Cyber-bullying is back in the spotlight. Earlier this month the federal government announced it had established a Youth Advisory Group, consisting of young Australians, to advise it on cyber-bullying and other online issues.
Within a week came the report that two year 9 students had been forced to leave a Sydney girls’ school for cyber-bullying.
Today’s Age has a great piece by two lawyers from Deacons, Nick Abrahams with Victoria Dunn, which outlines cyber-bullying’s defining characteristics, and what sets it apart from traditional bullying behaviours:
1. Anonymity: The impression of anonymity in the online world leads young people to feel less accountable for their actions and provides a false bravado to would-be bullies. In fact, a recent study has shown that, of bullies surveyed, 70 per cent had engaged only in cyber-bullying.
2. Geography: Rather than being limited to the school-yard, cyber-bullying operates wherever a young person uses the internet or a mobile phone. There are few areas of a young person’s life which cyber-bullying cannot penetrate.
3. Impact: The internet provides a means to make bullying comments available to a wider audience than ever before. Through social networking sites, comments can be viewed by potentially thousands of people. The impact of and embarrassment caused by these statements is therefore magnified.
4. Permanence: Verbal comments are fleeting. Online they stay around, potentially forever.
They point out the legal system only has piece-meal ways of responding and that currently, the most effective weapons for combating cyber-bullying are education programs and a commitment by schools to implement and enforce policies.
They suggest such education programs should include:
:: continuing education of teachers and schools about changes in technology and the potential for technology to be used by cyber-bullies;
:: educating kids about cyber-bullying – why not to do it and how to deal with it; and
:: educating parents about technology so they can understand what their kids are doing online and talk to them about it.
More here.
JK
