Reading a Conference paper while effected with a lack of sleep

The paper in question is:
Cyber-Bullying by Dr Anne Bamford
AHISA Pastoral Care National Conference 2004

In the introduction of the paper it describes an incident from 2003 where a Japanese girl killed a fellow student over statements the student had made about her on the internet. I have heard about students committing suicide due to bullying (cyber or otherwise), however killing the bully is one I haven't heard.

The research study conducted by Bamford has found that students as young as eight have reported incidents of cyber-bullying or teasing, with bullying involving "forms of multimodal communication including sound, picture, animation and photographic sources" (p2). Another interesting point she makes is:

The reduction of social and contextual cues, such as body language and tone of voice, can have a variety of impacts. These impacts include a reduction in tangible, affective feedback if an online action has caused harm to another, reduction in the influence of social norms and constraints, resulting in behaviour that is not in accord with those norms, and the reduction of social cues related to social status which leads to greater participation by those who are at a lower level in a social hierarchy. (p2)

This indicates that there could be incidences of cyber-bullying which occur through miss-communication between individuals, that someone could unintentionally harm another person because they don't receive the relevant communicative cues.

The common types of bullying Bamford has identified in her research are: masquerading, flamming (I had never thought of that as bullying before), harassment, outing and exclusion. Interestingly, all of these types are not limited to the internet.

She wisely points out that

If young people are to gain independence in their use of the Internet, they need to develop strategies that enable them to recognize potential unsafe virtual situations and gain practical skills to handle the dangerous or tempting situations that may emerge when they use virtual forms of communication. Education, supervision and monitoring are critically important in developing appropriate behaviour. (p4)

Also stating that parents and teachers should educate students in learning how to filter content rather than applying external filtering mechanisms. Of course, if the parents and teachers do not know how to filter content themselves they cannot teach it. However the solution is suggested of adults and children doing things on the internet together (at the same computer) and having the computers in visible locations. Wait, thats what I said in the tute the other day - the part I didn't mention is that if children are brought up thinking that they can look at whatever they want in the presence of mum and dad, they will be less inclined to surf in their room when they are older.

It is also recommended that helping students develop their on moral sense of right and wrong will decrease incidences of bullying, in part through "making the adolescents aware that the facelessness of virtual communication does not mean it is victimless" (p4). The importance of discussing cyber-bullying when it occurs is also mentioned.

This paper was lower on post-bullying resources than I thought from its title, however it contains good advice for long term preventative strategies.