BULLYING is an age-old problem from time immemorial. As children, we first encounter bullies at school, and as grown ups, we see more varied forms of bullying, either in the workplace or on the roads.
In today's wired and wireless world, the bullies are fast embracing technological means to continue their intimidation of others. Now there are threats, gossips, humiliation or taunts that come through e-mail, instant messaging or even text messages over the handphone.
Welcome to the world of digital bullying. Although the cyberworld is usually perceived as a virtual environment, digital bullying is a real phenomenon that is growing exponentially.
For the past few years, bullying via text messaging and cell phone photos has been a concern in countries like Britain and Japan, where such technologies are in pervasive use. In extreme cases, some teenagers have committed suicide because they couldn't handle the taunts that come via digital bullying.
A study in Britain in 2004 by NCH, a children's charity, found that one in four students had been bullied online.
In the United States, the rising number of cases of cyber bullying has brought about changes in legislation in some states to help protect kids from becoming victims. Virginia, for example, has criminalised cyber bullying the minute it reaches a certain threshold.
The law there says: "A person is guilty of `harassment by computer' if, intending to intimidate or harass, he or she uses a computer or network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd... or indecent language, or make a suggestion/proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act."
It's been reported that harassment by computer in Virginia is punishable by up to a year in jail or a substantial fine.
On the home front, cases of digital bullying do not seem to be prevalent - we hardly see them being reported in the papers. However, this does not mean that it is non-existent.
Fourteen-year-old Jessica (not her real name) became a victim of digital bullying when she did not give in to a 19-year-old college boy's advances. The college boy took pictures of the teenager and threatened that he would post indecent pictures of her on the Internet. Although she did nothing indecent, her pictures were altered with the use of a photo-editing software to look otherwise.
Too afraid of what was to happen, Jessica informed her parents. But to avoid embarrassment for the family, her parents refrained from lodging a police report. Instead, they had a talk with the college boy to stop harassing their daughter. He stopped, but only after a few months later because he had found a new prey.
Another case concerns Leeza (not her real name), a 20-year-old who sings with a band in her neighbourhood. Her torment came via text messages to her handphone. Someone would always send her messages to ask her band to leave the neighbourhood and sing elsewhere, or face the "consequences". Instead of reporting the matter to the police, Leeza decided to change her handphone number, which she is still doing so up to this day.
Thus, it is good news that the local Government, via the Education Ministry, has launched Anti-Bullying Campaign 2006 in schools. The Ministry has set up an online Discipline Complaints System which allows anyone to lodge complaints about the bullying issue.
However, the schools, pupils and parents will also need to address the issue when the bullying takes place off the school property. While the posters for the nationwide campaign depict bullying aptly in the form of teasing, beating or even name calling, these forms are just the tip of the iceberg in the more complex world of modern-age bullying.
Hence, taking the lessons from cases of cyber bullying abroad, it would be best if some legislation is put in place in the country to help deter the problem from escalating. Perhaps the Education Ministry could look into developing a comprehensive policy on acceptable computer use, both on and off school property. The policy should list what constitutes cyber bullying and outline the consequences.
And for parents of young teens who are most susceptible to digital bullying, the experts advise is to "switch off the problem". This includes changing e-mail addresses or handphone numbers.
Copyright 2006
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
adapted from New Straits Times, Mar 16 2006, by Prasanna raman
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ReplyDeletesorry for being late, was busy with activity recently, but anyway here's my post.
ReplyDeleteI don know whether digital bullying can be categorized or included into school bullying or not. As the virtual world has became part of the children's life.
if the bully incident occur in digital world, then the victims and bullies are from the same school, later on the victim get taunt and being laugh by friends at school, so in this case, will it be considered as school bullying?
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ReplyDeleteNot a problem Chia.. I was wondering, what can we do as friends if this happened to our friends? Or there is nothing much that can be done as we cannot control the 'virtual world'?
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view, it’s certainly can be categorized as one of them. Digital bullying also known as “cyber bullying” is on the rise and likely occur among students at the ages of 11 to 19. According to British children's charity NCH, "Text bullying is when someone abuses or threatens you by text, and it's just as bad as them doing it at school or in the street", where you can get suffer as serious as physical harm. For example, a girl who has been dumped by her boyfriend sends a text to another girl, “Hey, you slut! Bitch! Such a mean girl you are!!!!” This thing did happen and guess what’s the feeling of the girl who received such an insult message? She has been abandoned by her friends and being leaved a side while she’s in the school. That’s totally freaking out! I’m wondering why should they do such an action to hurt somebody like this way?
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