This site is run by the National Youth Mental Health Foundation about national youth mental health. They have two interesting pages on cyber bullying, which I only found by using the search feature. The first is their generic cyber bullying page on which they give the generic information on cyber bullying. The statistics that they give are
Approximately 10% of Australian students in years 4-9 have experienced cyber bullying.What the aim of Headspace is regarding cyber bullying is different; they want to collect stories from Australian youth which gives their experiences with being cyber bullied or identified as a cyber bully. When these stories exist and are accessible, they would be a wonderful resource.
...more than a quarter of Year 8 students know someone who’s been cyber bullied.
The other cyber bullying page of interest is a summary of an ask the experts session. Whilst the information they present for dealing with cyber bullying is the standard (record and talk), they do bring up the topic of social exclusion, which one of the experts says is the "worst most hurtful form of bullying and it always feels that the world is leaving you out". The expert comments it in terms of real world interactions and says that the solution is to make yourself less vulnerable by widening your circle of friends. But I do wonder what could be done about it in the virtual world. It would be easy to identify, but what could be done about? I can see Facebook closing down a group if its content is hurtful towards a child, but what would they do if the group is not letting that child be part of it?
Youth BeyondBlue: Information about cyberbullying
This page contains the usual definition of cyber-bullying and talks about the effects of it on children. The effects it gives are stress, feelings of intimidation, anxiety, unhappiness, distress and even depression. These I have read in previous articles (but might not have commented on), but the one I hadn't read, or maybe just not noticed was:
Dr Baigent says that self-harm or suicide should never be an option, no matter how bad things seem.Its a great statement, but part of me is filled with disbelief that it could go that far; the web has so many avenues that its possible to just disappear if someone on a particular site was bullying you. Or there are people in real life for you to talk to long before this point. Maybe I'm just sheltered.
Bullying. No Way!
Spotlight on ... Cyber bullying
Over a series of pages this site gives an overview of cyber-bullying, how it can occur and what children can do when it does happen. Telling an adult and taking a stand against it when it occurs are featured. There's also a page of things schools should be doing to prevent cyber-bullying. On the Do you think parents can help page, it gives this interesting
Many young people say that they wouldn't report cyber bullying because most adults don’t know that they have a cyber life - and if they report, then the technology will be taken away from them.They are also likely to take the position that their online activities are their business.
but doesn't provide anything to back it up. It then follows with the usual guide to parents about education, observing and reporting.
It also gives a view of cyber-bullying from a bullies perspective, about how anonymity of internet communication could make them think anything is possible. It has some self direction questions for changing away from bullying behaviour.
Cybersmart
The Australian Governments little website on cyber security aimed at everyone. They have information pages for kids and teens which have exactly the same content, and say the same things I've commented on before. The interesting pages are in the schools section, Responding to incidents of cyberbullying and The role of schools in addressing cyberbullying. The first contains the usual response methods, but written from an educators perspective. It could be good to use as a check sheet if cyber bullying occurs in the classroom. The second gives an outline of the structures which should be established/existing within a school to deal with cyber bullying and emphasises the importance of teaching teachers, parents and students in what is appropriate interactions online. The page also gives links to the resources section on state and territory school cybersafety policies, but I couldn't work out how to get to them :(
Kids Help Line
It turns out that the Kids Help Line also does councilling via web and email. That't great news.
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