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Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying

Co-authors Dr. Sameer Hinduja and Dr. Justin W. Patchin provide a comprehensive guide to identify, prevent and respond to this increasingly serious problem. The book is primarily based on Hinduja and Patchin's original research with thousands of adolescents, many of whom were victims of cyberbullying. In addition to providing numerous practical strategies for educators, parents and other youth-serving adults, the book includes personal stories and case scenarios, an extensive overview of terminology and legal issues, and a clear explanation of the scope and prevalence of online aggression among youth.

Do school officials have the authority to impose discipline in response to harmful off-campus online speech? Should they? This is a major challenge facing school administrators today. Many state legislatures are now adding statutory provisions requiring schools to incorporate cyberbullying into bullying prevention policies. But this has presented some concerns. For example, in Oregon and Washington, language incorporated into cyberbullying legislation appears to restrict administrators from responding to any off-campus bullying regardless of the harmful impact on campus. Administrators from these two states are advised to check with their legal council. Administrators in other states should understand that the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to use language in the cyberbullying statutes to override federal case law and restrict administrators from doing anything in response to off-campus harmful speech.

Effects of Cyberbullying: New research by a group of school psychologists trained in Olweus Bullying Prevention methods that they have applied to bullying in the digital environment.

School bullying is nothing new. But since Prince's suicide, it has taken on a much darker significance, one that prosecutors are taking seriously. On Monday, criminal charges were brought against the nine students who allegedly led the harassment. And parents and school administrators in South Hadley are under intense scrutiny as well. They face tough questions about what happened to Prince and whether they could have done more to prevent her death.

New government bullying prevention website unveiled at the White House on 3/10/11 by the Dept of Health Resources & Services. Provides info on programs and materials that can help schools and communities expand their own anti-bullying initiatives. Emphasizes intervention, role of bystanders etc.

Effects of Cyberbullying: New research by a group of school psychologists trained in Olweus Bullying Prevention methods that they have applied to bullying in the digital environment.

From Patti Afgatson, Olweus Bullying Prevention expert and author of Bullying in the Digital World

A survey commissioned by the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) shows 37 percent of boys reported being victims of cyberbullying in 2006. In another finding, the study determined that although girls tend to cyberbully more often, boys cyberbully as well. The nonprofit organization, best known for its crime prevention icon, McGruff the Crime Dog, has released a public service announcement called "Chicken," which is specifically targeted to teen boys about preventing cyberbullying. According to NCPC, 43 percent of teens 13-17 years old say they had experienced cyberbullying in 2006 and nine in ten teens (92 percent) reported that they knew the person who was bullying them.\n

A new reporting tool will let Facebook users, including teens and younger users, to privately report troubling content not just to the site itself but to parents, teachers and others in their support system. And an improved Safety Center, due out in the next few weeks, will provide educational videos, articles and other content created by bullying experts to help adults address the problem.

If you were walking down the street and saw someone harassing a child, would you just walk by and look the other way? If that person was telling the child the world would be better off if they just killed themselves, would you ignore it? This is what is happening on the internet except it is more painful, and can be more abusive because of the faceless anonymity the web provides. Bullies are using technology in ways we could not have imagined only years ago, and studies show that outdated and erroneous beliefs that bullying is "harmless" downplay its true seriousness.

Stop Bullying Now! is a project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources. The site offers offers flash movies, games, and information about bullying and how to prevent it.

As tales of online cruelty mount, districts are trying a mix of prevention and punishment, incorporating internet safety into curriculum and tightening student conduct codes.Whether a pattern or merely an unfortunate streak, what's not disputed is the direction of the general drift in cyberbullying cases: upward. Once relegated to the playgrounds and back lots, the schoolyard bully now finds prey online. While the states are responding to cyberbullying by adopting legislation that mixes prevention with punishment, for school districts the issue quickly turns from educating the community about the threat of cyberbullying to crafting a response when an incident actually occurs. Districts are realizing that integrating internet safety education into curriculum isn't enough. They must also address cyberbullying in their conduct and discipline codes.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the Children's Health Education Center have partnered to create Bullyfree Basics, a program for elementary school students that transforms lessons on the dangers of spreading rumors and insulting classmates into animated, interactive games.

CyberSmart! Education has released a free, research-based cyber bullying curriculum for K-12 schools.

Bullying isn't caused by technology and it's not cured by it either. It's about relationships.

Developed by the folks who designed the Olweus Bullying Prevention program, this curriculum offers students an opportunity to:
1. interact, collaborate and publish with peers, experts or others, employing a variety of digital environments and media.
2.communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences, using a variety of media and formats
3. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

This is the link to purchasing information for this book. The authors are three School Psychologists who also published Cyberbullying in the Digital Age.

This book was written by three school psychologists, all certified in Olweus Bullying Prevention training. They have applied their knowledge in that area to "cyberbullying." If you are an educator or a parent of an adolescent, this book is a must read. As the authors have stated, the impact of students using computers, etc. has had not only a positive but also a negative impact on the learning environment and safety issues within our schools. Cyberbullying in its infancy is creating an epidemic of problems. Awareness of the problem, what schools and parents should do to address cyberbullying, how the different states and schools systems view cyberbullying, and current resources are discussed by the authors. It is a compilation of the most current research.

ThinkQuest Newswire Announcement: Students from 13 countries took top honors in this year's ThinkQuest International 2008 Competition. The competition is utilized by teachers to engage their students in developing critical skills for life and work in the 21st century.This year's winning teams collaborated in the research, writing and creation of websites on educational topics ranging from mathematics to promoting tolerance and preventing bullying.

ThinkQuest International 2008 included 972 teams from 60 countries and the winning entries included students from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam. Each team had approximately eight months to complete their final websites. The submissions were then reviewed by an international panel of volunteer judges who selected the winners in each of the three age divisions. The judges also awarded the "Global Perspectives" prize to the team best exemplifying respect for diversity and recognition of global interdependence.

Missed Facebook DC Live from the White House yesterday? Check out this video-on-demand with President Obama's Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes, Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan, author and teen behavior expert Rosalind Wiseman, and MTV Vice President of Public Affairs Jason Rzepka.