Online Cyber-Bullying: Protection How To's in Next Post
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right: Heathers: only the clothes and hair-do's are dated)
My former law partner, the ridiculously talented and prolific Eric Sinrod of Duane Morris has written an important article about teenage cyber-bullying here.
As Eric reports,
The Pew Internet & American Life Project Report was somewhat of a relief to read. However, another recent Pew report examines a different threat faced by teens: cyberbullying.
About one-third of teenagers on the Internet report that they have been targets of "menacing" online activities, such as receiving threatening messages, having their private e-mails or instant and text messages forwarded without consent, having an embarrassing photo posted without permission, or having rumors spread about them online. On top of this, girls are more likely than boys to be targets.
In terms of raw numbers, 15 percent of teenagers state that they have had private e-mail, instant messages or text messages forwarded or posted without permission; 13 percent claim that they have had rumors spread about them online; 13 percent have received a threatening or aggressive e-mail, instant message or text message; 6 percent have had embarrassing photos of them posted online without consent; and 32 percent fall within in at least one of the four foregoing categories.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. Teenage boys bully with their fists. Teenage girls bully with their emotional wits. No one, no one, is more skilled than a teenage girl with the stilleto to the softest part of her girl-target. I know this from research and from silly movies (my favorite of which is Heathers with Winona Ryder and Christian Slater -- put it on your Netflix list ).
The technology may have changed, but not the malice. When I was in highschool, my older sister became the target of a group of particularly malicious girls who called her on the telephone to sling at her every possible insult they could. I remember, I fielded the call for her.
What are sisters for?
Heather Chandler: "You were nothing before you met me. You were playing Barbies with Betty Finn. You were a Bluebird. You were a Brownie. You were a Girl Scout Cookie."
