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As we work with increasingly younger kids to educate them about the responsible use of technology, we find it extremely important to discuss how they should respond to being cyberbullied. Central to this conversation is covering the difference between “tattling” and “telling.” Perhaps you are extremely familiar with this distinction – but if not, read…
On Thursday March 10, 2011, the White House convened a conference to address the issue of bullying. First Lady Michelle and President Obama welcomed parents, students, researchers, industry leaders and others to discuss the negative effects of bullying and highlight some of the best-practices and promising approaches in prevention and response. I was honored to…
Thanks to all for their comments on my recent blog about how teens should respond when they receive a “sext.” Here are some of my follow-up thoughts, based on comments and emails received, as well as an email exchange among members of the Youth Risk Online Google Group which includes some of the brightest “teens…
If you are a teen and receive a sexually-explicit image of a classmate via your cell phone (or email, or instant message, or via a Nintendo Dsi, or any other type of electronic communication), what should you do? This can be a challenging situation, to say the least. We know that anywhere from 10-30% (or…
UPDATE: See the cyberbullying research by country in our new interactive map and section of our site! Being Americans, we tend to focus a lot of attention on offline and online peer harassment here at home. It is interesting, though, to consider the cross-cultural research that has been done on traditional bullying and think about…
Do students have an expectation of privacy on their cell phones while at school? The short answer to this is a qualified yes. Whether educators have the authority to search the contents of student cell phones depends on a lot of factors. The key issue in this analysis (that we have raised before on this…
As we know, students use their smart phones and cell phones to engage in cyberbullying or other forms of teen technology misuse at school, regardless of the presence of formal policies that prohibit their display or use during some or all hours of the school day. Ask any professional at a middle or high school,…
The state of Virginia has recently proposed guidelines for public schools in order to prevent sexual (and other forms of) misconduct between educators and students. Justin and I have blogged about this issue here and here in the past – and it continues to be a topic of strong interest and controversy as we work…
Here is a recent question submitted that we thought could help others in a similar situation: “In my role as a school administrator, many of the accusations regarding cyberbullying come from third parties. I am unable to produce evidence on the accused offending party because I do not have access to their media device (i.e.…
Here at the Cyberbullying Research Center, in addition to our own projects, Sameer and I work hard to stay on top of all of the cyberbullying research being done by others. When new reports are released, or when articles are published in journals, we are probably among the first to read them. While there has…
Happy New Year everyone! We hope that you all enjoyed whatever holiday you celebrated and that your 2011 is productive and rewarding. Sameer and I have a number of exciting projects and initiatives planned for 2011 and I just wanted to preview some of those here so that you can follow our progress over the…
Happy New Year everyone! We hope that you all enjoyed whatever holiday you celebrated and that your 2011 is productive and rewarding. Sameer and I have a number of exciting projects and initiatives planned for 2011 and I just wanted to preview some of those here so that you can follow our progress over the…
Our state-by-state bullying and cyberbullying laws fact sheet is one of the top-most documents downloaded from our site; we encourage you to check it out if you haven’t already. That said, it is also a fluid resource that we are constantly updating. Some recent questions have been posed, and so I wanted to take the…
Our state-by-state bullying and cyberbullying laws fact sheet is one of the top-most documents downloaded from our site; we encourage you to check it out if you haven’t already. That said, it is also a fluid resource that we are constantly updating. Some recent questions have been posed, and so I wanted to take the…
I’ve been seeing a lot of “cyberbullying pledges” surfacing in recent months. Obviously, the intention is good – to enlist and rally the support of youth who belong to a school or another organization to end (or at least reduce) the problem of peer harassment. I think that it is important for us to think…
We have received numerous requests from high school students and teachers over the last several weeks for information about whether or not there should be a criminal law to cover cyberbullying. It seems that this is a national high school debate topic this year. Since we have discussed this issue quite a bit on this…
In a recent post, I fleshed out what we believe should be in a comprehensive sexting policy. I wanted to also mention that it is very important that schools take note and knowledge of students’ due process rights, and ensure that their response action plans do not overstep those personal rights. Here’s what I suggest…
As we’ve pointed out in our blog discussing the fundamentals of electronic dating violence among adolescents, and in our 2010 teen dating violence statistics released last week, we seem to be dealing with a significant social problem here. I wanted to share with you about the other research that has been done on this topic…
We have recently shared that electronic dating violence among teenagers is one of the facets of adolescent technology misuse we are exploring. Please see the previous referenced blog for foundational information. Today, I wanted to share with you our research results from our 2010 data. This is based on a random sample of approximately 4,400…
New Hampshire is one of the states whose cyberbullying law (passed earlier this year) we applaud. Specifically, House Bill 1523 asserts the following: I. Bullying or cyberbullying shall occur when an action or communication as defined in RSA 193-F:3: (a) Occurs on, or is delivered to, school property or a school-sponsored activity or event on…
I have been thinking a lot recently about formal policies related to sexting that all middle schools and high schools should have enacted by now. However, I am finding that many districts have not yet detailed in their discipline codes exactly what it is, how it will be investigated, who will be involved, and what…
Many of you perhaps already saw the brief comments I wrote for the New York Times Opinion Page in the aftermath of Tyler Clementi’s tragic suicide. They asked me to comment on the extent to which this incident was typical of many cyberbullying cases that end in suicide and whether or not criminal action against…
Many of you perhaps already saw the brief comments I wrote for the New York Times Opinion Page in the aftermath of Tyler Clementi’s tragic suicide. They asked me to comment on the extent to which this incident was typical of many cyberbullying cases that end in suicide and whether or not criminal action against…
Many schools are now in a difficult position of having to respond to a mandate to have a cyberbullying policy, without much guidance from the state about the circumstances under which they can (or must) respond. When folks ask me if I think there needs to be a “cyberbullying law” I basically respond by saying…