Ban School, Open Facebook post thumbnail

Ban School, Open Facebook

There is much consternation among parents and educators alike about the perceived criminogenic nature of social networking websites. Despite some evidence that its popularity among some teens is beginning to wane, Facebook is still the most prominent figure in this space. As such, it tends to receive the brunt of the blows, with fervent calls […]

Yik Yak post thumbnail

Yik Yak

UPDATE (04-2017): Yik Yak shut down. UPDATE (12-2014): Please see my December 2014 follow-up blog on Yik Yak here after reading this entry. There is a new cell phone application that is gaining notoriety at the speed of light among some groups of teens (as well as their teachers and parents). In essence, Yik Yak […]

Deterring Teen Bullying: Dos and Don’ts post thumbnail

Deterring Teen Bullying: Dos and Don’ts

There’s been a lot of interest lately in passing new bullying and cyberbullying laws. The pressure to pursue these provisions seems to come from the idea that the threat of harsher penalties will deter teens from bullying others. But will they? Deterrence theory is a very popular philosophy within the criminal justice system, and as […]

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 […]

Teens: Delete Cyberbullying and Make Kindness Go Viral! post thumbnail

Teens: Delete Cyberbullying and Make Kindness Go Viral!

Next week, our newest book will be released. And we are seriously pumped! Like all of the others, this one is on the topic of cyberbullying.  But this book is not like all of the others. Rather, it is the first book on cyberbullying that we know of that was specifically and intentionally written for […]

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 […]

Cyberbullying Among Adolescents: Implications for Empirical Research post thumbnail

Cyberbullying Among Adolescents: Implications for Empirical Research

Research into the causes and consequences of cyberbullying among adolescents has exploded in the past 5 years [1]. However, much of the literature is largely descriptive in nature and/or suffers from methodological limitations associated with accessing and studying young people who are engaged in constantly changing high-tech behaviors. These challenges notwithstanding, a clearer picture is […]

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 […]