Call me old and naive - I had never realised until a few weeks ago that there was such a thing as internet bullying, cyberfights and flaming. I was aware that children are warned about inappropriate searches on the internet and about stalkers but not bullying. I recently did a quick search on the net on cyberbullying and came up with a few useful facts (mainly from school sites). Facts as follows from The Computer school.net internet safety tutorials:SAY NO TO CYBERBULLYING !!!!
Dr. Parry Aftab in his paper Kids Online in Schools: Risk Management and the Law proposes that there are four types of online bullies: 1. The Vengeful Angel 2. The Power-Hungry or revenge of the Nerds 3. The "Mean Girls" in which group he includes Malfoy from the Harry Potter books. 4. The Inadvertent Cyberbully or "Because I can". I inadvertently witnessed what I think was an example of Vengeful Angel behaviour on a messageboard quite recently which I found quite dreadful and can now understand why the school system has had to introduce strategies to protect pupils. This group however were adults and therefore cyberbullying is not necessarily confined to the middle school years as described in many articles on the subject. Dr Aftab describes the "Vengeful Angel" (in my recent experience I would call them "Avenging Angels") as follows:"Cyberbullying can occur through an Internet service such as e mail, chat rooms, discussion groups, instant messaging or web pages. Cyber bullying can include 1. Teasing and being made fun of 2. Spreading of false and hurtful rumours about people online 3. Sending unwanted messages 4. Racist or sexist attacks 5. Defamation Preventing cyber bullying 1. Always treat other people online the way you like to be treated. 2. If you are chatting in a chat room or by instant messenger, stop doing so if anyone says offensive things to you. Shut down the message or window and tell your parents about it straight away. 3. If somebody in a chat room is offensive to you, tell the chat room host or moderator. Trolls (I thought these were the things in LOTR or "3 Billy Goats Gruff"). A troll intentionally posts messages about sensitive topics constructed to cause controversy in an online community such as a forum. Trolls post on message boards. More recently they have been posting on blogs. Dealing with trolls People who run message boards and blogs always say "Do not feed the trolls". That means you should ignore what they write. Do not respond to them or attack them back. They are only trying to stir people up." (The Computer school.net internet safety tutorial)
”My reading states that if you are witnessing a case of flaming, cyberfighting or cyberbullying on a messageboard for example, you do not respond in kind but report the abuse to the administrators."In this type of cyberbullying, the cyberbully doesn’t see themselves as a bully at all. They see themselves as righting wrongs, or protecting themselves or others from the “bad guy” they are now victimizing. The “Vengeful Angel” cyberbully often gets involved trying to protect a friend who is being bullied or cyberbullied. They generally work alone, but may share their activities and motives with their close friends and others they perceive as being victimized by the person they are cyberbullying. Vengeful Angels need to know that no one should try and take justice into their own hands. They need to understand that few things are clear enough to understand, and that fighting bullying with more bullying only makes things worse. They need to see themselves as bullies, not the do-gooder they think they are." (Aftab, P. 2005. Kids Online in Schools).He goes on to say that their sense of injustice and reasons for bullying need to be addressed but that this should be done through official means.
