not have to own their actions due to the anonymity

and cyberbullying is often outside of the legal reach of schools and school boards since

it often happens outside of the school (Belsey, 2004). According to Willard (2006), there

are different forms of cyberbullying. These forms include flaming, harassment,

denigration, impersonation, outing, trickery, exclusion, cyberstalking, and cyberthreats.

As previously mentioned cyberbullies often believe they are anonymous to the

victim and therefore tend to say more hurtful things to the victims than they would if they

were faceto-face (Juvonen & Gross, 2008). However, Juvonen and Gross (2008), found

that 73% of the respondents to their study were "pretty sure" or "totally sure" of the identity

of the cyberbully.

Cyberbullying is more likely than other forms of bullying to go unreported to

parents and administrators. This is due to victims feeling they needed to learn to deal with

it themselves and also being afraid that if they tell their parents, their internet privileges

will be reduced or taken away. It has been found that 90% of respondents in the Juvonen

and Gross study (2008) reported not telling adults about cyberbullying incidents due to

these reasons. Victims of cyberbullying may experience stress, low self-esteem, and

depression. It has been found that cyberbullying can also have extreme repercussions

such as suicide and violence. Marr and Field (2001) referred to suicide brought on by

bullying as "bullycide" (Marr & Field, 2001, p. 1).

 A particular victim of cyberbullying that lead to "bullycide" is Megan Meier.

Megan was a I3-year-old female from Missouri who was cyberbullied to the point that

she hung herself in her closet in October of 2006 (Pokin, 2007). Megan thought that she

was talking with a 16-year-old boy named Josh on MySpace. During the six weeks they

were talking, Megan's mom kept a close eye on the conversations. On October 15th,

2006, Megan received a message on MySpace from Josh which said, "I don't know if!

want to be friends with you anymore because I've heard that you are not very nice to

your friends." The next day, students were posting bulletins about Megan and Josh had

sent her another message which read, "Everybody in O'Fallon knows how you are. You

are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world

would be a better place without you." That day, Megan's parents found her hanging in

her closet and rushed her to the hospital, where she died the following day (Pokin, 2007).

Although Megan's parents did know about Josh and what he had been saying to

her, there was no way of knowing that these messages would lead to her suicide. It was

found that Lori Drew, the mother of one of Megan's former friends, had created the fake

MySpace account with her daughter. Drew was convicted of three misdemeanor charges

of computer fraud for her involvement in creating the phony account which tricked

Megan, who later committed suicide. This conviction was the country's first cyberbullying

verdict which was ruled on November 26th, 2008 (Steinhauer, 2008).

On July 2nd, 2009, federal judge George H. Wu threw out the conviction. Judge Wu

tentatively acquitted Drew of the previously mentioned misdemeanor charges, stating that

the federal statute under which Drew was convicted is too "vague" when applied in this

particular case. Further stating that if he were to allow Drew's conviction to stand, "one

could literally prosecute anyone who violates a terms of service agreement" in any way

(Cathcart, 2009).

This study examines ways in which schools can prevent cyberbullying and, when

necessary, intervene when cyberbullying does occur. In finding a possible solution to

cyberbu11ying, victims will feel safer, not only in their homes, but at school as well.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The research study will be beneficial to the following:

Students. For them to be able to know how to deal Cyberbullies and how to come

up about the issue of cyberbullying.

Teachers. To be able to guide their students and teach them how cyberbullying

affects their life as a student.

Administration and Faculty. This will provide them information to promote,

enhance understanding and support to programs concerning this issue.

Future Researcher. This research study will be beneficial for those who will try to

work on the same topic.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE DEPENDENT VARIABLE

CYBERBULLYING STUDENT

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The purpose of this comprehensive literature review is to further understand

cyberbullying which continues to occur more frequently as technology becomes more

readily accessible by the masses, especially students; and to explore ways of preventing

cyberbullying before it happens, and intervening after it has occurred. The study was

conducted in 2009.

This study addressed three research questions:

1. What is cyberbullying?

2. What is the negative effect of cyberbullying?

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter includes a discussion of the prevalence and seriousness of

cyberbullying, followed by the different forms of cyberbullying. In addition, the chapter will

include the differences between males and females when it comes to cyberbullying and

a review of the Dawn-Marie Wesley case of bullycide. The chapter will conclude with

recommended prevention and intervention techniques for cyberbullying.

 RELATED LITERATURE

Cyberbullying can be briefly defined as “sending or posting harmful or cruel text

or images using the Internet or other digital communication devices” (Willard, 2004b, p.

1). This section starts with a definition of the term and an exploration of various forms of

cyberbullying. Then, findings from some empirical studies are discussed to provide

background information for this study.

Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies,

such as e-mail, cell phone and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory

personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support

deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to

harm others (Belsey, 2004). According to Willard (2004a), cyberbullying can take

different forms, with the main forms ranging from flaming, to harassment, to

cyberstalking.

RELATED STUDIES

LOCAL

According to Nicole M. Aune (2009), Findings indicate that cyberbullying is

becoming more prevalent as students spend an increasing amount of time using

technology that keeps them connected to people at all hours of the day. There are many

different ways in which cyberbullies reach their victims, including instant messaging

over the Internet, social networking web sites, text messaging and phone calls to cell
phones. There are different forms of cyberbullying including, but not limited to,

harassment, impersonation, and cyberstalking. It has been found that there are

differences between not only the prevalence of cyberbullying between males and

females but also the ways in which males and females cyberbully. Like bullying,

cyberbullying is a serious problem which can cause the victim to feel inadequate and

overly self-conscious, along with the possibility of committing suicide due to being

cyberbullied. Two such cases are included in this paper. There are numerous ways in

which schools and parents can prevent cyberbullying and ways in which they can

intervene if it has occurred.

FOREIGN

According to Andrew V. Beale & Kimberly R. Hall (2010), Technology has

transformed the lives of adolescents, including the ways they bully one another.

Variously referred to as electronic bullying, online bullying, or cyberbullying, this new

method of bullying involves the use of e-mail, instant messaging, Web sites, voting

booths, and chat or bash rooms to deliberately pick on and torment others. To combat

cyberbullying, educators need to better understand the nature of it and be aware of

actions that they can undertake to prevent cyberbullying in the schools.

RESEARCH DESIGN

In this study, quantitative analysis of the student questionnaires was used to examine

students' behaviors and beliefs about cyberbullying. This study was a preliminary

analysis of the data, and only descriptive statistics were used.

RESPONDENT/SAMPLE

A random selection of individual students was preferred, to ensure complete

anonymity and protect students from any negative consequences, a random selection of

classes rather than individual students was used. The type of sampling that will be used

is systematic random sampling in which sample members from a larger population are

selected.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

The study will use the survey questionnaire method to collect the data that

contains series of questions aimed to answer the research questions that the

respondents should independently answer.

DATA GATHERING PROCEDURE

Students were informed that the purpose of the research was to study their

experiences of and beliefs about cyberbullying. Letters and surveys were sent to the

students' homes. In the parent letter, it was stated that if parents allowed a student to

participate, the student would put the completed questionnaire in the envelope provided

(without names) and return it. If parents were not interested, students would simply

return the envelopes with the blank questionnaires.

Results

The first research question directed our attention to what happened after students

were cyberbullied. This was examined through the following four perspectives: reaction,

behavior, consequence of informing others, and helper.

 What were students' reactions to cyberbullying? The results showed that the

students were almost evenly divided into four groups: one group thought it was

no big deal and one group just lived with it. The third group felt upset or really

upset, and the fourth group had no opinion.

 What did students do after they were cyberbullied? Apparently, only a few tried to

take revenge; the majority of students chose not to inform anyone. Two out of

five did nothing, and less than a quarter told the cyberbully to stop. Two out of

five victims chose to get away (e.g., log off) from the cyberbully. Only a small

proportion (6%) tried to take revenge on the cyberbully or bully others. One tenth

of them informed adults, and about one in five told friends.

 What happened after the students told someone about the incidents? The

students' responses showed that only 15% said the situation got better, but about

6% said it got even worse. Two in five students never told anyone, but nothing

had changed for another 40% of the students. Who tried to help if students were

cyberbullied? Nearly 15% said parents and almost 10% said siblings. Only 2.1%

students reported that school adults (e.g., teachers, school administrators) tried

to help. Over 37% said that their friends tried to help, but nearly half said that

nobody tried to help.

 The second research question asked about the behaviors of bystanders. The

results demonstrated that over 43% reported they had never witnessed

cyberbullying, about 28% reported they saw cyberbullying once or twice, close to

15% reported seeing cyberbullying a few times, and another 15% reported they

observed such behavior many times or almost every day.

  When students witnessed cyberbullying, about one in seven chose to join in and

one in eight actually cheered the cyberbully on. The vast majority, over 70%,

reported that they watched but did not participate. Over 25% said they chose to

leave the online environment. Almost 9% reported they objected to others but not

directly to the cyberbully, whereas 23% answered they objected directly to the

cyberbully. About 35% tried to help or befriend the victim, but less than 10%

reported the incidents to someone who could help the victim

Conclusion

Addressing cyberbullying should be a collective effort on the part of schools,

families, students, and society. Because cyberbullying happens outside of school

boundaries, schools might direct such issues back to parents, saying that they have no

legal jurisdiction. However, cyberbullying can be rooted in school or vice versa, even if

the incidents appear to be initiated using school property. This requires schools to

consider the development of comprehensive programs to fight cyberbullying, including

detailed and unified policies as well as effective programs to educate students. The

following are some recommendations intended to solve the problem.

First, schools need to establish systematic programs to stop cyberbullying. Such

programs should develop strong policies on both traditional bullying and cyberbullying.

Administrators should investigate current acceptable-use policies for technology (e.g.,

mobile, Internet) in the schools. Telling others such as school adults or family members

remains an effective strategy for combating cyberbullying. It is important to establish easy

and multiple ways of reporting. For example, we could create help lines (e.g., a phone

line), e‐mail, or Web links, and provide a box or similar device in hot spots in schools so

students can report incidents or offer suggestions anonymously.

Second, schools should educate school adults, students, and parents about

cyberbullying and provide clear procedures to follow when cyberbullying occurs. At the

fundamental level, adults, including teachers and parents, need to keep pace with new

technology to understand how students communicate and how cyberbullying happens.

The results of this study indicate that school adults provide limited help, which might be

caused by their lack of training in how to deal with cyberbullying. Effective strategies,

therefore, need to be included in school adults' professional development opportunities.

Schools can also provide opportunities for parents to learn such strategies. Similarly,

approaches to cyberbullying issues need to go beyond the one-time workshop mode for

students and be part of regular curriculum learning. Such education can take place in

different school situations, including classrooms, assemblies, and continuing education

programs. For example, schools can use forums not only to mediate between cyberbullies

and cyber victims, but also to offer opportunities for students to develop adaptive skills,

such as dealing with emotional conflict and building positive behavioral patterns. Such

forums help to build a strong rapport and trustworthy relationships between students and

school adults as well as among students. In addition, such events can involve parents to

build their competency in stopping cyberbullying.

Students, a key group in fighting cyberbullying, need to learn responsibilities

associated with the use of technology. They should be aware of the consequences of

misuse of technology so that responsible behaviors can be promoted at an early age.

 They need to understand the dangers that exist and the importance of getting help

from responsible adults when cyberbullying occurs. When reporting incidents to

responsible adults, students should understand that they might need to be persistent to

ensure that adults recognize the seriousness of the incidents. They can also ask the

adults what they plan to do to solve the problem.

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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3200/TCHS.81.1.8-12

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