Cyber Bullying: The Mean Side of Media

and how it is Affecting Students of All Ages

Steven Smith

Queens University of Charlotte

Abstract

This paper explores how cyber bullying has become a serious problem in schools of all

levels. The new technologies that have grown in popularity over the past decade have

enabled classroom bullying to go out of the classroom and into students’ home lives.

There have been numerous stories in the media lately that demonstrate the serious

repercussions of cyber bullying. It has been a hot topic in the media lately, and there has

been a lot said about the best way for parents and teachers to handle such matters. This

paper investigates the ways of which cyber bullying is occurring, whom it is happening

to, and what can be/is being done about it.

Cyber Bullying: The Mean Side of Media and how it is Affecting Students of All Ages

Bullying has been a problem in schools since most of us can remember, but as

modern technology continues to advance bullying has taken on a new guise. Children in

school these days have so many more avenues of which they use to bully each other.

Cyber bullying has been all over the news lately, and for good reason; technologies

continue to advance, and this kind of torment continues to become increasingly prevalent.

Bullying has been going on for as long as anyone can remember, and everyone has

experienced it or been witness to it in one way or another. Up until pretty recently, a child

dealing with a bully at school could escape it when he/she got home. Unfortunately, that

is no longer the case. New technologies make it possible for bullying to go beyond the

classroom and into a child’s home life. The majority of kids in middle school these days

have cell phones (“Cell Phones,” 2007), Facebook, MySpace, instant messaging, and

maybe even Twitter at their disposal. As early as a decade ago, the large majority of

children had never even heard of these devices. With that said, the new technologies

being created aren’t all to blame for bullying following kids home. Parents are putting

cell phones into their children’s hands at younger ages than ever before. As of 2007,

twenty two percent of kids, ages 6-9, have cell phones (“Cell Phones,” 2007). Parents

want to be in constant contact with their kids, which results in fifth graders with cell

phones; this has its pros and cons. Typical classroom bullying is already starting to

become pretty intense at that age, and cell phones just give kids another avenue to bully

one another.

A common misconception about cyber bullying is that it stops after middle

school, or highschool. However, stories in the media lately tell a different story. Cyber

bullying most certainly continues into high school, and in some cases even college. While

the prevalence may not be as intense as it is in middle or high school, it seems clear that

college students are dealing with cyber bullies as well.

Up until a few years ago, it seemed that a blind eye, of sorts, was being turned to

cyber bullying. The thought was that kids would be kids, and that they would ultimately

get over it. It wasn’t really acknowledged as a real problem; bullying was just one of

those things that everyone experienced at some point or another, and then moved on

from. It wasn’t until it began to come to light that suicides were beginning to occur as a

direct result of bullying, cyber bullying in most cases, that it was recognized as a real

problem (Hinduja, & Patchin, 2010). Nowadays, when one turns on the news it’s almost

inevitable to see a story relating back to cyber bullying.

In a lot of cases cyber bullying is a lot more dangerous and harmful than typical

schoolyard bullying. For one, the victim can’t just go home and get away from it; cyber

bullying can happen without any face to face contact, which makes it all the more hurtful.

The fact that cyber bullying occurs through technology makes it easier for someone to be

more callous towards another than they usually would in person (“Cyberbullying vs.

Traditional”). People are much more comfortable sending a scathing text message to

someone than they are saying it to their face. It allows them to be doubly as cruel,

without having to face the consequences of such words in a face-to-face conversation.

There have been so many tragic stories that resulted from cyber bullying in the

news lately, but there’s two that stood out as particularly striking and noteworthy.

The first is the heartrending story of Tyler Clementi, the freshman at Rutgers University

who took his own life after his peers filmed him having a sexual encounter with another

male and posted it on the internet. After Clementi caught wind of the images on the

Internet, he committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge (Friedman,

2010). Unfortunately, homosexuals seem to be amongst those getting the worst of the

bullying. This story goes to show the serious repercussions that can result from what

might seem like a joke at the time.

The other story is also particularly striking and took place in 2007, the story of

Megan Meier. This was one the first stories that really brought attention to cyber

bullying, and how brutally harsh it can be. Megan Meier was a thirteen year old who

suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder (“Cyber bullying led,” 2010). She

began corresponding with a boy named “Josh” on MySpace. The two spoke on MySpace

for about a month, when “Josh” suddenly ended their friendship. Megan committed

suicide the next day after Josh had told her that he no longer wanted to be her friend

because he had heard she was mean and a bad friend. It was later revealed that Josh was

not actually a real person, but a fake identity that had been created by a former friend of

Megan’s and the friend’s mother (“Cyber bullying led,” 2010). This story immediately

was all over the media; it was the first time anyone had ever heard of a mother taking part

in the bullying of another child in such a blatantly hurtful manner. This instance goes to

show how unorthodox cyber bullying can be, its not always just text messages or

Facebook posts that directly assault the victim.

So what can be done about this? Or what is being done about this? No one seems to

know who is responsible for handling this matter: the police, the parents, or the school

(Hoffman, 2010). If there is no law prohibiting such cyber harassment, there isn’t much

the police can do. Congress is currently considering a bill intended to prevent cyber

bullying; this bill would make “electronic communication intended to coerce, intimidate

or harass a federal crime.”(Hoffman, 2010), which is a definite step in the right direction.

Forty-four states already have bullying statutes, but much fewer have any type of rules

intended to prevent the electronic type (Hoffman, 2010). Legally speaking, schools

previously haven’t had the jurisdiction to punish students for bullying that took place

outside of school hours and off school grounds. However, courts have begun to side with

principles in their decision to punish “students who demean others online in dramatically

different ways” (Hoffman, 2010). Bernard James, an educational law scholar at

Pepperdine University agrees that principals not only have the right, but the responsibility

to protect students from such bullies: “Educators are empowered to maintain safe

schools. The timidity of educators in this context of emerging technology is working to

the advantage of bullies” (Hoffman, 2010).

There is no doubt that the world is currently living in a context of increasingly

booming technologies. As technological outlets continue to grow in quantity, it can be

assumed that cyber bullying will also continue to become increasingly prominent. Small

steps have been taken towards resolving this issue, but there is still much to be done in

order to keep up with this growing epidemic.

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