Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L: When Can a School Discipline a Student for Online Speech?
Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in a panel to discuss the pending Supreme Court case Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. Other panelists were Dr. Eric Kasper, a Professor of Political Science who teaches constitutional law at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and who directs the Menard Center for Constitutional Studies, and Darpana […]
Snapchat Speech Could be Out-of-Bounds for School Discipline
B.L. was a promising cheerleader at Mahanoy Area High School in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. She had been involved in the sport since elementary school, and as a freshman participated on the junior varsity team. Going into her sophomore year, she was hoping to make the varsity squad. To her disappointment, she was once again placed […]
Inoculate Against Bullying by Chatting with your Children
I pick my son up from school most days, and from his first day of kindergarten I got into the habit of routinely asking him two specific questions: 1) “How was your day?” and 2) “Was there any bullying?” I’d ask the latter question with a conspiratorial raise of my brow—as if asking him if […]
Tween Social Media and Gaming in 2020
This month we have been highlighting results from our recent national survey of tweens, conducted with our friends at Cartoon Network. In this post, I want to focus on what we learned about the devices tweens have and the apps and games they use. Technology access and use by children is of interest to many, […]
Bullying Victimization, Negative Emotions, and Digital Self-Harm: Testing a Theoretical Model of Indirect Effects
Research on digital self-harm – the anonymous or pseudonymous posting of hurtful or negative information about oneself on the internet and social media platforms – is in the early stages of development. While scholars have started to focus on the correlates of this behavior, there remains a need to anchor the study of digital self-harm […]
Tween Cyberbullying in the United States
We have been exploring how young people use and misuse technology, with a primary focus on cyberbullying, for nearly two decades. In that time, though, we have almost exclusively studied middle and high school students (12- to 17-year-olds) and their caregivers. Earlier this year we were approached by Cartoon Network with questions about tween experiences […]
Bullying and Cyberbullying: The Connection to Delinquency
Sameer and I have long been interested in the connection between cyberbullying and offline behaviors. Nearly fifteen years ago we published a paper which found preliminary evidence that youth who had been cyberbullied were more at risk to engage in school violence and delinquency. We framed this possible relationship from the perspective of General Strain […]
Bullying and Delinquency: The Impact of Anger and Frustration
Few studies have explored whether individuals who are bullied at school or online are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior. Even less is known about whether negative emotions (i.e., anger or frustration)—as a result of being victimized—mediate the relationships between being bullied or cyberbullied and delinquency (as predicted by Agnew’s general strain theory). The […]
Law Enforcement Perceptions of Cyberbullying: Evolving Perspectives
Cyberbullying – using technology to intentionally and repeatedly engage in bullying behaviors – has gained considerable public attention over the last decade. Parents and educators regularly instruct students about appropriate online behaviors and threaten consequences for misbehaviors. The role and responsibility of law enforcement officers in preventing and responding to cyberbullying incidents remains uncertain. While […]
Current Efforts to Curtail Teen Sexting Not Working
The current global pandemic has greatly constrained the way people are able to interact with each other. Schools in the U.S. moved to online learning mid-March and health safety guidelines continue to warn against gathering in groups outside of immediate households. As such, teens haven’t been able to hang out with their friends in hallways, […]
