New Year Ideas to Make Kindness Go Viral post thumbnail

New Year Ideas to Make Kindness Go Viral

Our first book for teens (Words Wound: Delete Cyberbullying and Make Kindness Go Viral) came out a few weeks ago, and we’re really excited about its potential impact among students who have dealt with online harassment and want to do something meaningful about it (check it out if you haven’t already!).  That said, our publisher (Free […]

Bystander Intervention in Bullying Incidents: A Misguided Experiment post thumbnail

Bystander Intervention in Bullying Incidents: A Misguided Experiment

A video has been making its rounds lately showing two young men engaged in a social experiment of sorts. The video shows one hounding, harassing, pushing, punching, and threatening the other because the target apparently failed to do the “bully’s” homework. The two play out this interaction over and over again directly in front of […]

Not Guilty? Implications for the Teens Charged with Bullying Rebecca Sedwick post thumbnail

Not Guilty? Implications for the Teens Charged with Bullying Rebecca Sedwick

Felony stalking charges have now been dropped for the two girls (one 14 years-old, the other now 13 years-old) who last month were implicated in the suicide of 12 year-old Rebecca Sedwick. They were alleged to have bullied Rebecca at school and online, including messages calling for Rebecca to end her life, such as “Drink […]

Cyberbullying Research: 2013 Update post thumbnail

Cyberbullying Research: 2013 Update

It’s been nearly three years since I posted a summary of the current state of cyberbullying research on this blog.  That post was inspired by my concern that no researchers were included on a panel that testified to the Committee on Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities on the topic of how […]

Criminal Charges Filed Against Two Involved in Rebecca Sedwick Suicide post thumbnail

Criminal Charges Filed Against Two Involved in Rebecca Sedwick Suicide

Two girls (a 14 year-old and a 12 year-old) have now been arrested and charged with felony aggravated stalking for their involvement in the bullying of 12 year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick. Rebecca jumped to her death on September 9th after enduring months of bullying, online and off, from as many as 15 classmates at Crystal […]

Words Wound—For a Long Time post thumbnail

Words Wound—For a Long Time

Bobby recently shared his story with us. He said that he’d been really excited for his first day of fifth grade. On that first day, his teacher assigned classroom seating so she’d know where everyone was. Then she passed around a tablet of paper and told everyone to print their given names. “She strictly specified […]

Does Bullying “Cause” Suicide? post thumbnail

Does Bullying “Cause” Suicide?

The title of Deborah Temkin’s recent Huffington Post article is a simple request: “Stop saying bullying causes suicide.” Her plea is understandable and justified. Sameer and I also cringe when we read the ubiquitous headlines espousing the conventional wisdom proclaiming that “bullying causes suicide.” But what does the research actually say about the nature of this […]

Should Schools Monitor Students’ Social Media Accounts? post thumbnail

Should Schools Monitor Students’ Social Media Accounts?

There has been much discussion over the last few days about whether it is appropriate for schools to actively monitor the social media activities of students (I participated in a HuffPost Live discussion about this issue earlier today). At the center of this recent interest is Glendale Unified School District, which is located in Southern […]

Can Someone be an Unintentional Bully? post thumbnail

Can Someone be an Unintentional Bully?

Defining bullying is a tricky thing. And technology just adds another complicated layer to the whole situation. I mean, we know it when we see it, and at the extreme end it’s easy to identify: the repeated threats, multiple humiliating posts, and numerous hurtful texts most likely qualify. But what about that mildly inappropriate joke […]