Cyper bullying... your thoughts?

I was watching a show last night and it featured a segment about cyper bullying which was really interesting. There was this girl who was talking about how she had been beaten up at school, and someone took a video on their mobile phone and posted all over the internet. There was another girl who couldn't be more than 15 years old, but as soon as she got onto the internet or msn, she was bombarded with threats from people who said they would willingly spit on her grave She couldn't even go to school because she was so terrified :no:

I think this new form of bullying is the worst yet. All forms of bullying is horrible, but I think this "cyperbullying" tops the lot, because not only are you humiliated in front of your classmates, but also in front of everyone on the internet! :no: It's sick

This teen crap is getting out of hand actually ... Teenagers are hard enough to deal with, without having to deal with the social issues of today.

It is too long a story to go into and i am not proud of some of my actions.

Suffice it to say that having a teen in the generation of the INTERNET and MySpace is not fun. The drama it breeds is undermining and unneeded.

This stuff is frustrating from a teacher's perspective.

When I take kids into the IT classrooms they all try to sneak onto Myspace and Facebook etc whilst they're suppose to be researching their given topic.

They make themselves easy to be preyed on by their classmates by giving out their page names etc

It all starts off innocently "oh let's all be friends so we have a big friends list etc" but then the dramas start.

Students take mean photos of each other using their mobile phones and other tech gadgets and quickly upload them onto their PCs I've seen students morphing photos of their classmates using Adobe Photoshop, only to see these horrible images end up online.


I make it very clear that I will not tolerate any of my students using the internet for anything but research within school hours. Whilst I cannot police them once they get home... I can during class. I honestly believe that most of the student to student drama occurs within classrooms when they are seated with their mates and they can see their victim innocently surfing etc. They encourage each other to be silly and post horrible images or rude remarks about their chosen victim. Most students don't even realise the damage they are causing, and most of them don't see it as bullying, but rather "just having some fun, we don't mean anything by it"

At this age, it's hard for them to accept that there are boundaries when it comes to another person. Couple that with today's technology that is teaching them all that there is no longer such a thing as boundaries or a right to personal space. Most students are unaware that it is illegal to take a photo of someone without their consent. I know as a teacher I've had my photo take numerous time by students who think that they are being funny. I'm sure there are a host of pictures of me floating around online with changes made to them to suit their sense of humour.

What scares me more than that, is students who are podcasting.


I heard a few years ago how one student recorded his teacher yelling at her students as the students purposely acted up to get the teacher angry. Whilst the teacher didn't say or do anything wrong. The "amusement factor" was there for the students and they proceeded to share the file around the school until one of the more hip teachers was given a preview and alerted the staff body as to what was going on.

So if kids are doing this against their teachers they're probably doing it to their peers as well. Doing silly things like pretending to be friends with their potential victims and then getting them to open up "so who have you got a crush on?" only to record the conversation to embaress the other later on with.





Geez I could go on forever.



Overall I think the advancements in technology has opened the door for the next level in bullying, where kids who can afford the stuff will take advantage of the easy options that are avaliable to them.

This whole thing sound so scarey.

My thoughts? someones not minding the children
and or if its adults they should grow up and know better?

Parents are the teachers...Respect begins at home...

I'm 16, and thank god that I've never run into any of this, or heard of anyone doing it at my school. It sounds horribe LJ, I know what you mean about kids not working on projects when they are given computers. Today we were researching for projects on the Vietnam war, and most people were on youtube watching videos.. (I mostly worked on the paper, lol I did have to check this site once or twice though :blush: ) Anyway, I think overall technology has been detrimental to society. I agree with sdeidjs, a lot of things come back to the parents. If more of them cared, you wouldn't have mean kids who want to bully others in this manner.

^ I think Youtube is blocked at my school infact most time wasting places are blocked (which makes it hard when I want to surf during my breaks :rofl


It's important to remember that often the people who do the most bullying, have low self esteem themselves. Which makes it hard, because you want to tell them off for their behaviour and show them why it is not acceptable, or responsible of them to behave in such a way. But at the same time once you approach them and say "no thats not right" ... you're just reinforcing what they are already thinking and feeling about themselves.

This is why it's important to use I instead of You.

"I feel bad when people talk about me like that"


"I feel that when you do things like that it upsets the people around us"



I know it can sound cheesy and therapy like, but if worded correctly using the right tone, folks who are being bullies all of a sudden go "oh hey maybe I am being a bit of pr!ck to this person, maybe they feel like I do?"


One of the new teachers at my school was having trouble with one class, they kept being horrible to her and refusing to follow instructions. They'd all sit there and chat amongst themselves for the period backs turned towards her and just generally talking back and being smart mouths.

In the end she stood there and said "What have I done to make you all be so horrible to me? I don't understand why you are all being this way, when all I want to do is teach you and share this classtime with you"

She said it in such a way that all the kids sort of went :blush: "gosh we have been kind of horrible to this teacher"


she didn't carry on or anything, just quietly asked them what had she done to have them be the way they were.


The kids now work great in her class and treat her with a more friendly approach.

being bullied is hard enough but this is going too far. To record it and put it on the net is humaliting.

Sdeidjs said:

Parents are the teachers...Respect begins at home...

Click to expand...

poefiend said:

My thoughts? someones not minding the children
and or if its adults they should grow up and know better?

Click to expand...

That is exactly the issue ... My kids know what is what. Sure, they mess up at times, they are faaaaaarrrrrr from perfect angels and I know this. However, it is very difficult to mind my kids actions when other parents are not minding theirs ... my kids are subject to those childrens ill fated actions.

Jealousy and ignorance allowed another student to create a myspace page that was represented as my daughter's. They masqueraded as her online. Communicating very suggestively with boys ... VERY suggestive !!

It would still be going on if one of these boy's actual girlfriends hadn't find out about his comments to my daughter's 'MySpace' page. She was very angry at what was going on through electronic interactions and had assumptions that more was happening in real time. The girl attempted to confront my daughter during track practice. Being clueless what this girl was going on about, seeing that the chick's temper was rising no matter what was said to her... My baby girl made the choice to remove herself from the situation, before it got worse. Turning around to finish getting dressed, the girl jumped her from behind.

...

These suburban kids just don't get it, my kids don't fight by choice, the other kids know this but that does not mean that cannot defend themselves. My kids know I would prefer they walk away from any hostile situation but if someone is trying to pound on you ... who is going to fault them for mounting a defense. Defend herself she did **contains grin**

**DISCLAIMER regarding my 'almost grin'
I find it funny that until my ethnic child decided to defend herself 'ghetto' style, nobody was interested interupting the altercation.

To sum it up quickly, the county/town will be paying for a tutor until I decide that I am comfortable sending her back to that school :chichi:

to sum it up..


THERE NEEDS TO BE SOME TYPE OF ORDER..


some type of cyber police..

We have police on the streets, with the web accessable to anyone, and pratically can find ANYTHING.. Why would we not have cyber police.


Most people don't want to go through the whole hastle of going through legal crap to figure out what to do.. THEN do something..

Sdeidjs said:

Parents are the teachers...Respect begins at home...

Click to expand...

I agree.


I think that cyber bullying is veryyyyy childish to say the least.

ya we can blame whoever for it.. But the fact is.. ITS THERE and needs to be delt with..

yeah, but how. My kids are in check ... I cannot check other people's kids. well, not as often as I would like to anyway :cute:

^ well, I don't mean kid bullying persay.. I mean straight up HATE and abusive language..

there are ways to take the person down legally, but it's such a big project, and some people don't know where to even start, and those who do know it's such a big project..


I think there needs to be a way to quickly report a persons messages and comments and it goes into a police database which is monitored.. So if that person messages you, fallows you online, abuses u in anyway.. (after u report them) that it's all monitored..

Kind of the same way they find child preditors, but on a much larger scale.. Not just police groups hunting for people, but a whole depertment dedicated to this.. Ones of those all around..

Like that is some peoples full time job.. Liek cyber police.





that's just what I would LIKE to see

^ I don't think that would work, you'd get people sending in requests all the time "Oh he/she said this and it has really offended me!"


an internet police system wouldn't really work.


The best way to handle this is to ensure the correct education goes to people who are using it.

Teaching children how to protect themselves from online predators. It's no different from teaching them about local physical predators.

"Don't accept things from strangers."

"Don't post your photos everywhere."

"Never agree to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable" (ie posing for certain photos, joining certain chat groups etc)


The only way it stays successful, is when parents and teachers work together with this. Teachers providing internet safety tools for students to understand and use, which don't leave them feeling restricted. (It's called being clever )

Parents being smart enough to have their home PC set up in a public area (ie: a lounge room or similar space where kids aren't seated behind a closed door).

Setting up any laptops etc with Nannyprotect or whatever it's called that blocks porn and other unsafe sites.







As for dealing with your own kids from getting bullied within a school environment, that's a little harder sometimes. My parents raised us to walk away from anyone who was trying to bully us, but they also said "If they hit you, hit them back."
(I think this was because they would have wanted to hit the kids :rofl: ... looks better coming from my brother or I than from them :lol: ).

If your child is consitently being bullied for a particular issue, then that needs to be raised and addressed with the teaching staff. Teachers hate bullys. They are disruptive both on an emotional level and an educational level. There's nothing more annoying than students who seem hell bent on causing grief for their chosen victims.

It helps to explain to your child that, the reason they are being picked on is because the other person feels threatened by them.


Most schools have a system in place for dealing with bullies, ask them what it is, and if you feel it's not adequate, suggest ways for them to improve it