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…
We just received the page proofs from the Journal of School Health (official journal of the American School Health Association) for a piece entitled “Cyberbullying and Self-Esteem” that they recently accepted for publication. There has been much discussion recently as to how cyberbullying is related to depressive symptoms among adolescents, and so we also wanted to…
The 7th Annual Conference of the International Bullying Prevention Association in Seattle, Washington is coming up quick, and we really hope you’re coming (register here). We will be participating in a pre-conference on Monday, November 15th, and will be giving a presentation entitled “The Online Experience of Adolescent Girls: Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Relationship Abuse” on…
The 7th Annual Conference of the International Bullying Prevention Association in Seattle, Washington is coming up quick, and we really hope you’re coming (register here). We will be participating in a pre-conference on Monday, November 15th, and will be giving a presentation entitled “The Online Experience of Adolescent Girls: Cyberbullying, Sexting, and Relationship Abuse” on…
Our cyberbullying work continues to take our research agenda in new and interesting directions. One phenomenon which we have been exploring in recent months is “electronic dating violence,” which we define as: “emotional or psychological harm in a romantic relationship perpetrated through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices.” The number of…
Sameer and I recently wrote a concise “Student Guide to Personal Publishing” which was published by Jostens (the class ring and yearbook company). They contacted us looking for information they could provide to students, parents, and educators about being safe and responsible when publishing material both online and off. While we regularly discuss these issues…
Sameer and I recently wrote a concise “Student Guide to Personal Publishing” which was published by Jostens (the class ring and yearbook company). They contacted us looking for information they could provide to students, parents, and educators about being safe and responsible when publishing material both online and off. While we regularly discuss these issues…
There has been a lot of talk about improving school climate recently, in line with the U. S. Department of Education’s new focus for public schools across the nation (and their Safe and Supportive Schools initiative). I have recently discussed it in January at a NCPC summit, and covered it briefly two weeks ago while…
I was recently walking around with a friend and saw a girl (who looked to be around nine years of age) wearing a shirt that proclaimed “Born to be SEXY” – which caught me off guard. Not to be a prude, but it bothers me that cultural messaging strategies continue to induce girls to think…
Back in March I wrote about this case, where a federal jury had ordered the Hudson Area School District in Michigan to pay $800,000 in damages to a student who was repeatedly harassed by classmates (and allegedly staff) for a period of several years. A federal district court had been reviewing the facts of the…
My presentation entitled “Cyberbullying: What We Know, What We Can Do” at the US Department of Education Bullying Summit on August 11, 2010 was broadcast on CSPAN. You can view the event in its entirety here or fast-forward to 14:28 to watch my segment. Do let me know if you have any questions!
I will be in DC this week at the US Department of Education’s “Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summit.” You can check out an agenda here, a participants list here, and additional reading materials here. My slides are included in the latter PDF as well. I have been asked to speak on the “Current State…