Cyber Bullying & School Bullying

Although little research has been conducted on cyberbullying, recent studies have found that:

• 18% of students in grades 6-8 said they had been cyberbullied at least once in the last couple of months; and 6% said it had happened to them 2 or more times (Kowalski et al., 2005).
• 11% of students in grades 6-8 said they had cyberbullied another person at least once in the last couple of months, and 2% said they had done it two or more times (Kowalski et al., 2005).
• 19% of regular Internet users between the ages of 10 and 17 reported being involved in online aggression; 15% had been aggressors, and 7% had been targets (3% were both aggressors and targets) (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004).
• 17% of 6-11 year-olds and 36% of 12-17-year-olds reported that someone said threatening or embarrassing things about them through email, instant messages, web sites, chat rooms, or text messages (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2006).
• Cyberbullying has increased in recent years. In nationally representative surveys of 10-17 year-olds, twice as many children and youth indicated that they had been victims and perpetrators of online harassment in 2005 compared with 1999/2000 (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2006).

Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Bullying is aggressive behavior that is intentional and involves an imbalance of power or strength. Usually, it is repeated over time. Traditionally, bullying has involved actions such as: hitting or punching (physical bullying), teasing or name-calling (verbal bullying), or intimidation through gestures or social exclusion. In recent years, technology has given children and youth a new means of bullying each other.

Cyberbullying, which is sometimes referred to as online social cruelty or electronic bullying, can involve:

• Sending mean, vulgar, or threatening 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 (Willard, 2005)

Children and youth can cyberbully each other through:

• Emails
• Instant messaging
• Text or digital imaging messages sent on cell phones
• Web pages
• Blogs
• Chat rooms or discussion groups
• Other information communication technologies

Source: Department of Health & Human Services