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Research Paper
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Professor: Ryan Bachia

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Fernando Zepeda

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 No place to hide
As technology progresses exponentially, new issues arise in an equal matter and a lot of these
issues have to do with the new freedom acquired towards communication and sharing, freedom
that if miss used can lead to catastrophic exposures and can lead to more serious situations. This
paper will explore one of the ultimate results, and behaviors caused by this new freedom of
communication and information sharing “cyber bullying” a recently known word for a recently
known issue. Which makes everyone who uses the internet to post almost any type of information
on the internet vulnerable it is present on blog entries, personal web pages, open sites such as
YouTube or break, or social networking services such as MySpace, face book or twitter.

What is cyber bullying?

First let us explore the meaning of the sentence cyber bullying, the best sentence to sum it up
would be: "involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate,
repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others". From
this we can view two things that will lead to moral questions and opposing points of view due to
the fact that the information that the cyber bully will use is the one that the person had already
posted on the internet which will involve point of view of a certain topic or comment on it, video
entry or pictures, so in this scenario we can see that part of the responsibility will be from the
person and how much information he is putting out in the web and thus with how much maturity
and good judgment is he using the internet as a tool to express himself and how much it affects
him/her. But what if the person did not posted anything on the web what if that comment, video
or picture was provided by someone else and it is now uploaded into the web and used by the
cyber bully? And again how much does this affect the person in comparison to real life bullying?
Would this be qualified as more threatening?

Who is a cyber bully

Some descriptions say that people who become cyber bullies have been bullied them selves,
they may take their anger and frustration in cyber space, they regard cyber bullying as a
game, but according to book Cyber Bullying by Shaheen Shariff, the view of that we may
have of the classic bully is not often the right one, “this perpetrators or bullies have high
levels of confidence and leadership and are often popular with peers and teachers more so
because of their academic abilities and leadership skills, this opposes the view that a cyber
bully is often a dejected and an unpopular individual”.

The greatest justification for bullying was more frequently was discrimination, this
according to the same book, but by no means this states that the bully could be a full
flagged bigot but just being different could be reason enough to start the bullying.

The percentage of youth who admit to cyber-bullying others at some point in their lives
range from about 11% to as high as 20%. This according to the pure sight website, the
Reasons for cyber bullying include:

o To get back at someone (56% of those who cyber bullied)

o Because they deserve it (58% of cyber bullies)
o For fun or entertainment (26% of cyber bullies)
o To be mean (according to 75% of those who were cyber bullied)
o Out of jealousy (32% of those who were cyber bullied) (Cox Communications,
2009)
According to the NCPC, when teens were asked why they think others cyber bully, 81 %
said that cyber bullies think it’s funny. Other teens believe that youth who cyber bullies:
 Don’t think it’s a big deal
 Don’t think about the consequences
 Are encouraged by friends
 Think everybody cyber bullies
 Think they won’t get caught

This kid of puts us all in a position where we can fill the role of the bully or the victim at
any point, to recognize if we are cyber bullies, the site stopcyberbulling.org prepared the
following quiz.

Be bold and take the quiz, you can rate yourself on the following point scale according to
if, and how many times, you have done the below activities. Give yourself 0 points if
you’ve never done it, 1 point if you have done it 1 or 2 times, 2 points if you have done it
3-5 times, 3 points if you have done it more than 5 times.
Have you ever...
___Signed on with someone else’s screen name to gather info?
___Sent an e-mail or online greeting card from someone’s account?
___Impersonated someone over IM or online?
___Teased or frightened someone over IM?
___Not told someone who you really are online, telling them to “guess”?
___Forwarded a private IM conversation or e-mail without the permission of the other
person?
___Changed your profile or away message designed to embarrass or frighten someone?
___Posted pictures or information about someone on a Web site without their consent?
___Created an Internet poll, either over IM or on a Web site, about someone without their
consent?
___Used information found online to follow, tease, embarrass or harass someone in person?
___Sent rude or scary things to someone, even if you were just joking?
___Used bad language online?
___Signed someone else up for something online without their permission?
___Used an IM or e-mail address that looked like someone else’s?
___Used someone else’s password for any reason without their permission?
___Hacked into someone else’s computer or sent a virus or Trojan horse to them?
___Insulted someone in an interactive game room?
___Posted rude things or lies about someone online?
___Voted at an online bashing poll or posted to a guestbook saying rude or mean things?

Now calculate your total score:

0 – 5 Points: Cyber Saint
Congratulations! You’re a cyber saint! Your online behavior is exemplary! Keep up the
good work!
6-10 Points: Cyber Risky
Well, you’re not perfect, but few people are. Chances are you haven’t done anything
terrible and were just having fun, but try not to repeat your behaviors, since they are all
offenses. Keep in mind the pain that your fun might be causing others!
11-18 Points: Cyber Sinner
Your online behavior needs to be improved! You have done way too many cyber no-no’s!
Keep in mind that these practices are dangerous, wrong, and punishable and try to be clean
up that cyber record!
More than 18: Cyber Bully

Who are the people most likely to be bullied?

A study on the matter conducted by Sameer Hinduja (Florida Atlantic University) and Justin
Patchin (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) and their published book “Bullying Beyond the
Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyber bullying” summarizes the current state of cyber-
bullying research. Their research documents that cyber-bullying instances have been increasing
over the last several years. They also report findings from the most recent study of cyber-bullying
among middle-school students. Using a random sample of approximately 2000 middle-school
students from a large school district in southern United States, about 10% of respondents had
been cyber-bullied in the previous 30 days while over 17% reported being cyber-bullied at least
once in their lifetime. While these rates are a bit lower than some of the findings from their
previous research, Hinduja and Patchin point out that the earlier studies were predominantly
conducted among older adolescents and Internet samples. That is, older youth use the Internet
more frequently and are more likely to experience cyber-bullying than younger children.

When asked where they thought bullying happened, 67%, said that bullying and harassment
happens more offline than online. Less than one in three teens (29%) said that they thought that
bullying was more likely to happen online, and 3% said they thought it happened both online and
offline equally. Of course one thing to high light is that the concept of cyber bullying is not yet
established due to the fact that it is a recently risen issue and thus is limited to the person’s
perception and judgment of what he considers cyber bullying and of course what they consider
more threatening.

If instead of dividing by race or culture we widen our range to gender and focus on those
researches, we will find that girls are a bit more likely than boys to say that bullying happens more
online (33% of girls vs. 25% of boys), though overall, both boys and girls say that kids their age are
more likely to be harassed offline. White teens are a bit more likely than African-American teens
to think that bullying is more of a problem online—32% of white teens said bullying happens more
often online, while 18% of African-American teens said the same. Teens that have online profiles
are just as likely as those who do not to say that bullying happens more often offline.
Teens who have been cyber bullied are more likely than their peers who have not been bullied to
say that they believe bullying happens online more than offline. However, the majority of bullied
teens say that bullying is more likely to happen offline than online. More than 7 in 10 (71%) of
teens who have not experienced bullying believe it happens more often offline, while 57% of teens
who have been cyber bullied themselves say bullying happens more offline.

Now recent surveys show that cyber bullying is a pervasive problem in North America. Many news
stories have reported cyber bullying incidents around the world. Reports on the prevalence of
cyber bullying and victimization as a result of cyber bullying increase yearly. Although we know
what cyber bullying is it is important that we learn more about the psychological effects of it.

The long-term impact of cyber bullying is greater than with traditional bullying. Digital images, cell
phones, and other electronic means can greatly increase the speed in which the bully's messages
can spread. Strom and Strom write, "Harmful messages intended to undermine the reputation of a
victim can be far more damaging than face-to-face altercations. Instead of remaining a private
matter or event known by only a small group, text or photographs can be communicated to a large
audience in a short time."

Perhaps the greatest long-term effect is the loss of the home as a safe-zone. Traditional bullying
usually ended when a person was home, safe with his or her family. Cyber bullying enters into the
home and is with the students at all times. As [USA Today reporter] Greg Toppo writes,
"Vulnerable children have virtually no refuge from harassment. It's a non-stop type of harassment
and it creates a sense of helplessness." Bullies use this additional terror to traumatize their victims
even more.

Our youth have grown up with technology; to them it is commonplace and part of their everyday
life. Taking technology away from kids to protect them is not the answer, as they have integrated
its use to such an extent that it would now begin to isolate them within their peer circles. Besides,
the technology in itself is not bad; it is the manner in which it is used.

What’s the Law

The school system in California after a poll commissioned in 2006 by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids,
showed that one in three teens and one in six preteens have been victims of cyber bullying and
that more than 2 million of those victims told no one about the attacks after. As a result, in
August 2008, [ CITATION Cal \l 1033 ] the California state legislature passed one of the first laws in
the country to deal directly with cyber-bullying. The legislation, Assembly Bill 86 2008, gives school
administrators the authority to discipline students for bullying others offline or online. This law
took effect, January 1, 2009.

In short this law establishes the following:

Adds to the School/Law Enforcement Partnership program provisions related to bullying
committed by means of an electronic communication device or system and adds a definition
of "electronic communication" for this purpose.

1. It authorizes conferences by the school and law Enforcement on and about information
on the prevention of cyber bullying
2. It asks the system as a whole to work on reducing cyber bullying
3. I t adds cyber bullying to the list of activities that school districts and law enforcement
agencies are encouraged to prevent.

The author states, "As web-based social networking sites, such as MySpace and Face book
become more and more popular, cyber-bullying has become a problem for school districts and
youth-based organizations. Such intimidation tactics are difficult for school districts to deal with
because they happen outside of school property and usually after school hours."

This same bill defines cyber bullying as: The use of electronic devices and information, such as e-
mail, instant messages, text messages, mobile phones, and web sites, to send or post harmful
messages or images about an individual or a group.

More so In September of 2007, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) Task Force
on School and Campus Safety released a report that includes specific recommendations that
address certain school safety issues. Recommendations from the Task Force included a
recommendation for states to "continue to implement and expand bullying prevention measures,
including cyber bullying."

The report stated, "Bullying was recognized as an important issue in examining school violence.
The growth in the use of technology and social networking sites by younger Americans has
fueled a fear among professionals that cyber bullying will become the means most often utilized to
harass, threaten or otherwise cause distress. And while certainly more prevalent in the
elementary and secondary school setting, issues related to bullying or intimidation are increasingly
relevant in other nontraditional settings."

According to a Baltimore Sun article published in November 2007, Oregon, Washington, New
Jersey and other states have introduced bills or instituted programs designed to reduce cyber
bullying. The article mentions that "officials in Missouri town made Internet harassment a
misdemeanor, after public outrage over the suicide of a 13-year-old resident last year."

[ CITATION DrJ \l 1033 ] And other researchers for from the Cyber bullying Research Center have
been exploring and researching cyber bullying since 2002, on a study done by then [ CITATION
Cyb \l 1033 ], on what states have introduced laws on cyber bullying, it shows that very few
states, not including California, actually have a criminal sanction against this type of harassment;
ID, KY, MO, NV, NC, TN being some of those states.

Conclusion

On extensive studies done by the [ CITATION Cyb \l 1033 ], shows that there is a trend of growth
for this kind of harassment, growth that only shows signs of increasing, nevertheless there are
also websites and counseling’s that fight against cyber-bullying that are also increasing in number ,
measures are being taken, laws are being changed to best adjust this new scenarios schools had
change they way they educate students and are day by day becoming more aware of the dangers
that the world wide web represents and not just focusing themselves on the benefits.
Also we can easily predict the increasing number of vulnerable people being subject of cyber-
bulling judging by the increase of social networks blogs and video sites and broadcasting sites, as
well as by the people that join one of these sites every day.