Cyberbullying

Legislation introduced by US lawmakers proposes to establish a national database that state and local officials could use to discover best practices for school safety and cyberbullying prevention. Called the School Safety Clearinghouse Act, the bill includes federal funding and would provide educators access to recommendations from architects, engineers, first responders, mental health advocates, parents and building security experts. The clearinghouse intends to help educators make informed decisions about the safety of their students.

The Bullying Workbook for Teens (for kids 13 and up) is a recent title from the Instant Help Solutions series. The booklet includes exercises to help teens learn to understand and manage the difficult emotions created when you’re the victim of bullying or cyberbullying. Using cognitive behavioral techniques, the material helps teens identify and manage their emotions, from anxiety to anger to depression, and provides guidance to getting help when a bullying situation is getting out of control.

What is the difference between rude behavior and bullying? Signe Whitson, a therapist and author of several booklets on bullying, says it is important to draw a distinction. If we improperly classify rudeness and mean behavior as bullying — whether simply in conversation or to bring attention to short-term discomfort — we all run the risk of becoming desensitized to the word and this actual life-and-death issue among young people will lose its urgency. In her definition, being mean involves  “purposefully saying or doing something to hurt someone once (or maybe twice).” Bullying, on the other hand, is “intentionally aggressive behavior, repeated over time, that involves an imbalance of power.... Kids who bully say or do something intentionally hurtful to others and they keep doing it, with no sense of regret or remorse — even when targets of bullying show or express their hurt or tell the aggressors to stop.”

A recent article from the BBC states that as researchers continue to consider the reasons children bully their peers, they are finding more and more frequently that there is more than just one type of bully. The stereotype that all bullies are aggressive with self-esteem issues is too simplistic, researchers say, and the mentality of bullying is much more complex. Aside from the blunt and open aggressor, another more Machiavellian kind of bullying has come to be recognized. Children who fall into this category tend to have better social skills, are often charismatic and liked by teachers – far from the “oafish” stereotype of bullies. Crucially, these children can turn on and off their bullying to suit his or her needs – and, of course, anonymous cyberbullying fits this modus operandi perfectly.

In attempts to prevent violence in schools, some districts nationwide are taking steps to monitor students' online activity and social media posts. Spurred in part by the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., a year and a half ago, schools nationwide are collaborating with law enforcement in new ways in efforts to avoid these kind of tragedies. Investments are being made in new security technologies that can scan social media posts, school assignments and even student emails for potential threats. Supporters say such steps make students safer, but some others have expressed concern for student privacy. Critics also worry that social media monitoring could make criminals out of students who are just having typical kinds of teenage social and emotional problems.

Automated bots are taking over social media, says Arkose Labs, adding that more than half the logins and a quarter of new social media account applications are fraudulent. These fake accounts have implications for those fighting against cyberbullying and misinformation. The company reviewed 1.2 billion third-quarter transactions across platforms, including gaming and e-commerce, and determined that about 75% of fraud on social media was committed by bots.

A recent UK study in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health reports that adolescents who checked social media more than three times daily had increased psychological distress compared with those with lower social media use. Researchers also found that reduced sleep quality and elevated cyberbullying exposure accounted for about 60% of the correlation between very frequent social media use and psychological distress among girls, but only 12% of the association among boys.

How does this translate? It appears that it is not the social media that is depressing kids, but rather their frequent use of it. This is especially so when screen time interferes with getting enough sleep, or if they are being bullied. More time on devices leads to missing out on other positive social interactions, sleep and exercise.

National Public Radio reports that researchers appear divided over the effect of screen time and social media on teens' -- particularly girls' -- mental health. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, says social media in particular may be causing anxiety among teens, however others say that her data is skewed. Critics state smartphone use is almost ubiquitous among teenagers today, while only a small minority report mental health problems, so simply knowing that a teenager uses a smartphone (even for many hours a day) cannot reliably predict that the teenager will become depressed. Factors such as genetics or the presence of childhood trauma can serve as much larger predictors.

So why should the average parent worry about this scientific controversy? Because, one critic says, when parents simply demonize phones, "there's less of a communications channel" about what teens are encountering online. A parent's opportunity to mentor or support positive uses of media is replaced by "confrontation on a day-to-day basis." Well-meaning parents, wrongly believing the phone to be as risky as a cigarette or a beer, may actually be making their children's lives harder by fighting with them about it.

The Associated Press reports cyberbullying in the US is on the rise, and girls are more likely than boys to be targeted, according to the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. Perpetrators of cyberbullying against girls are usually other girls, not boys, says Kind Campaign founder Lauren Paul, and both social media companies and school districts alike are continuing to search for ways to address this problem.

A recent article from CNBC takes a look at Generation Z (8 to 22 year-olds) and their feelings on social media. The article revealed that in an interview with a group of 17-year-olds, almost all said that they rarely watch regular TV and hardly ever use Facebook. It was also found that members of Gen Z are typically more conscious of privacy concerns when using social media apps than older generations, however they can have difficulty distinguishing between what is paid content from advertisers.

The teenagers spoke to CNBC after a week at London ad agency Isobel, which runs a summer school program for students. Two teams were tasked with creating an ad campaign to warn younger teens of the dangers of social media, before presenting them to a judging panel. One team cautioned children not to share their location on social media with the tagline “Your World is Theirs,” while the second group encouraged youngsters to “Pull the Plug on Online Hate.”