Bullying continues to be a significant public health problem among children in schools and other group settings. With the expansion of online and electronic communication among school-aged and teen-aged children, bullying is no longer limited to the schoolyard. Cyberbullies may harass, tease, disrespect, or exclude fellow classmates by sending photos, text messages, e-mail, instant messages (IMs), and video through cell phones, personal digital assistants, and computers. With these multiple digital modalities, cyberbullying is a more insidious form of bullying, with messages reaching the victim any time of the day or night.
Recent research by Juvonen and Gross (2008) has furthered our understanding of the overlap between online and in-school bullying and has tested a number of our common assumptions about cyberbullying. The results of their survey of 1454 youth (predominantly girls) aged 12 to 17 years indicate that there is cause for concern about the pervasiveness of online intimidation. Name calling or insults (usually via IM or message boards) were the most prevalent form of bullying, followed by password theft. The overlap of online reports when compared with in-school reports of bullying was significant: 85% of youth who reported experiencing at least one episode of bullying at school also experienced at least one incident of bullying online. Most of the respondents (90%) reported that they did not tell adults about cyberbullying incidents primarily because they felt they should be able to deal with it themselves and they also did not want to have their Internet access restricted.
General public concerns about cyberbullying have pointed to the risks, associated with the technology, of spreading quick, anonymous harmful messages to potentially large audiences. However, electronic communication methods are merely tools and not causes of mean behavior. Indeed, for many youth, electronic communication often reflects and builds prosocial behavior as participants develop and sustain relationships and support systems online. As Juvonen and Gross (2008) point out, mean behaviors may be as inevitable online as they are in other social contexts.
Mentorship programs can be created in schools or community centers in which older children mentor younger ones about safe and responsible Internet use.
Many schools now implement detailed prevention plans that promote awareness and delineate expectations of students for safe and responsible Internet use (
Diamanduros, Downs, & Jenkins, 2008). Specific components in prevention plans address the right of students to feel safe at school and at home. Prevention plans also provide information regarding the definition, prevalence, and impact of cyberbullying, the need for victims and others to protest and report instances of cyberbullying, how to keep personal information private, and how to use technology ethically and responsibly. Mentorship programs can be created in schools or community centers in which older children mentor younger ones about safe and responsible Internet use.
Parents also play an important role in the prevention of cyberbullying. They should be encouraged to keep computers in common areas of the home, talk to their children about what cyberbullying is, and encourage children not to give out private information and not to retaliate by sending out negative messages. A particularly useful online document for parents and guardians is the Parent Guide to Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats (Willard, 2007).
When intervening in instances of cyberbullying, children should be encouraged not to retaliate because by doing so they would only perpetuate the cycle of online harassment. Rather, they should be encouraged to save the message and report it to a trusted adult. One particular intervention strategy is the “Stop, Block and Tell,” where children are encouraged to stop and calm down before responding in an adverse way, block any future messages from that sender and limit all communication to a buddy list, and report the incident to an adult (Diamanduros et al., 2008). Parents may wish to inform the school and contact the Internet or cell phone service provider to indentify the perpetrator and block or filter future messages. If the perpetrator is known, parents might consider contacting the cyberbully's parents. Counseling or mediation in the school setting should be encouraged in order to determine and address the underlying cause of the bullying. Situations that pose a threat to the child or to the school should be reported to law enforcement.
A number of online resources are dedicated to promoting safe Internet use among children. The mission of Wired Kids, Inc. (http://wiredkids.org) is to protect children as Internet users and to prevent cybercrimes and abuse. It contains many online safety games for children, as well as useful information for parents and educators. The Web site http://www.stopcyberbullying.org, also sponsored by Wired Kids, Inc., contains additional detail about the identification and prevention of and interventions for cyberbullying.
While cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon that presents unique challenges, the root causes of antisocial behavior among children, youth, and even adults transcend any particular medium. As pediatric health care professionals, we need to continually seek opportunities to address this problem, whether they are in the clinical setting, in schools, or in our work with family, community, and advocacy groups.
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