If you find out that a child or young person is being cyberbullied using technology in chat rooms, social networking forums and when online gaming it is very important that you take action.
Working with Beatbullying to provide information on what cyberbullying involves and how to put procedures in place to prevent it happening.
What is cyberbullying (Bullying online)?
Taken from The Department of Education report 'Preventing and Tackling Bullying'
'The rapid development of, and widespread access to, technology has provided a new medium for ‘virtual’ bullying, which can occur in or outside school. Cyber-bullying is a different form of bullying which can happen 24/7, with a potentially bigger audience, and more accessories as people forward on content at a click.'
Beatbullying have expanded upon the then Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education) defintion: ‘The use of Information and Communications Technology, particularly mobile phones and the internet, deliberately to upset someone else’
Adding that: ‘‘Upsetting’ someone can take a variety of forms. It can involve threatening, distressing or humiliating a target, and, as such, encompasses a wide range of behaviours’
Beatbullying report, Virtual Violence: Protecting Children from Cyberbullying: pg17
In many cases, children do not consider particular acts of behaviour to be cyberbullying. For example, saying hurtful things or passing on images are not seen as bullying [by some children], because they happen in cyberspace as opposed to face-to-face.
This is often compounded by the impersonal nature of online communications. Although emoticons can be used to clarify intentions, people do not have the benefit of seeing subtle cues and body language that occur with regular human interactions. This can create an intention gap: the victim can interpret what is perceived as a joke by the perpetrator differently. Thus, the definition of cyberbullying must consider and focus on the intensity and harm caused.
The following categories are considered as cyberbullying:
- Sending threatening or discomforting text message to a mobile phone
- Making silent, hoax or abusive call to mobile phones
- Making and sharing embarrassing images or videos via mobile phone or website
- Broadcasting unsuitable web cam footage that is threatening or manipulative
- Leaving hurtful messages on social networking sites or sending the same message to that person’s peer group
- ‘Outing’ people by publishing or disseminating confidential information online
- Stealing an online identity in order to cause trouble in that person’s name
- Deliberately excluding people from online games or groups
- Setting up hate sites or hate groups against an individual
- Sending menacing or upsetting responses in chat rooms, online games, or messenger ‘real time’ conversations
- Voting for someone in an insulting online poll
- Sending someone ‘sexts’ that try to pressure them into sexual acts
Some of these behaviours or activities are illegal. A person involved could be investigated by the police and prosecuted.
Procedures for preventing cyberbullying
Mobile phones - All UK mobile phone providers have call centres and or procedures in place to deal with issues around bullying. You will find the relevant numbers to call from the child’s or your own mobile phone provider, generally under a section on tackling bullying and/or advice for parents. You can advise that it may be possible to get the child’s number changed via their mobile phone provider if they are being bullied. Also, if a certain type of handset is being used then it may be possible to set the phone so that it does not receive phone calls or text messages from a particular number.
Social networking sites - Social networking sites like Facebook have reporting procedures and a safety centre which contains advice for children, young people, parents and professionals. They will remove content that breaches their terms and conditions. Facebook also operates something called ‘social reporting’ this encourages people to work with others in their community to report offensive content as well as reporting it ‘officially’ through Facebook. It is important to remember that the official age for having a Facebook account is 13. However, as it stands, it is quite easy for a young person to set up an account if they are underage by giving a false date of birth.
Video and picture hosting sites - For such hosting sites including ‘YouTube’ where there are moving images or static pictures posted that are of a bullying nature you can also report them in the same way you do through social networking sites. Before you report things you may have to create an account if you don’t already have one and when you do make a report it’s important to remember that you need to flag things that are deemed inappropriate in the web sites respective policy.
Instant messaging and chat rooms - Instant messenger sites such as BBM, MSN, Facebook and Twitter are popular methods of communication for young people but can leave them open to being the victim of cyberbullying or sending messages themselves to others that could be seen to be offensive and upsetting. It’s important that if bullying has occurred in this context that all messages are recorded and archived so that if a report needs to be made or evidence needs to be saved then there is a clear record. As with other online services, reports can be made that breach the terms of service.