Food for thought: 2 myths and a fact

Myths:

1. Most harassment occurs on social networking sites.

30% of young people who have been harassed say it’s happened on a social networking site. But, 40% say it’s happened while on Instant Messaging and 29% say it’s happened while playing a game online. This means harassment can occur in many different places online. You need to be aware of the way you talk to others no matter where you are.

2. Most youth are harassed at least once at some point when they are online.

It depends on how you measure Internet harassment, but in most studies more youth report not being targeted in the last year. For example, 91% of youth in the Youth Internet Safety Survey -2 were not harassed. 76% of youth in the Growing Up with Media survey report not being harassed. So, it shouldn’t be seen as ‘inevitable’ or ‘normal teen behavior’.

Facts:

1. Internet harassment happens most frequently by peers.
   63% of harassers are reportedly under the age of 18 years of age as compared to 14% who are 18 years of age and older. 23% of targeted youth said they didn’t know how old their harasser was.

Ok, so how do I tell if a friend is a cyberbully or is being cyberbullied?

Here are some indications that your friend or a relative might be a victim of cyberbullying:

Victim:

• appears nervous or jumpy when an Instant Message or Email appears
• unexpectedly stops using the Computer
• appears uneasy about going to school or outside in general
• appears to be angry, depressed, or frustrated after using the computer
• avoids discussions about what they are doing on the computer
• becomes abnormally withdrawn from usual friends and family member

People who cyberbully are usually not proud that they are cyberbullying, so they have odd behaviours.

Offender:

• quickly switches screens or closes programs when you walk by
• uses the computer at all hours of the night
• gets unusually upset if he or she cannot use the computer
• laughing excessively while using the computer
• avoids discussions about what they are doing on the computer
• is using multiple online accounts, or an account that is not their own

Who are these people who cyberbully?

According to teens that have been targeted:

-Harassers tend to be older teens (like 13-17 instead of 10-12).

-About half of the bullies are male, about 30% are female, and about 20% aren’t known to the teen who is being bullied

-About half of the time, the teen knows their harasser in the offline world. The rest of the time, the teen knows the harasser only in the online world. Sometimes, but not often, teens are harassed by people they don’t know online or offline.

According to teens who admit being a cyberbully or Internet harasser:

-Between 21-30% of youth have harassed others online in the last year

-Between 18-28% have made rude or nasty/mean comments to another person online.

-11% say they’ve spread rumors about another person online

-5% say they’ve made threatening or aggressive comments to others online

-9% have harassed or embarrassed another person online on purpose

www.cyberbully411.org/