Thoughts, Ideas, and Ponderings of Some Random Guy

Summary - Cyber Bullying

2006-08-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

Blog Entry Summary – Cyber Bullying

With the use of computers and the internet growing everyday, it is not surprising that misuse of them is also increasing. And as such a new form of online harassment has begun known as ‘Cyber Bullying.’ According to Belsey (2006), “Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, cell phone and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal Web sites, and defamatory online personal polling Web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.” Put simply, it is any unwanted attention which involves attempted sexual solicitation, harassment, or torment towards an individual.

In fact cyber bullying has become such a problem now that it has started to overshadow the issue of inappropriate content availability to children. An Australian teenage magazine called Girlfriend conducted a survey of young girls in order to identify the frequency and impact of cyber bullying and found that of the 13,300 teenagers surveyed, 42% had been victim of cyber bullying from another student at their school (Beer, 2006). The ways in which this cyber bullying occurs is quite broad, and it can also lead to offline sexual solicitations, harassment and torment. According to a Canadian website, 44% of cyber bullying cases involved offline acquaintances with a majority being their own peers, and often occurred while they were online in the company of other peers (Collier, 2004). Of this figure, less than 25% involved sexual solicitations from people over the age of 18, however 27% of the age range was unknown, and also 3% we aggressive forms of cyber bullying which requested an offline meeting (Collier, 2004).

Cyber Bullying can occur in a number of ways, ranging from offline technologies such as pagers, SMS, and mobile phone calls, online live technologies such as chat forums, instant messaging, and personal polling sites, and online non-live technologies such as emails, defamatory websites, and discussion boards.

Offline technologies are very mobile and can be used to bully individuals from anywhere at any time, however they are also the easiest to track as they provide a mobile phone or pager number. Of the Girlfriend survey, 69% of the 13,300 girls who participated used their mobiles phones at school (Beer, 2006) so this would indicate the high opportunity rate for bullies to use such technologies. Recipients of this form of bullying are recommended to report these numbers to their parents and teachers, and if needed, to the police, so that action may be taken to stop the bully from further harassment.

With computers and the internet ever increasing in use, children are now using chat forums and instant messengers to keep in touch with their friends in the cyber world, friends which include real life friends, and friends made from other parts of the world. However with the use of chat handles it is very hard to know who you are talking to, or that the persona presented is real. Due to this virtual anomity, people take to bullying as a form of free-for-all harassment hitting out at people they know, and people who are completely unknown to them. In the case of chat rooms, victims of bullying should log out of chat rooms and report the bullies to their teachers or parents of what occurred. In the case for instant messaging, through some programs users will have the option to block incoming messages from certain users, which is a recommended step. If the messaging service cannot block users, then it is suggested that logging off is the best form of action. After logging off or blocking a user, victims should report the events to their teacher or parents. Online polling booths should be reported immediately to the website moderators so that action can be taken to remove the poll and also ban the users responsible for the development of the poll.

Bullying emails received should be reported to teachers and parents, and in some cases can be reported to internet service providers or to the moderators email server such as Hotmail, which can result in action taken to trace and take action upon such bullies (Belsey, 2006). Once reported, bullying emails should be deleted and the user blocked if the email system has that option, thus further preventing the chance of further bullying. For defamatory websites and discussion boards, these also need to be reported to teachers and parents, and also website moderators so that the content can be removed, and bullies banned or located for further action to take place.

With cyber bullying on the increase, parents and teachers need to know how to identify a child that may be being bullied. Some common signals that children are being cyber bullied may include spending a lot of time on the computer, or not wanting to get on the computer at all, sleeping issues such as insomnia and nightmares, mood swings which may include depression or spontaneous crying, physically feeling unwell, becoming anti-social which may result in the loss of friends, falling behind in school work, and any unusual behaviours (NetAlert Limited, 2004). It is important for parents and teachers to identify when cyber bullying may be occurring so that they may assist in taking action preventing further bullying from occurring.

Once cyber bullying has been identified, it is extremely important that teachers and parents act upon preventing this from occurring further. Communicating with children what constitutes bullying, what actions should be taken if they are bullied, and to understand their responsibilities when using the internet to stop the chance of becoming a bully is very important. Research any online anti-bullying policies that are in action, what they entail, and try direct children to programs and websites that have satisfactory policies. Sit with children while they are learning new websites and programs and discuss with them the boundaries and guidelines they need to follow while using these sites and programs. And finally knowing who to contact if bullying occurs is extremely important. People within the local community that can help include friends, teachers, counsellors, parents, police, and welfare groups. Phone support in Australia include the NetAlert Helpline and Kids Help Line, and there are also online help from NetAlert and Bullying No Way (NetAlert, 2004).

Parents and teachers need to be diligant when it comes to protecting children from the chances of cyber bullying, just as much as offline bullying. Technology is becoming used as a substitute for face to face communication, so measures need to be taken to prevent stop bullying because the effects of bullying can be so detrimental to children’s lives. Education for adults and children needs to be taken so that understanding of the issue can be fully comprehended and the issue eradicated.

References:

- Beer, S (2006) Magazine’s research reveals cyber bullying problem. Retrieved from http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4013/53/ on 14/8/2006
- Belsey, B (2006) Cyber Bullying. Retrieved from www.cyberbullying.ca on 13/8/2006
- Collier, A (2004) Net Family News. Retrieved from netfamilynews.org/newsletter.shtml#newsitemEEVVFpuVlpSGyqTYVP on 13/8/2006
- NetAlert (2004) What is Cyber Bullying? Retrieved from http://www.netalert.net.au/01569-What-is-Cyber-Bullying.asp on 14/8/2006
- NetAlert (2004) What are the signs that a child is being cyber bullied? Retrieved from http://www.netalert.net.au/01570-What-are-the-signs-that-a-child-is-being-cyber-bullied.asp
on 14/8/2006
- NetAlert (2004) How do I protect children from cyber bullies? Retrieved from http://www.netalert.net.au/01571-What-can-I-do-about-Cyber-Bullying.asp on 14/8/2006
- NetAlert (2004) Who do I contact for help? Retrieved from http://www.netalert.net.au/01572-Who-do-I-contact-for-help.asp on 14/8/2006

Final Meeting - Wed 23/8/06

2006-08-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

Today our presentation was presented, and as such we met up before hand to finalise everything that needed to be done with content and design. We recorded Chenae's voice overs with Garage Band on one of the uni apples while Dean finalised the transitions and hyperlinks to our video clips, and then voice overs once they were completed.

We then quickly ran through all our referencing to make sure that everything was correctly referenced and did a quick preview of the presentation to make sure it all fit into our allotted 5 minute time frame. Everyone was quite satisfied with the result, though we all agreed that if we had one more week our presentation would have been even better.

Meeting 3 - Wed 16/8/06

2006-08-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

We had a quick meeting today to quickly run over what we had so far with the information content and the presentation layout and design. We decided that we were possibly being a little too vague with some of the explanations so the idea of some voice overs to fill in the gaps was suggested. It was agreed that Dean, Elise, Jen, and I were to write some brief speeches and Chenae would be our "voice" within the powerpoint presentation.

After finalising all this, we updated the powerpoint with some adequate referencing for information and images.

Meeting 2 - Sun 13/8/06

2006-08-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Today we met to collaborate our research, organise a structure for the information format, and the design and structure for the power point presentation itself. After going through the information each of us had collected we decided that we would structure the presentation so that it would all flow in related topics.

We began the presentation with a humourous picture, however the underlying significance relating to the issues of online predators preying on children and teenagers would not be lost on our audience. Although I'm sure everyone will have a bit of a chuckle or a bit of a cringe due to the sight of the man, I'm sure that it really will hit home that this is the sort of example of online predators that is fastly becoming common in modern day cyber society.

The we decided that the presentation would follow this basic guideline:
-"Importance of Web Access" mentions the importance of children having access to the internet
-"Protect Yourself" talks about safety by not giving out personal information
-"Protect Your Computer" talks about having up to date anti-virus/spyware software to protect your computer
-"Protect the Children" discusses ways in which adults and teachers can minimise the chance of children browsing unsuitable content
-"Internet Responsibility" talks about the responsibilities of children using the internet
-"Cyber Bullying" talks about ways in which children are bullied and how to prevent this from happening
-"Internet Information Validity" speaks of how not everything published on the internet is true

We then finish the presentation with another humourous, but hard hitting film clip which we feel will leave a very big impression on the audience which due to it's amusing yet impacting nature will remain in their minds.

Once the information format was taken care of, we then worked on the aesthetics working on some wordart for the titles for each slide, the base background for all the images, and we filmed Elise doing a mock image search of 'dolls' to demonstrate the type of content that children can accidentally find.

Research - Sun 13/8/06

2006-08-29T05:04:00.000-07:00

I started out by trying to use a child based search engine, www.yahooligans.yahoo.com, to see what sort of information children could access in relation to our 5 keys issues. Here I found a lot of information about how to safely use the internet in relation to keeping themselves safe from predators by not giving out personal information, not accepting unknown files, and understanding their responsibilities of using the internet. A lot of this can be related back to the various child-based websites, such as disney.go.com and www.kidscom.com running activities and programs. However, through this child search engine, there was information about cause, but very little on effect in regards to computer viruses, predators and of unsuitable material.

On to yahoo.com to search for more information about web filters, incorrect published information and cyber bullying. Found that there are a large amount of internet filtering programs, however next to none are 100% effective as they block out some unrelated content, in some times important content, eg. breast cancer information when the word "breast" is filtered, and also some inappropriate material is still able to sneak through the filters. In saying this, filters can be useful, but some argue that this ineffective filtering can also damage the rights of child to information (when suitable information is incorrectly blocked).

Although we are focusing on a few issues of web access in the classroom, I think I am going to base my summary on the issues of cyber bullying. I am greatly interested in the effects of this and the precautions and help support available, and there appears to be a fair amount of information in regards to why it is done, how it is done, what can be done to stop it, and figures to support it all which will be helpful in writing up an accurate summary...

Meeting 1 - Wed 9/8/06

2006-08-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

Well, with what seemed to be a limitless supply of issues surrounding web access in K-7 schools, we decided to narrow it down to 5 key issues:
Unsuitable content - porn, violence, adult-themed material, etc.
Cyber Bullying
Untrue posted information
Unknowingly accepting viruses and spyware
Responsibility of web and computer use

We also discussed the style of presentation would be best suited to a powerpoint presentation with some added movie clips to minimise the chance of it turning into a boring, dull presentation. We all agreed that some humour be used to keep the audience's attention and to offer a little amusement.

Some excellent information was presented in regards to child safety while using the internet using online websites and games which teach children how to keep themselves safe while using the internet, websites such as http://disney.go.com/surfswell/index.html

Foiled!!!

2006-08-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

Well, in the attempt to prioritise my work, I decided to leave my blog updates all for one hit, hoping to edit the posting date to correspond with the date of the actual events, but alas, it cannot be done... So, as such I will be posting recounts of the events and dating them in the topic header.

ICT1100 - The Beginning!!!

2006-08-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Well, this is just some thoughts and ideas for the ICT1100 assignment 1 presentation. Our group being the first to present our assignment in week 4 chose the topic we hoped would be the easiest to research and prepare for, "Issues around webaccess in K-7 classrooms."

As the group has not met yet to brainstorm and discuss plans, these are just a few ideas I have which I plan on persenting to the group. I, like most students, tutors, and lecturers, am quite bored with a plain old powerpoint slide show, so I am hoping to suggest mixing up our types of media in the presentation. We obviously need to keep some text information slides, they offer straightforward information, but it would be nice to add in some still pictures, animations, and possibly a video clip or 2.

Firstly, structuring the presentation around the negatives of K-7 web access because the topic is about the "issues" of such access. I will be suggesting focusing on 2 main subjects, search engine browsing content, the old search for Power Puff Girls on Yahoo!.com that brings up some form of website that has naked girls powering away with some "puff." The other subject is online predators, through emailing, chat rooms, forums and blogs. Society is becoming aware more and more of predators on the internet, such as older men chatting with children in chatrooms and trying to organise 'liasons.'

Another idea for the presentation is filming a dramatised version of a predatory incident, hopefully keeping it serious, but also trying to have a bit of a humourous edge to it to keep it informative and still entertaining in order to keep the attention of the audience. Obviously discussion will be needed on the idea of having humour involved with such a serious topic, but regardless of humour or not, I'd still like to do a dramatisation.

Finally, an alternative to filming would be to use still pictures and doing picture sequence using juxtaposition of different pictures such as a pic of a child on a computer, to a middle aged man on a computer, to man being led away by police. The power of thought and imagination fills in the gaps and makes the assumptions of the storyline.

That'll do for now me thinks, more ideas and research to come!