[LINK] Oh, that evil Internet!

[Crispin Harris]

Hi Linkers,
   This is a very sad event, and as a parent, I feel for the girl's family
and friends and the distress that they are feeling now.

I do, however think that we are seeing only a small part of the story, when
it is being "blamed" on "the internet".

I would really lik to see a little more depth in the bullying questions.
Particularly to see how much bullying is limited to only one
style/method/media. I have a strong suspicion that bullying (when it occurs)
involved MULTIPLE vector: that this poor girl was being bullied, and that
the internet service she was using was ONE of multiple ways that it was
occurring.

Disclaimer: I would like to do this research, but do not have the
qualifications, access or facilities available to me.

Sample research questions.
1) What proportion of young people report that they have been bullied?
2) How many of them report:
  2.1) Physical Bullying
  2.2) Non-Physical
  2.3) Both Physical & Non-Physical
3) In the portion that report Non-Physical bullying, how many of them are
(multiple answers are allowed):
  3.1) Physically present Verbal bullying
  3.2) Non-present verbal bullying (phone calls etc)
  3.3) via Text messaging services (SMS, Twitter)
  3.4) via Instant Messaging services (Yahoo, AIM, MSN etc)
  3.5) via Social Networking & group-messaging services (Facebook, IRC,
Myspace, fetlife, Wold of Warcraft or other online games)
4) With respect to WHO you is doing the bullying. Are they:
  4.1) Age: Same, older, younger;
  4.2) Sex: Same, Opposite.
  4.3) In your social group? Outsiders?
5) Is the bullying repeated/sustained?
  5.1) Does this differ in the different environments?


On the other side:
6) Who helps you?
  6.1) Parents
  6.2) Siblings
  6.3) Other family members
  6.4) Friends
  6.5) Teachers

Wow - this was just 10 minutes... as I said, this topic is MUCH more complex
than "10% of children report..."
On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 1:18 PM, David Boxall <
david.boxall at hunterlink.net.au> wrote:

> > ... young people do not think adults take cyber bullying seriously.
> We tend not to take seriously anything that isn't physical. The
> consequences are sometimes tragic.
>
 Sadly, this is frequently true.
By the time that non-physical bullying vectors became wide-spread, most/all
of us were already old enough to be (at least) mostly clear of the problems.

Personally, I think that this is more of an education/coping-skills exercise
in most cases. Specifically the skill/knowledge to walk away from an online
conversation that is getting nasty.

And all of us know how hard THAT can be - even with the wisdom and
experience of our years.

Yours in Service,
  Crispin
-- 
Crispin Harris
crispin.harris at gmail.com
"Well, you know... most Catholics are so boring, you kind of expect them to
be fairly reasonable and not, say, frothing papal fanboys with the IQ of a
turnip. So he had me fooled. Not any more, though."
Thanks to Eric The FruitBat (etfb.livejournal.com)