Thursday, April 22, 2010

What is Cyberbullying?


Have you ever recieved an email, got text messages or read a blog posting where you saw the writer had been intentionally negative or harmfull, with the intention to cause hurt? Have you ever heard about online polls where people vote and they are impersonating someone by using their email, instead of using their own? Have you ever seen postings of a rude picture of someone? If so, then you’ve seen Cyber Bullying.

If you’re like most teenagers, you spend a lot of time on a cell phone or instant messenger chatting with friends and uploading photos, videos, and music to websites. You may have online friends whom you’ve never met in person, with whom you play games and exchange messages. Teens’ lives exist in a variety of places such as school hallways, part-time jobs, and friends’ houses. Now many teens also have lives on the Internet. And bullying has followed teens online.
Online bullying, called cyberbullying, happens when teens use the Internet, cell phones, or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person. Cyberbullying is a problem that affects almost half of all American teens. Whether you’ve been a victim of cyberbullying, know someone who has been cyberbullied, or have even cyberbullied yourself, there are steps you and your friends can take to stop cyberbullying and stay cyber-safe.



“Threatening or other offensive behavior sent online to a victim or posted online about the victim for others to see.” (Wolak, Mitchell, Finkelhor et al., 2006).

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1023061,00.html
http://www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying
Where CyberBullying Can Occur?
• Emails

• IM (instant message)

• Blogs

• Online polls

• Websites

• Text messaging

• Over the phone

• Chat rooms

• Bulletin boards

• Social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook)

1 comments:

Mahdieh Darehzereshki said...

Cyberbullies are mostly harassers who limit their abusing or threatening activities to online activities. These situations typically, but not always, don’t compromise physical safety because there usually isn’t a physical threat.Children’s lifelines to their world are limited to cell phones, text messaging, email, social networking communities and video games. These electronic communications can also be social death for the person who is the target of cyberbullying.

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