Magazine’s research reveals cyber bullying problem

By Stan Beer
Sunday, 23 April 2006 20:27

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Teen magazine Girlfriend has conducted a survey to definitively expose the prevalence of cyber bullying and the impact that is having on young girls, as part of a 12-month campaign to ban bullying. According to the magazine the results are more alarming than anticipated. Almost half (42%) of the 13,300 teens surveyed have been cyber bullied by a student at their school.

Cyber bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as e-mail, mobile 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.Because kids spend so much time on mobile phones and the Internet, they are easy targets for cyber-abuse.

"There is a belief that cyber bullying isn't a big deal, but Girlfriend’s survey confirms it's much more widespread than first thought.  Cyber bullying needs to be seen as a significant public health issue that needs more attention," said Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, Girlfriend & Explode magazines’ resident adolescent psychologist.

"Young people today are so technologically experienced that it can be intimidating for adults to keep up, but parents and educators need to be aware of young people's on-line activities.  We need to change public perception of the seriousness of the issue. It's an uphill battle because parents are often in the dark about what goes on in their children's world of Internet and text messaging communication and often don't realise that the capacity for harm in the cyber world can be much faster, more widespread and, just as damaging, as in the playground," he added.

The Internet has taken on a central role in teenage culture, creating a new landscape for social interaction.  97% of the 13,300 girls who participated in Girlfriend’s survey have access to the Internet at home, and 69% use their mobile phones at school so it’s no surprise that cyberspace has supplemented or replaced lunchroom and after-school cliques.  The new school yard now consisting of:

on-line chat rooms
instant messaging (IM)
bulletin boards
e-mail
mobile phone text messages
personal Web sites
blogs (Web logs or personal diaries on a Web site)

The survey reveals that flaming, online harassment, online denigration, online masquerading, and exclusion from an online group are common forms of cyber bullying, with online harassment and exclusion being the two most common.