The Effects of Cyberbullying

Without any doubt Cyberbullying has a negative impact on its victims. The reality is that internet harassment is meant to psychologically provoke its victims to being harmful in nature. Studies have shown that victims feel a wide range of negative emotions because of being cyberbullied. These contain anger sadness feeling hurt embarrassed afraid. For sure it is obvious that those who experience cyberbullying also experience a range of negative behaviors. These include poor concentration low school achievement absenteeism from school Another problem of these negative emotions and behaviors is that the victim is more likely to resolve this strain through some sort of antisocial behavior. Cyberbullying is too new a phenomenon to tell what it's long term effects on an individual will be.

Get Involved in your Child’s Online Life!

You are probably asking yourself what you can do to protect your children and as with other troubles in life, prevention is often the best defense.

There are a number of steps that you can take in order to prevent your children from becoming cyberbullying victim.
•First talk to your children about respecting others and tell them about that bullying hurts. Explain that the rules for interacting with people in real life also apply for interacting online or through cell phones.
•Tell your children about the results that they could suffer if they misuse the technology (e.g., damaging their reputation, getting in trouble at school or with the police).
•Demonstrate correct Internet use! Your children learn from your behavior and imitate it. Never joke or harass about others while online, especially around your children.
•Become involved in your children cyberspace. Monitor their online activities but use caution when doing this. Ask them if they have ever been harassed or ridiculed and encourage them to tell you if this happens.
•Set time limits on Internet use: limit the number of hours per day and also the times during the day when your children are allowed to surf. More often than not, cyber bullying occurs late at night
•Place the computer in a family room or somewhere visible (not in your child’s bedroom).

Cyberbullying Statistics

Accoriding to recent researches, four in ten teens (43%) have experienced online harassment.
Girls are twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators, usually through email or a social networking sites, where they typically engage in social sabotage. Cyberbullying is most prevalent among 15 and 16 year olds.
Teens who share their identities and thoughts on social networking sites, such as MySpace and FaceBook, are more likely to be targets than are those who do not use social networking sites (39% have been cyberbullied in someway, compared with 22% of online teens who do not use social networks).



http://puresight.com/Cyberbullying/cyber-bullying-statistics.html

Elite school's horrific cyberbullying case

Two adolescent girls have been forced to leave one of Sydney's elite private schools because of cyberbullying.

These two girls were taken out of Ascham School, after they published material on the social networking website, My Space, containing personal and possibly defamatory information about their classmates.

The posting contained information about the girls' alleged sexual proclivities, drinking, drug use and relationships.

A parent of one these girls says the girl was horrified when strange boys began approaching her in public.

Over 14 Percent of Students Experience Cyberbullying in Singapore

Over 14 percent of students experience cyberbullying in Singapore

SINGAPORE, June 19. 2009 (Xinhua) reports that:
Fourteen percent of students in Singapore have experienced bullying through text messages, Channel NewsAsia quoted results of a survey as saying on Monday.

The survey on some 1,100 teenagers conducted last year also showed that 13 percent of them have been bullied on instant chat networks such as the Microsoft Network (MSN), while a third have been frightened or bullied by emails.

Besides, cyberbullying in Singapore also takes forms of damaging blogs and forwarding pictures taken of classmates.

Teen becomes first jailed in U.K. for cyberbullying

Very interesting story about an 18 year old girl

In Worcester Magistrates Court of England, an 18 year old girl was seemingly sent to three months in a young-offenders institute after being found guilty of posting death threats on Facebook, according to the Daily Mail. It's thought to be the country's first jail sentence for cyberbullying.

The young defendant wrote on her Facebook page that she would kill another young woman, the Daily Mail said. The two had been at school together, where the defendant's bullying of the victim allegedly began.

The defendant already had two previous condemnations stemming from her bullying of the victim, one for assault and one for criminal damage.

According to the Mail's report, the defendant originally claimed the Facebook threat was written while drunk. However, police discovered that the threats remained on her Facebook page for 24 hours.

It is attractive to think of this case as an isolated and extreme incident. But, as has become increasingly clear, people tend to use social-networking sites to reveal just as much of their persona as they do in person.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10315030-71.html