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E-Bullying Nearly one in ten children say they have been bullied through electronic means such as computers and cell phones 
The school bully strides down the hall, ready to wreak havoc on his next victim. Instead of reaching for the nearest open locker to shove the shrimp in, though, he grabs his latest weapon: a cell phone. As technology has embedded itself deeper into the American lifestyle, more and more children have it at their fingertips. Social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have gone from Internet destinations to personal essentials, and communication has never been quicker - or more anonymous - than with instant messengers and text messaging. Unfortunately, bullies have adapted their behavior to the new generation, and a new study finds that 8 percent of children say they have been bullied online while 6 percent admit to being bullied through text messages and other phone applications. The data comes from a 2005 national poll taken of 7,182 students in grades 6-10 about bullying. The study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, San Francisco, Calif. Study co-author Ronald Iannetti of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., says good parenting can prevent bullying. "Parental warmth and support may improve your own psychological development, meaning you're less likely to feel a need to degrade others to improve your own self-esteem," he says. While these numbers are still well short of those who claim to have been bullied through more traditional means, like intimidation and rumor-mongering, cyber-bullying is on the rise. High-profile suicides of teens Megan Meier and Ryan Halligan - both caused at least in part by online bullying - earlier this decade have brought legal attention to the phenomenon. In January, California became the thirteenth state to adopt a law against cyber-bullying. Stephen Russell, director of the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth & Families at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz., said more research is needed on what lies beneath the bullying. "What remains needed in this field of study," he added, "is attention to the reasons that kids bully one another." |
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