Blogging the Book
Posted by anastasia on 03-17-2006
This has been a slow week for the book with SXSW last weekend and work picking up quite a bit. I’m looking forward to really digging in this weekend and completing a draft of chapter four (on cyberbullying). I have an interview with Rachel Simmons scheduled for next week about girls and bullying and am just starting to reach out to parents for chapter five, which is all about parent/teen communication/negotiation around how teens are using technology. If you are a parent of a teen or know one, and would be willing to be interviewed for the book, please contact me.
One of the interesting things about cyberbullying or the milder form, cyberharrassment, is that while yes, because it’s anonymous, it can be meaner, but that there are also more concrete ways to fight back. Whether it’s fighting fire with fire (not saying this is how teens should fight back) and hacking the people who hacked you or just flaming them back, or contacting the admins of the Website where it’s happening, dealing with it online feels a little easier than confronting it in person — especially when the bullies are anonymous or at a different school or in a different state. I also wonder if it doesn’t open up opportunities for people who have been bullied offline to fight back online and torment the tormentors. It levels the playing field for who can “bully.” I thought I would share a few quotes from teens who filled out the Tagged survey to give you a sense of what I mean…
“Yes I have been harrased by another teen on my IM so I just told them goodbye and blocked them from my buddy list.”
“They were talking about me non stop. They sent me lots of e-mails all I did was block them from sending me anything else.”
“I’ve had guys send nasty photos around to different people through email and IM. I just put the people on ignore and never talked to them ever again. I have also had my email hacked into by someone but I didn’t do anything about it.”
“I’ve been harassed and cursed out by people I didn’t know very well, or by people that I knew (no for a long time but long for awhile) and I’d just curse them out right back. In the end, got my last good word in and blocked them. If they were dumb enough, they’d make another screen name just to come back and curse me out and I’d, again, get my good few words in and I’d block them again and that was the end of that.”
“Yes, he was spreading rumors and false information, I contacted the people at Tagged and the took the content down.”
“I have been harassed several times. I have had my account hacked into and someone sent all my friends rude emails, some girls from my school (the snobby ‘im all that’ type) were being rude, and I have gotten accused of several things. I got accused for making a fake profile on someone, and hacking into other accounts and screwing up their profiles and stuff. I usually just try to tell everyone who asks me about it that its none of their buisness what happened or I tell them the truth about what happened.”
Categorized under: Totally Wired
March 17th, 2006 at 9:04 am
Interesting side note about something I just learned about. I was speaking to a parent’s group at a public school about MySpace, Xanga and social networking, and another of the speakers was an area police officer who specializes in Internet activity. He related something that I should have known, and that is that all this cyberharrassment is a chargeable offense. If a kid is harrassed online, just save the harrassment, whether it is on aim, email, MySpace, etc., and call the cops. They are now taking this very seriously, and it apparently is seen as “more punishable” than just a verbal threat.
In addition, parents need to be aware of this because if the harrassment is being done from THEIR computer in THEIR home via THEIR Internet access, they can be liable for the actions of their kids. If I remember correctly, the first time it happens it is a misdemeanor, and if it continues it can end up being a third degree felony.
The Internet makes it so easy for this type of behavior to occur, and kids don’t think about the consequences.
You might want to interview a police officer about cyberbullying and harrassment to get their take on it. I know around here they are actively working with both the local schools and colleges, and they do spend a lot of time checking out MySpace and Xanga sites to keep track of kids and their activities.
March 17th, 2006 at 9:07 am
One more comment. It’s interesting to note that if you go to the MyYearbook.com site, right on the front page one of their “selling” points to potential users is that you can “Bully, Flirt, & Secretly Admire Everyone.”
Kind of interesting that they would include the idea of bullying right there, even though I’m sure (or at least hope) it is somewhat tongue in cheek.