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M$1.10  Funded By Mahalo ? |  August 13, 2009 07:19 PM

How can schools effectively combat the epidemic of cyber bullying?

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August 14, 2009 05:11 AM
As a teacher, I think combating issues like cyber bullying begins with spreading knowledge. Students need to be taught that even though they aren't physically hurting someone, or even speaking to their face, their words and actions through technology can have serious consequences.

We had a guest speaker at my middle school last year who talked about this topic. He used some role playing strategies and got a great discussion going to help the kids realize that the issue is a serious one. I think it's great anytime schools can incorporate things like this.

Also, schools should be responsible for actively monitoring what happens online on their campus. Students should have a counselor or mentor on site that they can talk to about such issues. Discipline on these matters should be taken as seriously as physical bullying.

On the other side of the issue, I think students need to know how to handle the situation of they are being cyber bullied. Letting them know they always have someone to come to with this type of information who will help them goes a long way. Bullying will never be completely eradicated, but we can learn to personally deal with those type of situations.

I think your organization is awesome! It resonates with teenagers more to hear from someone their own age about issues like this instead of an "adult." Keep up the good work!
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August 14, 2009 06:16 AM
Great answer

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August 14, 2009 12:20 PM
A nomination for Answer of the Day for you today @demanda

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August 14, 2009 03:49 PM
You took my nomination I made it last night *tear*

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August 16, 2009 01:39 AM
Glad to see that you won! I was sure you would!

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August 13, 2009 07:26 PM
Knowing from experience if a child brings in the print offs or proof of the cyber bulling. They will give the "bully" punishment. Depending on age they might get tooken to court if they communicate threats. This is a very serious matter. If an student at highschool the police can get involved if the victims parents would like.


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August 13, 2009 07:54 PM
Simple answer, nothing.

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August 13, 2009 08:50 PM
With all forms of bullying it is best to get it out in the open, hiding from it just makes it worse, if nobody knows about it they can't help you. It is better to confront these issues than let it affect your life.

Not all cyber bullying takes place between people who attend the same schools, but in those circumstances it is most likely an extension of something that may be occuring in school.

As with most social websites and messenger clients you can block people from seeing and commenting your profiles or stop them from messaging you, which would allow the recipient of the bullying to carry on using such sites and communication tools without being subjected to deragatory remarks.

Tags: bullying, school

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August 14, 2009 04:48 AM
One thing everyone must know, you are much less anonymous than you think while sending an MSN message or an email.
Cyber bullying will occur in two main ways:
- email's
- through some site / game that requires registration.

Chances are most students won't create a special email account to send these letters, a quick google search could help find his identity.
Contacting the email provider (google, yahoo, microsoft etc...) can lead to them looking at which IP address sent the email, they could easily search to see if someone else uses their services with the same IP. (A kid who uses gmail as his personal email will not create a yahoo account for bullying, but another gmail one).
Worst case scenario would be this:
Kid goes to the school library, is logged on to another kids session or is on a session for everyone, he/she creates an email account with false information, sends the email, and then leaves.
The only information the school would have would be the date and time it was sent and the location (unless the kid erased the history and cookies, then it would be back to the IP). If no one noticed the kid, he would get away with it.

Now the next case is very similar, in a gaming environment. The only difference here is that usually the username is not used only once, an email must be specified and the game provider has the person's IP, so it makes them easier to track.

To sum everything up:
Cyber bullying is extremely hard to catch and requires effort or some luck. A tech savy person can send an email and no one would ever know they did it. In schools though kids don't tend to plan it out too much or take care of every detail, and the kids doing this are usually 8th graders and under (personal observations).

The best way to combat it would be to scare the students out of doing it and making an example of the cyber bullies they catch. The best method will be preventive, as you cannot stop the damage done from a harmful email, even if the bully gets caught.
Cheers!

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August 14, 2009 09:12 AM
Maybe teach about it or have a class that would have this subject included.
Make this subject a must for what the schools have to teach to kids.

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August 14, 2009 11:15 AM
As A victim of cyberbullying in the past, I would advise anyone who is suffering from cyberbullying to speak out and not be afraid..

With regards to combatting cyber bullying in schools. I think with proper monitoring by teachers this can be reduced greatly.

Sometimes children are afraid to talk to an adult in which case I think help should be set up in the school involving senior pupils to whom children can go to..They may be better able to communicate with other pupils instead of adults.

Cyberbullying can cause alot of grief and emotional strain for some children. Maybe a counselling workshop would be idea involving students. Supervised by teachers..

Parents should also be involved in how to best help their children with regards to cyberbullying. Maybe regular talks at the school involving parents, teachers and students.

The government have issued some guidelines regarding bullying in schools. IT is worth a read.

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/tacklingbullying/

With regards to cyberbullying in the form of emails and chat rooms. Either they should be banned altogether or closely monitored., with filters in place that will prevent abuse. And if this should carry on outside the school. Information should be sent to parents at home on how to best tackle this problem.
Source(s):
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/behaviour/tacklingbullying/


Tags: bullying, policy, school, cyberbullying, government

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August 14, 2009 12:15 PM
teaching techniques to parents and students about social media privacy settings will help

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August 14, 2009 01:40 PM
Bullying is ultimately an expression of low self esteem and pain. Telling the bully that what they are doing is wrong is ultimately ineffective. They already know it is wrong and are ashamed of it. Their bullying is ultimately an expression of self punishment.

Bullies need to be identified, but getting them to stop is really a matter of counseling/therapy and figuring out why they do it. Just punishing them is a short term solution that will not lead to lasting resolution.

That is not to say that punishment is inappropriate, only that it is insufficient.

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August 14, 2009 02:10 PM
It is interesting that the question is asked of the schools role, but what about the parents role. If my child is being bullied cyber or otherwise I would want to know about it. Then I as well as the school would address the problem. In many instances the bullying is not limited to school campuses. Most websites have some sort of harassment policy.

http://about.aol.com/aolnetwork/aolcom_terms

http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html

A number of states have enacted laws to address the issue.
http://www.cyberbullyalert.com/blog/2008/10/cyber-bullying-state-laws-and-policies/

There is also software that schools can purchase to alert them to the problems that are occurring on school grounds.

http://cyberbullyalert.com/download.php

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August 14, 2009 02:31 PM
It seems to me that by addressing the issue of bullying itself, cyber bullying will also be lessened. First, we must understand that the effects of childhood (good or bad) can last a lifetime. As a child, and then later also as a teenager, I was bullied in school. It was mainly verbal and emotional abuse. What is sad is that I had a teacher who was one of those teachers who tries to be "cool" and tries to win over the admiration of her students by becoming one of them. Even this teacher engaged in ridiculing me in class. I never went through counseling or got any help of any kind. In my early 20's, I finally successfully dealt with the trauma by realizing the very simple fact that if I had not endured all those years of misery, I would not be the kind of person I am today, kind, caring, compassionate, empathetic. If it hadn't been for that, I definitely wouldn't be as good of a person as I am today. And that attitude has made all the difference in the world to my healing.

That having been said, what can we do about bullying? Well, there are several differnet kinds of bullying. There's the kind where one child beats up another for gain. There's the kind of one child beats up another just because he's differnet in some way. There's the kind where one child shames another for whatever reason. Each one of these has a different etiology and, therefore, a different solution is needed.

To solve all of these, I believe a small office should be set up in each school just for the purpose of dealing with this kind of thing, perhaps as an extension of the cousnelor's office, or, better yet, an anonymous hotline where kids can phone in and name their abuser without fear of retribution. Usually, it's the bully who needs help. Perhaps the bully is an abused child and the home environment needs to be investigated. Perhaps the bully has self esteem problems, eating disorders, body image disorders that needs to be addressed. Perhaps the bully is being neglected and takes the other kid's lunch money because he has none. Perhaps the bully is just mean, having never been taught basic social skills. In any case, being a bully should be a red flag for schools that something isn't right in that child's life. The bully is the one who needs to be addressed and I feel by addressing these bullies and probing to find out the problem, schools will also be limiting other problems such as truancy, poor performance, and drop-out rates.

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August 14, 2009 05:07 PM
Unfortunately, I don't think that schools have the end-all power to combat this issue.

Schools can only promote awareness campaigns. Those however, are only effective in reinforcing that no-bullying concept with kids who already don't do that.

Parents properly supervising their childrens' on-line time, and coordination with other parents to do the same, is the most direct approach to effectively treating this disease.

However, schools could allow anti-bully minded students to form an on-campus activist group, utilizing positive peer pressure to NOT engage in this destructive behavior. Next to parents, other kids are the second mostinfluential force in a childs life.

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