Taylor Tillison Professor Malcolm Campbell English 1103 April 26th , 2012 Cyber Bullying Today What is cyber

bullying? It is any form of harassment that occurs with the use of different technological devices. It often happens over forums and instant messaging systems but it isnt limited to those two. It can come in the form of a hateful email, an aggressive text via cell phone, or other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It has been a problem in the past, but due to recent suicide stories and growing awareness, cyber bullying has become a more prominent topic in the media. On January 14th, 2011, 15-year-old freshman Phoebe Prince hung herself in her home after facing several long months of bullying, both on and offline. She was found dead in the stairwell of her familys home by her younger sister, still wearing her school clothes. Phoebe had moved to the United States from Ireland and instantly became a target of bullying after she began dating a popular football player that was also a senior at her school. The group of her tormentors was known as the Mean Girls and they subjected her to countless cruel acts of harassment and humiliation. Phoebe was verbally attacked on social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook, being called things such as an Irish slut and whore. While she was targeted online, she also had to deal with being bullied on a regular basis at school. She received threatening text

messages on her phone, had random objects thrown at her, books knocked out of her hands, and her face written on in photos posted around the school. On the day of her death, Phoebe was followed by some of her harassers in a car on her way home from school, once again verbally assaulted and one student even threw a can of Red Bull at her. It was after that last act that she went home and committed suicide. Sean Mulveyhill, Kayla Narey, Ashley Longe, Flannery Mullins, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, of South Hadley High School in Massachusetts, and Austin Renaud have been charged for Phoebes death with things like criminal harassment and violation of civil rights. Sean Mulveyhill was involved in a physical relationship with Phoebe before her death and was charged with statutory rape because she was under the age of consent in her state while he was 18. Elizabeth Scheibel, the prosecutor of the case, revealed that most of the actions against Phoebe happened while school was in session. Allegedly, staff at the school was well aware of the bullying, and some even witnessed it happen, but none of them took any sort of action. Phoebes death sparked outrage in the town because of the lengthy time it took for her tormentors to be convicted. The school itself was criticized for its failure to have any procedures enacted to help protect victims of bullying and make sure that it didnt happen again (Dailymail). Stories such as Phoebes are not out of the ordinary anymore, every day sad tales of teens who faced cyber bullying are popping up. A very close friend of mine wanted me to share her story, although I am unable to use her name. Throughout high school she was faced with being bullied, but most of it occurred online. She liked to blog and often wrote about different things, her political views, religious beliefs, and other subjects. She frequently shared her blog post on other social media sites such as Facebook and began to receive hateful comments and remarks because of her personal opinions. People, unidentifiable online, called her all sorts of nasty

names and she soon became overwhelmed with the amount of negative commentary she was getting on a regular basis. Some students at our school were aware of her online writing and didnt hesitate to verbally harass her whenever they could. She never had to deal with any physical bullying, but words had the same effect on her as any hit would. She tried to ignore it all the best she could, but she couldnt help but feel like she was hated because she was willing to let other people know about her personal views. While most of her torment was going on, her parents were completely oblivious to what was happening to their daughter until she began to show signs of depression. After a few months she finally decided to show them her blog and all of the negative comments people posted, as well as derogatory emails and messages she had on other sites. She started taking medication for her depression and made the decision to shut her blog down as well as accounts on other social media sites to take a step back and recover. We both graduated last year and she is doing much better now. She is still taking her medication but has learned to better deal with the hurtful things that are said over the internet. Shes currently a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro studying Psychology and plans to start up a new blog sometime soon. She now wants to write about how she was bullied online in hopes that she can help out others who are dealing with what she went through. I keep seeing stories about cyber bullying and suicide on the news and reading articles about it online. Ive seen it happen to my friend and Ive also experienced it to a lesser degree and feel compelled to learn more about it. How many teens are cyber bullied in a year? What other statistics are out there related to cyber bullying? What is being done to help them? I have also been hearing about different campaigns against all types of cyber bullying and really want to know more about them and their messages.

The i-SAFE Foundation is an organization that publishes educational information on digital citizenship and media literacy. The group reported that half of teens have experienced cyber bullying and that almost the same exact number has engaged in it. They also say that 1 in 3 teens have received threats online, and more than half of teens refuse to tell their parents about it (i-SAFE Inc.). The Harford County Examiner revealed that 1 in every 10 teens has had suggestive pictures of them taken without proper permission on cell phones. Girls are more likely to be cyber bullied than boys, and 1 in every 10 teens tell their parents about it when it happens (Richard Webster. Hartford County Examiner). These are only a few of the alarming statistics about teens and cyber bullying. For example, another shocking statistic is that 43% of teens were cyber bullied in the last year (NCPC). Psychology professor and lead study author Jaana Juvonen, along with U.C.L.A. students, conducted a survey with 1,454 teens, ages 12 through 17, after one year of using the internet. 41% of the teens said that they experienced 1-3 cyber bullying incidents throughout the year. 13% said that they experienced 4-6 incidents, and 19% reported having experienced 7 or more incidents. Dr. Juvonen said that a lot of teens dont realize how big of a problem cyber bullying is, so when it happens to them they start to blame themselves for it and increase the risk of becoming depressed. The survey revealed that many of the teens didnt tell their parents. Half said it was because they needed to learn how to deal with it on their own. One-third didnt tell their parents because they thought that their internet access would be restricted. One-third of 12 and 14-year-olds didnt alert their parents because they believed that they would somehow get in trouble for it (NY Times.Parents Often Unaware of Cyber-Bullying).

Dr. Juvonen concludes that a lot of parents dont know how much their children value the internet. Social media has become a prized accessory for kids to express themselves as well as to stay connected with their peers. Dr. Juvonen explains that parents can often do more harm than good when they restrict their kids internet access, even though they had good intentions. Cyber bullying is known to lower teens self-esteem and can cause depression; it can even lead to tragic suicides such as Phoebe Princes story. Becoming more aware of it might give way to stronger laws being created to help victims or maybe prevent cyber bullying from even occurring. There are special organizations and campaigns that exist right now for that very purpose. During September of 2010, after numerous stories of young students committing suicide, Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller posted a YouTube video to encourage teens to stay strong when faced with bullying regarding their sexual orientations. Thus the It Gets Better Project was born. Since then the movement has become an organization, offering support for teens in the LGBT community. It is now a source of inspiration for teens struggling within the LGBT community that is recognized worldwide. More than 40,000 videos have been created by YouTube users from all over the world and they have been viewed more than an eye-opening 40,000,000 times. Prominent figures in todays society, including politicians, celebrities, and various other organizations have posted videos with hope-filled messages of encouragement. People such as President Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Ellen DeGeneres, Suze Orman, Adam Lambert, Ke$ha, and workers at Google, Facebook, and many from Broadway have created videos to help teens realize that, if they can make it through their teenage years, it will get better (It Gets Better Project).

Another well-known anti-bullying campaign is the STOMP Out Bullying program for young people. (stompoutbullying.org) It started back in 2005 when the nonprofit organization Love Our Children USA created the program to educate people about things such as cyber bullying, sexting, and teaching against racism, sexism, homophobia, and violence. The focus of the program is to reduce and prevent bullying from occurring. It offers schools programs, public service announcements with celebrities, and peer mentoring to educate and raise awareness. Annually it host a Blue Shirt Day- World Day of Bullying Prevention to raise awareness about the issue and to educate teens, parents, and schools on the subject. The program also sells merchandise such as its Stomp Out Bullying wristbands and posters to further bring attention to the problem and raise money to support its programs. On their website you can post videos and share stories about personal experiences with bullying as well as find advice on how to deal with it. Reading about different anti-bullying organizations and their strong messages made me wonder how much they will affect the future of cyber bullying. Most of them are fairly young, so I suppose only more time will tell how effective they actually are. I was surprised by the statistics that I found. As stated earlier, I have heard about cyber bullying before and had a small taste of it myself, but I really didnt know that it was such a huge problem. Stories like Phoebe Prince have shocked me and lead me to realize that cyber bullying is a much larger problem than I ever would have thought it could be prior to doing the research. I strongly agree with what Dr. Juvonen said about communication between parents and a child when it comes to cyber bullying. When the child shares what has happened, maybe they will be able to find a new way to cope with it and less stories of young suicide will have to be told. Also, I do think that its important for parents to be better educated on the topic so that they can learn how to help their child when cyber bullying occurs.

It was heart-warming to read about the different programs out there to help teens and the encouraging messages they had to offer. As technology advances and more ways for teens to communicate are created, the risk of being cyber bullied increases. I believe that the more awareness that is raised on the subject, the many organizations informing people, and even teens coming out and sharing their stories, that legal reform action will be taken to create better laws against cyber bullying, hopefully to prevent it and the suicides of teens who have to deal with it. I now feel well-informed about the topic of cyber bullying and feel like I could engage in a conversation on the subject and provide some accurate input on the matter. Continuing to research in the future I would like to learn more about cyber bullying prevention laws and how they may change in the future with growing awareness of the subject.

Works Cited

SFGate. San Francisco Chronicle. 10 Aug. 2009. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. isafe.org. i-SAFE Inc. Web. 3 Apr. 2012 Webster, Richard. Hartford County Examiner. Web. 3Apr. 2012 ncpc.org. National Crime Prevention Council. Web. 3 Apr. 2012 Parker-Pope, Tara. The New York Times. 3 Oct. 2008. Web. 3 Apr. 2012 itgetsbetter.org. It Gets Better Project. Web. 3 Apr. 2012 stompoutbullying.org. Stomp Out Bullying. Web. 3 Apr. 2012