Ethical issues of Cyber Bullying
Introduction
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services administration (HRSA) defines bullying as aggressive behavior that is intentional and involves an imbalance of power or strength, and HRSA notes that this behavior is usually repeated over time. Cyber bullying, is the social-networking phenomenon that is gaining traction among America’s tech-savvy teens, is drawing more attention than ever from school districts and state legislatures anxious to curb the online taunts and insults. This research paper includes description of cyber bullying, its different forms, effects of cyber bullying on individuals and suggestions in order to avoid this ugly form of bullying. Usually, cyber bullies are harassers; they use same weapons that bullies have used from ages: humiliation, gossips and threats. The difference is, cyber bullies do their dirty work using Web logs, emails, instant messaging, cell phones and several other electronic tools. According to psychotherapists, the easy access to Internet gives a chance to kids to say and to do things they wouldn't be able to do face to face, and also they feel they would not be held accountable in the same way, It gives bullies false sense of power and security. They say by using computers children get a sense of being anonymous. Using internet allows bullies to inflict abuse without experiencing or seeing the consequences of their actions, which makes the abuse less real to them and leads to a greater degree of being mean. (Gates, 2000) University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center conducted a survey and revealed that, cyber bullying is major problem in the United States. The study was conducted in 2006, and reports that 1 out of 17 kids ranging from age 10 and 17 has either been threatened or harassed online, with most of the incidents involving offensive behavior or spreading rumors. They can email embarrassing pictures and can also circulate humiliating gossip. Cyber bullies are also known to construct web pages or websites. States from Oregon to Rhode Island are considering crackdowns to curb or outlaw cyberbullying, which researchers say can be more damaging to victims than traditional bullying. A South Carolina law that took effect this year requires school districts to define bullying and outline policies and repercussions for the In February, Arkansas’ state senate approved legislation requiring districts to set up cyberbullying policies. Similar legislation is on the books now in Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Often limited to online insults about someone’s physical appearance, friends, clothing, or sexuality, cyberbullying has risen along with the growth of instant messaging social- networking sites such as MySpace.com. MySpace prohibits cyberbullying and tells users to report abuse—to the company as well as to parents and law enforcement.
Different types of Cyber Bullying Bullying can be physical or verbal and is done by both boys and girls. And now it has entered cyberspace with bullying being done through e-mails and online chat rooms. While bullying is often thought of as the bigger boy beating up the smaller one on the playground, when it comes to cyber bullying, HRSA says that, in a recent study, girls were found to be twice as likely to be victims of cyber bullying as boys.( Techniques, 2008) Cyber bullying includes intentional use of communication and information technologies to support repeated, intentional and hostile behavior towards an individual or group of individuals. (Belsey 2005). There are Six major forms of cyberbullying that are the following: 1. e-mail, 2. instant messaging (IM) 3. chat rooms or bash boards, 4. small text messaging (SMS), 5. Web sites, and 6. voting booths. E-mail is used by cyber bullies to send threatening and harassing messages to the targets. Usually e-mail programs has e-mail filters that automatically deletes or blocks messages from undesirable and unknown senders, however these blocks have limited degree, which most of the e-mail users already know. It is possible to some extent to trace from which e-mail account the offending messages were sent, but its almost impossible to prove which user actually used the account and sent the message. IM (instant messaging) is also like e-mail, however it is much faster communication. It alerts the user when somebody in her or his messaging list comes online, and allows the individual to start chatting with a particular individual same time. It includes large part of social lives of online users. As ones identity can be hidden, it allows users to hide their identities, thus increase the risk of bullying. Chat rooms/bash boards allow instant communication of internet users on their computers. A chat room provides opportunity to online users to write back and forth to one another. In a chat room users can write anything anonymously, which can be true or false, adding or creating mean-spirited postings for the whole world to see. SMS(small text messaging) is used in order to send and receive a short text message through mobile phones. This text includes numbers, words or alphanumeric combinations. Mobile phones can also be connected to the internet to browse and send or receive e-mails. Web sites are sometimes created by cyber bullies in order to antagonize, mock and to harass other users. These websites can be full of embarrassing comments and pictures of an individual. Opportunity to create Web pages is been offered by polling or voting which gives a chance to students to vote online for “fattest,” “ugliest,” and “dumbest,” girl or boy at an institution. It leaves a devastating effect on the hapless individual. Cyber bullying includes sending rude, angry, or vulgar messages that directs towards a person or persons or an online group; harassment is to send repeatedly offensive messages to a person; denigration means to send or post untrue, harmful and cruel statements about an individual to others; cyber stalking is also a harassment includes threats and is very intimidating; masquerading is to pretend to be some other person and to send material that affects that person’s image; outing and trickery is to be engaged in tricks to produce embarrassing information about an individual; and exclusion involves actions that intentionally and specifically exclude a person from an online group, like blocking someone from messenger buddies list. (McKenna, 2001)
Who is been effected Cyber-bullying can affect anyone who is connected to the Internet and regularly uses e-mail, instant messaging, or any other part of the World Wide Web. Knowing what it is, how to prevent it, and what to do if you or someone you know is a victim of cyber-bullying are of utmost importance. Educators, administrators, arid parents should know the characteristics of this phenomenon and how to help their children. Unfortunately, however, many young children and teenagers, who experience this same misery at school and at home, do not know how to deal with cyber-bullies or their barrage of threats and slurs. According to the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Web site, a recent poll of I ,000 children revealed that “One-third of all teens (12-17) and one-sixth of children ages 6-11 have had mean, threatening things said about them online. (Fight Crime, 2006) Not only do children have to worry about these threats, but adults are also falling victim to people who think that using technology to carry out their threats affords them anonymity and ways to victimize others while avoiding the consequences of their actions. Educators, administrators, parents, and students working together must find ways to combat this negative exploitation of technologies that otherwise can be wonderful tools for education, information, and communication
Effects of Cyber Harassing In a survey of US teens that use internet, approximately one-third said that they have experienced at least 1 type of online harassment Table 1.
|How I have been bullied |Yes |No |
|Having a personal message |15% |85% |
|emailed or forwarded online | | |
|Subject of an online rumor |13% |87% |
|Received an abusive or aggressive, Email or |13% |87% |
|text message | | |
|Subject of an embarrassing picture posted |6% |94% |
|online | | |

According to a survey, 6% of teenagers have reported being harassed over the internet (Thorp, 2004). Nearly the same time, in Canada a survey was conducted which shows that one-quarter young Internet users received internet messages that express hatred for others Several researches revealed that many adolescents experience online sexual harassment.
(Mnet, 2001). The cyber-harassment severity varies from incident to incident, that ranges from disturbing/ annoying to more severe such as occurrence of death threats. Studies suggest that, victims report experience of several kinds of harassing. (Ladd & Ladd, 2001) Researches suggests that more than one quarter of teenager female Internet users say that they have felt being frightened or been upset about different things said to them during various chatting sessions (Ipsos-Reid, 2001). These cyber harassers engage in harmful and cruel practices that embarrass, hurt and demean fellow students and they don’t have fear of facing the results for their actions. Cyber bullying may result in helplessness and depression in an individual; some of the effecties report being bullied for over year (Sharp, Thompson, & Arora, 2000). Not only these but, researches have also identified different psychosocial experiences of victims of cyber bullying. They usually, tend to cry easily, lack social competence and are unable to defend themselves from any verbal, physical or social attack (Schwartz, Dodge, & Coie, 1993). According to researches, victims most likely experience low self-esteem, anxiety and loneliness. (Hawker and Boulton, 2000). In addition to above described internal behaviors, victims also exhibit externalizing problems such as hyperactivity and impulsivity. (Camodeca, Goossens, Schuengel, & Terwogt, 2003). Victims of cyber bullying report distress and discomfort (Rigby, 2001); cyber-harassment can cause anger, feeling of sadness, and fear in the victim that may impair their ability to concentrate on a given task and to succeed academically.
What Should be done Educators, administrators, parents, and students working together must find ways to combat this negative exploitation of technologies that otherwise can be wonderful tools for education, information, and communication. First, acceptable use policies (AUPs) should be researched, designed, developed, and implemented at all levels in schools worldwide. According to the North Carolina IMPACT site, an AUP is "designed to provide guidelines for the appropriate use of a school computer or network, including access to the Internet. Acceptable use policies usually include explicit statements about the required procedures, rights, and responsibilities of a technology user as well as the consequences of inappropriate use.
To Stop cyber bullying might be difficult, but there are some precautions that can be tried and can prove to be useful in stopping the harassment. These include: • By not giving passwords or personal information to anybody, either in person or online, • By not responding to an email or a message from any online bully, • By not discussing personal family matters over the internet, • By avoiding online fights with other users • By blocking the e-mail sender in the email account or instant messages from sender. • We can also save the harassing messages and then forward them to the Internet Service Provider (ISP). These are the companies, such as, Netscape, AOL and NetZero which provide Internet access to consumers all over the world. Most of the ISPs have their policies, in order to restrict internet users from harassing others users over the Internet. • We should be aware because these bullies can change their screen names very easily.
Students should also be reassured that they will get full support if they have to report any kind of cyber-harassment, and they need to be taught how to protect themselves from being targeted keeping their passwords and personal information private. Schools should ask parents and students to sign a written contract regard to use of Internet for both inside and outside their classroom. The contracts will describe the details of punishment that cyber bullies will face if they're caught doing bullying. A code of conduct must also be established that will identify and manage cyber-harassing behaviors. (DesRocher, 2006) The students affected by cyber bullying should get their parents and school teachers and administrators involved and they should not attempt to handle this situation on their own online or suffer in silence. Parents should co-operate with school’s efforts in order to counter cyber harassing by recognizing that it is reality and they should address the problem with children.
There should be no tolerance for the misuse or abuse of technology. This zero tolerance is specially important if cyber-bullying occurs and creates confusion, fear, or distress among its users and affects their perceptions of the organization. No bullying or harassment of any kind should be tolerated at any level of educational organizations from elementary schools to universities. Another way to prevent cyber-bullying is to educate students about how to avoid socially inappropriate behavior, what the consequences are if the cyber-bullying behavior is exhibited, and how to respond to and report bullies. The Olweits Bullying Prevention Program at
Clemson University is one example of a positive program recognized for its effectiveness.
In the March 2006 issue of District Administration, the editor offers three tips for combating Internet safety issues. These safety tips suggest that educators (a) implement an interactive, meaningful educational program on cyber citizenship. Programs should address specifics like cyber-bullying. stranger danger, and music theft; (b) get peer counseling groups involved. Peers can help diffuse the hurt of cyber bullying; and (c) get expert help. School leaders can find examples of safe profiles for kids, learn about risk management, and find curriculum to teach online safety at www.wiredsafety.org or www.i-SAFE.org," Other organizations like Teenangels and WiredSafety offer peer-based solutions for any concerned party. Telling parents to "set ground rules, teach privacy, stay engaged, and keep tabs" on their children's technology use, they encourage proactive, not reactive roles among adults." By being proactive and knowing how to prevent problems before they begin, children and adults alike can thwart those people who would use technology negatively.
These sites and others also understand that everyone needs to know how to also deal with problems that have already started. Teenagers recommends, "If a cyber-bully strikes,"
• Stay cool
• Keep a log
• Be prepared
• Notify the school
• Click on support
Knowing what cyber-bullying is and how to deal with it can teach students how to use technology wisely, responsibly, and ethically.

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