Cyberbullying: An Overview
Dr. Kimberly Mason, Ph.D., NCC
Cleveland State University
Bullying is a widespread problem in our schools and communities. It is an unacceptable anti-social behavior that can undermine the quality of the school environment, affect students’ academic and social outcomes, cause victims emotional and psychological trauma, and , in extreme cases, lead to serious violence (Espelage & Swearer, 2003; Kraut et al., 1998; National Association of School Psychologists, 2002; Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004a;2004b). Traditionally, bullying behaviors were face-to-face. However, with the advent and popularity of the internet and other mobile technologies bullying has taken on a new form – cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying, which is sometimes referred to as online social cruelty or electronic bullying, can involve:
- Bullying by mobile, wireless, and Internet technologies
- Sending or posting harmful/cruel text messages or images
- Posting sensitive, private information about another person
- Pretending to be someone else in order to make that person look bad
- Intentionally excluding someone from an online group
- It’s about Power, Control, & Human Relationships
- Harass
- Degrade
- inflict harm
- inflict fear
Children and youth can cyberbully each other through:
- Email
- Discussion groups or boards
- Chat Room
- Instant Messaging (IM)
- Chat Translators
- TeenAngels.org
- Lingo2words.com
- Digital Cell Phones
- Voting/Polling Booths
- Small Text Messages
- Web Sites
- Blogs (weblogs)
- Social Networking Communities
How common is cyberbullying? Although very little research has been conducted on cyberbullying, studies have found that:
- 91% of youths accessed the internet regularly (UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2003)
- Youth Internet Safety Survey, Ybarra & Mitchell (2004) found
- 26% visit chat rooms daily; 25% use IM everyday
- 30% use the Internet for 3 hours or more per day
- 24% e-mailed material that said hateful things about another person
- 19% of regular Internet users involved in online bullying; 15% were bullies, and 7% were victims; 3% were both
- Over 56 % online bullies/victims were targets of offline bullying
- 49% of bully-only ; 44% of victim-only youth
Who are the victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying? Kowalski, et al. (2005) studied 6-8 graders and found:
- Girls are twice as likely as boys to cyberbully
- Of those students who had been cyberbullied
- 62% said that they had been cyberbullied by another student at school
- 46% had been cyberbullied by a friend
- 55% didn’t know who had cyberbullied them
- Of those students who admitted cyberbullying others
- 60% had cyberbullied another student at school
- 56% had cyberbullied a friend
How does cyberbullying differ from other traditional forms of bullying?
Although there is little research (Joinson, 1998; Lea & Spears, 1995; Turkle, 1995; Suler, 2004; Atfab, 2004) on cyberbullying among children and youth, available research and experience suggest that cyberbullying may differ from more “traditional” forms of bullying in a number of ways:
- Two Factors to consider:
- Environmental
- You don’t know me
- You can’t see me
- It’s just a game
- Motivational
- Four types of cyberbullies
Environmental
- Disinhibition
- You don’t know me
- dissociative anonymity
- experimentation with multiple identities
- You can’t see me
- illusion of invisibility
- moral values and social expectations
- reduction of social and contextual cues and tangible feedback
- different social expectations for different online environments
- It’s just a game
- underdeveloped empathy skills
- lack of impulse control
- underdeveloped an internal behavior control mechanism
- ineffective problem solving skills
- Motivational
- Four Types of Cyberbullies
- Vengeful Angel
- Don’t see themselves as a bully
- see as righting wrongs
- protecting friend/others
- Power-Hungry
- exert power and control
- typically the victim of offline bullying
- Revenge of the Nerds
- quiet types
- use technology to frighten or embarrass victims
- empowered by anonymity to settle the score
- tough online but not offline
- The Mean Girls
- bored or looking to entertain
- ego-based
- most immature
- done in group or planned
- wants everyone to know - social status
The Psychological Impact
- Ybarra & Mitchell (2004) found
- 44 % problem behaviors
- stealing, property damage, police contact
- 26% drinking alcohol
- 23% smoking
- 16% depressive symptomatology
- low self-esteem, anxiety, anger
- 28% low school commitment
- school failure, school avoidance, school violence
