Survey: Cyberbullying becoming a Major Problem
Survey: Cyberbullying becoming a Major Problem
Posted 11/16/2009 at 12:15pm
| by Paul Lilly
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It might sound hard to believe for those of us who attended grade school back before broadband, cell phones, and the social networking phenomenon, but according to a new report, as many as 340,000 kids and teens are regular victims of cyberbullying, a term that didn't even exist not that long ago.
"We know the consequences of online bullying are just as traumatic as those of face-to-face bullying," said Emma-Jane Cross, chief executive of the charity Beatbullying. "We want all social networking sites, Internet service providers, and mobile phone companies to take measures to identify and remove offensive material."
Beatbully's survey pinged 2,094 respondents between the ages of 11 and 18, nearly two-thirds of which said they had been witness to some form of online bullying. About half of them said they know of people setting up fake profiles, and 20 percent said they had seen hate groups set up with the sole intention of bullying someone.
This raises the question of whether social networking sites are doing enough. Over half of the those who claim to have been bullied said the incident took place on MSN, now renamed Windows Live Messenger. But Microsoft contends that "as with any communication service, these online communication tools are misused by a tiny minority."
In other news, "O'Doyle rules!"
Image Credit: jameselston.blogspot.com
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Slugbait
November 16, 2009 at 11:28pm
It may not seem like it would help much, but MS has actually taken measures due to abuse...of numerous types. Action taken ranges from investigation, to account freezing, to FBI notification and everything in between. It depends on the infraction itself, and the volume.
While using Messenger, hit ALT+H+U.
zNelson24
November 16, 2009 at 4:03pm
As far as I know, cyberbullies just use the internet to bully others without the worries of being in trouble (your parents and teachers have no real authority on the internet). If we eliminate annomity on social networking sites, that might discourage people from abusing the internet.
You can break up fights on school, but the rules are completely different on the internet.
guci22
November 16, 2009 at 1:26pm
I am a freshman and I have had no cyberbullying experiences yet. I just only friend my friends and close aquaintances on facebook. I don't use twitter and I only give my cellphone number to my closest friends. Anyone else, I rarely give them it, and if so, I just give them my google voice number. I don't share my email. This keeps me safe and I see no downside!
Tekzel
November 16, 2009 at 1:18pm
Bull, there is no way "cyber bullying" is anywhere near as bad as face to face bullying. As a geek, now in my late 30s, I was the subject of quite a lot of bullying when I was in school. I never started it, but for a lot of reasons, most commonly because I was dirt poor, I seemed to be a magnet for the pieces of trash. Anyone who says that some dirtbag saying things about you on facebook is as bad as some moron twice your size kicking your ass for no reason other than you are smarter or poorer than they are has never been bullied.
lien_meat
November 16, 2009 at 1:33pm
I wasn't dirt poor, and I wasn't especially smart I don't think, but junior high was pretty hard sometimes, mostly due to the fact that it was a very sports-oriented school, and I just didn't enjoy team sports that entirely much, and I got picked on for being skinny. I didn't suffer a huge amount of physical abuse, but it did occasionally happen. Mostly it was just verbal abuse, and being rejected from any type of social gathering, including lunch tables and stuff.
What I remember hating most, is that when I would try to retaliate against a bully, they would go straight to a teacher, who always seemed to side with them...but when I went to a teacher, things just got worse, cause they had a entire group of friends to make my life hell.
I can see how if the abuse extended behond just school how it could be much worse though, and I think this is probably why cyberbullying is seen as as big of a deal as people are making it. however, I do agree that face-to-face bullying is horrible, but it would be worse with cyberbullying in addition.
dag1992
November 16, 2009 at 1:17pm
Correct me if I'm wrong but is it really that difficult to block people on these services? If someone was bullying me for whatever reason I'd just hit block.
I Jedi
November 16, 2009 at 1:07pm
Well, this isn't all that surprising at all considering that the retards (bullys) would eventually figure out how to switch on a computer, hit start, and press Firefox and start sprouting bs. E.g. trolls, cyberbully, etc.
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