The thing that stood out to me this week is that cyberbullying is prevalent and insidious. It is easy to do and hard to prove. In the story, “I trolled someone on Ask.fm” from the Seven Digital Deadly Sins (NFB), the writer references using a proxy to remain anonymous which I didn’t know kids knew how to do. She shows us that if a bully really wants to get away with certain behaviors, they can.
The ways to address cyberbullying are similar to the ways in which bullying should be addressed. I think the strategy should be threefold: address the parents/guardians to be aware of students’ online quantity and behavior, address the staff to be a welcoming, empathetic ear, and address the students to speak up if they are a victim or if they know of bullying behavior from others. Additionally, librarians and media technology teachers can educate students on online privacy issues and anti-bullying strategies.
Parents and guardians are the first line of defense against bullying and cyberbullying. The online behaviors that students learn at home will certainly influence their own online behavior. One of the videos I watched led me to the website StopBullying.gov (HHS) which had a lot of great suggestions for parents (HHS, 2021):
Monitor a teen’s social media sites, apps, and browsing history, if you have concerns that cyberbullying may be occurring.
Review or re-set your child’s phone location and privacy settings.
Follow or friend your teen on social media sites or have another trusted adult do so.
Stay up-to-date on the latest apps, social media platforms, and digital slang used by children and teens.
Know your child’s user names and passwords for email and social media.
Establish rules about appropriate digital behavior, content, and apps.
As librarian-teachers, we can always remind parents of these ideas in our newsletters.
One of the videos, “Let’s Fight It Together” (ChildNet, 2008) started with a young boy filming himself and declaring that he had no one to talk to about his experience with cyberbullying. Luckily his mother eventually found out about the situation and confronted the school administration. But imagine feeling like no one at school would listen or help? Teachers, staff and school administrators need to position themselves as open and ready to listen and support students who are being cyberbullied. Forming relationships is key to this point. Knowing what the warning signs are for bullying is also important. Staff can observe dramatic changes in social circles, behaviors and friend relationships and reach out if they sense danger. In that same video, it shows a friendly teacher noticing that the student has changed and is sitting alone, and she sits down to see if he’s ok. But she doesn’t linger, and moves on.
Students themselves can get involved in shutting down cyberbullying. If they do not tolerate bullying online, it will only help other students. Perhaps they don’t think of forwarding messages or lightly teasing “friends” online is bullying. But students don’t always know the total story of how often it is happening to someone.
Many of the videos for this week’s module were flash mob style anti-bullying dances, or produced dramatic re-enactments of school bullying or cyberbullying. An amazing example of this is the Cypress Ranch High School Anti-Bullying Lip Dub “Who Do U Think U R?” (2012). It seemed to be the least cringe-worthy one, and had an uplifting feel to it. I think the value of these videos and the scenes they portray is not really in their replay value, but rather in the feelings and conversations they helped create in the students creating them. In other words, I don’t necessarily see the value in showing these videos to an audience outside of the community in which they were made. I think the value is in the making of them. So if a particular school felt the need to address bullying or cyberbullying in its own community, I think a lot can be gained in the scripting, casting, acting and production of content, as this would take time and care and involve many students in thinking about the topic. Self-reflection is what the takeaway should be - as in, “what am I doing to stop bullying at my school?”
Librarians and media technology teachers can perform the important role of delivering presentations about cyberbullying that give both empathy and solutions to students. From the Cyberbullying Research Center, “(presentations) need clear, specific strategies that are age-appropriate and will actually work.” (n.d.) Some of these strategies are (Cyberbullying Research Center, 2014):
bystanders can carefully document what happened and then take the details to an adult they trust will respond appropriately
bystanders might also take the target aside to tell her that what happened was not cool and he is there and available to help make the problem go away
bystanders could also organize her friends to condemn the behavior without doing anything directly
Resources
ChildNet. (2008, May 3). Let’s fight it together. [YouTube video]. https://youtu.be/dubA2vhIlrg
Cyberbullying Research Center (n.d.). What the best bullying and cyberbullying assembly speakers do https://cyberbullying.org/best-bullying-cyberbullying-assembly-speakers
Cyberbullying Research Center (2014, July 18). Empower bystanders to improve school climate https://cyberbullying.org/empower-bystanders-to-improve-school-climate
Kaitlyn K. (2012, Mar 30). Cypress Ranch High School Anti-Bullying Lip Dub “Who Do U Think U R?” [YouTube video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENBJnX6cEKE&t=325s
HHS (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). (2021, August 17). Digital Awareness for Parents. https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/digital-awareness-for-parents
NFB Digital Studio Vancouver. (n.d.). I trolled someone on Ask.fm http://sins.nfb.ca/#/Wrath/27
I like how you made parent involvement a focus of your blog post; that was something I didn't think to include in my own post, but I think you raise a good point. Something I wonder about is if those of us who grew up on the Internet (including myself here; I'm a '95 baby) will be more proactive about setting online limits for our kids than people who didn't grow up on the Internet. That's certainly not to generalize and say that Baby Boomer and Gen X parents did a bad job of setting limits for myself and my Millennial peers, but since we grew up with the Internet, I wonder if we'll be more cautious or less cautious? You made some good points!
ReplyDeleteThis sentence that you wrote really resonated with me: "Librarians and media technology teachers can perform the important role of delivering presentations about cyberbullying that give both empathy and solutions to students." I think it is everyone's role within a community to address bullying but as a librarian we have a greater ability to outreach. We have the connection to the entire school including students and faculty. We also have the ability to reach out to local public libraries and reach even more. I also very much appreciated your helpful list of ways parents can assist with this epidemic. They are very much the first line of defense, but if we all work together, we can squash cyberbullying and live in a happier world.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea kids could become & remain anonymous either! I always thought students would have evident proof of the damage and a consequence could be reached with the parents help, but that is clearly not the case. I appreciate your concise and straightforward approach to developing a plan of action for cyberbullying awareness and prevention. I completely agree the parent play a huge role in this issue... being responsible for teaching their children values that would rival bullying behavior. Plus, they are providing many of the devices used to target individuals. It's sad may young people don't think the adults in their lives would be emphatic or understanding or would help them. Making the issue, as you suggest, will hopefully let kids know they can come to safe adults and that help is as ask away.
ReplyDelete