Cyberbullying – learning countermeasures
 

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There was an article on the BBC today that really caught my eye. It is about what some British schools are doing to counter cyberbullying – targeted hostile behaviour through the Internet or via a user’s mobile phone.

I am wondering what people here think. Have your kids, or you yourself, experienced this? And what are your own thoughts on how best to deal with it?

Best regards,
ArcticStones

Well, i'd just blacklist them on the Email app and set the mobile phone not to recive texts/calls from the bullys (set it to only open texts from numbers in the phone book)

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Good thoughts, and that would certainly deal effectively with some of it, Wee Guy. But I have also heard of many instances where someone has published highly offensive material on web pages, in the form of text, pictures and/or video. Here that has been dealt with as a police matter.

Nobody I know has suffered cyberbullying attacks. Any idea how pervasive it actually is?

My school, has blocked any sort of website which is interestesting, if i want to use hotmail, i have to use outlook, and loads of words a blacklisted in google, eg girl, game, apple ipod!!! I think my school take things too far

No matter where you put a threshold, there will always be someone standing on it. Once you start down the slippery slope of censorship, things always go to hell in a handbasket because defining the thresholds is damned near impossible.

On topic; my view is fairly harsh. Bullies need to be exposed to ridicule themselves. Here in Nova Scotia, a gang of bullies targeted a kid in grade 9 wearing a pink shirt as being gay. The day after that two other kids bought a ton of pink garments in a used clothing store and distributed them to all their friends -- the whole male population of the school turned pink. Now it's a movement, half the schools in Nova Scotia have joined in this badge against bullying, including most of the jocks. Sometimes kids do things right. These two have now got national media attention for their statement.

At the other extreme is this in the Daily Mail (beware: gruesome pic)

Well, my school has gone farther. All computers are password protected, all programs that require internet are password protected, all websites like myspace, facebook, youtube, even yahoo are banned on all computers. Only certain websites are available, and if you want to download, print or visit a website outside the list, you need another password. All cellphones, mp3 players, or video games are banned to even bring with you to school. If you get caught, they get confiscated, and you have to come with your parents to get them back. If you need to call your parents to pick you up or anything of that kind, you have to go to the main office to use their phone. It really sux...

As a retired university professor married to a now retired school teacher, I understand the cell phone issue. Students love texting each other. How do you teach anything to a group so engaged by their phone keyboard that they hardly know you're there? Students love photographing every foible a teacher might suffer as well as those of students they want to bully, and then post these on the web or to all their friends.

How do you fairly quiz or examine a group who are free to communicate clandestinely with each other? If you go into a US courtroom you must yield your phone to the guards at the door so you won't disturb the court by using it or take photos during the trial (I was recently an expert witness). There are now restaurants in NYC (I was in one) that feature a "no cell phone reception here" room for folks that want to meet without listening to 10 other conversations. There were a lot of people in it. If you complain that you are a doctor, say, and must remain connected, they just direct you to the other room.

When was the last time you were in a movie with some idiot behind you talking to someone on his/her phone? If you drive, when was the last time you sat behind a car at a green light the texter inside didn't notice?

There are a lot of contexts in which a cell phone is a PITA. Schools are one of them. As seen from my side of the desk, I agree with your school.

I think bullying has always been around and I'm glad that they are finally becoming mindful of the long lasting negative impact on the victims. The advent of cyberbullying simply takes it to a whole other level. It gives the bullies a sense of anonymity which allows them the freedom to attack without fear of reprisals. It also means greater humiliation for the victim as the peer group is suddenly hundreds of people.

I don't know that you can accomplish a great deal by blocking social networking. Although blocking it at school is probably more to prevent distractions. I think what really needs to be done is to teach all students greater empathy. Give them insight into other peoples lives and the problems that might be faced by someone 'weaker' than them. Even if it doesn't teach the bullies anything, if it empowers the rest of the school to stand up to the bullies and generally lowers tolerance of that sort of behaviour that can only be a good thing.

I think since i go to a really posh school, (£7000 a year) no-one cares if kids bring in ipods, psp's etc, because they know that they can probably get a new one as most people that go to my school are loaded

What a wonderful story! Individual bravery, combined with creativity, can go a long way -- especially when it inspires a group of critical mass.

Interesting also to read the different views, your’s and Felix’ for one, on cell phones etc during school hours.

well working IT for a school system, I can say safely say, it is worth it. I am the one that locks down the computers from students. I can list the reasons, and they are long but I will touch on a few key points.

1) Technology in education is for education, it is not your personal play toy

2) There is too much room for user error, or too much room for a user to do something wrong and mess things up if they have certain access rights.

3) Privacy laws, and students every year agree to the terms of privacy when they first start school. Whatever the student handbook says is the policy, each student signs that at the beginning of each year. Plus you want your private data protected right?

4) Support - with the wide variety of technology out there you can't expect your IT department to support every technology out there. So the user's needs need to assessed and then after that assessment we look into the most responsible and best solution for the budget.

5) Filters - well the parents alone would kill us if we didn't filter the internet. Plus you should only be using it for educational uses, see #1. This is also a security measure from malicious sites.

We run novell/edirectory and we can log what user is in what computer at what time and place when certain things happen. One student figured out our iprint networking and figured out a different school's ip range and had sent a huge print job to the rival school about their foot ball team. Both teams were playing each other that weekend. I don't discipline anyone, I just give the disciplinarians the proper information. I could honestly care less what kids do as long as they don't mess up my work. I was young once and I understand.

Teachers can put in requests to unblock websites but that goes through management, and we do allow access to things that are useful to them. Of course the web filter is IP driven and my static IP bypasses all of it so I can surf where ever I wish, but that is my perk for being an IT worker. Plus, I need access to many online resources for my job.

I know that offensive emails have been an issue in the past and those involved were dealt with from an administration level. Security is also a big issue. I know that sometimes a password or passkey leaks out to the user base. So, someone has access to something and they don't keep their mouth shut like they are suppose to and then everyone has access and then the students get it as well. This brings up so many issues. I had a kid ask me if the wireless passkey had changed, and I said yes. He then asked if he could have the new one because his PSP could no longer connect. I told him no, and they he tried to bribe me for a few dollars. I laughed and just walked off. Obviously that would be not allowed in schools. But as you can see things like wireless passkeys travel fast. Most likely a tech person who was friends with a teacher told them over email how to connect their wireless, then they told everyone and then the students got whim of it. Then we saw all kinds of rogue devices connecting to our WiFi, time to change the passkey.

Several good points there, TL. The one quoted above was of particular interest to me. Before I retired, I was the Dean in charge of a Faculty, and was responsible for an IT department to manage our student networks (also Novell on several IBM servers). Offensive emails were a good way to get disciplined, and the minimum penalty was a 336-hour (two-week) suspension from the moment of detection. During my tenure, we initiated a running log of all student emails; a push down list which ran for30 minutes. Students were encouraged in all the machine rooms (about 20 of them) to report offensive emails directly to a number on the sign, and such a report triggered an immediate save of the state of the push-down list when the report came in.

The offensive mail was found (and judged by an excellent manager to be genuinely offensive), someone dispatched to the machine it came from to inform the student they had been caught or to elicit from others who the student was, and as of that moment of warning, the student's account ceased to function. A disciplinary committee was notified to whom the student could appeal. This greatly reduced the number of infractions of all kinds.

At my school, students are no longer allowed to check their email from a school computer anymore, under no circumstances. Thats is, because two years ago, someone downloaded (purposely or not) an attachment from an email, which contained a virus, which spread across the school's network, and most computers have been blanked out for about two weeks, and some even had to be replaced...



The Dean also banned the Valentines Day dance, but that was on a different note, because of some students that did something, probably not appropriate to this forum..

Reinstalled, ok, but why replaced?

because it's a school IT department (no offense TLarkin). Most schools do not spend a lot of money on their support. Smaller schools usually have the teacher with the highest technical aptitude to do the daily stuff.

I wonder how all the well-to-do kids would treat the kid rockin the Sony Disc Man. Kids with money get picked on at ghetto schools, kids without money get picked on at posh schools (janitor's kid, scholarship kid, kids with rich aunt, etc.).

Unfortunately the war against bullies is as futile as the war against drugs.

Much as folks might like to think we don't share traits with other species, dominance is an innate trait. Bullys are folks who don't have any natural aptitude for earning an "alpha" status, so they pick on weaklings. Altruism is actually rare. Learning to live with your spouse without dominating or being dominated by him/her is the secret to happy cohabitation.

Yea, I agree with you on that..

When I was in kindergarden and elementary school, bullies used to pick on me because I was short and skinny, and they called me 'Felix the Cat'. Since middle school, I've grown a foot or two (and a half) and no one picks on me anymore... Wonder why..?

On the other hand, my brother, who is now is 5'-6" tall, was always the shortest guy in his class, two behind me. But he's a feisty and fearless fellow so whenever someone tried to bully him, he beat the crap out of them (occasionally taking quite a few lumps himself).

Now retired, he rose to become Exec VP of a huge company largely, I'm convinced, on the strengths of being competent, responsible, and charming, but at the same time, aggressive, and fearless.

I chatted with the guy next to me on an airplane once, and when he learned my last name, he said he had worked for a guy by that name, and named my brother. He went on to say that he was a great guy to work for; fair, friendly, easy access, good advice, kept his promises; but that one always had a feeling in a meeting with him that if you crossed him, he'd jump over the desk and beat you to a pulp. A strange aura, but a dominant one.

Married happily for over 40 years now to a woman off whom it rolls like water from a duck.

None taken, unfortunately this is true all over the place. Lots of companies are too cheap to hire experienced trained employees, so they pay the bare minimum and have things like two year turn overs to keep their pay roll costs down. Then once the entry level person gets that two years in they leave to a better job for better money where they gain more experience. It happens all the time, not just in education.

Universities have to maintain a very open internet environment or research isn't possible and they must maintain a huge amount of secure data - student records, etc. As a result, they must have competent IT staffs, and in my experience the ones I dealt with were just that. I don't know that they are paid extremely well, relatively speaking, because I don't know industry pay scales, but their jobs are secure, their benefits are good, and their turnover very low. I was at the University I retired from for 18 years, and we never had any hacks of consequence (in spite of a large Comp Sci department) or problems they couldn't solve rather quickly, and I was in a position to know.

I have to say my experience with college and university networks has been exactly the opposite. Just when I think the school network could not be any less user friendly or capable, they make another change to make things worse.

At one school, the person in charge of the "virtual college" had a PhD. in Music, but had no IT training or experience. Almost everyone under him was a student working part time. Few of them had any IT experience. It definitely showed. The network was lacking, to say the least.

Where I'm at now, the actual machines (primarily Windows boxes) were noticeably slower about a month after replacement compared to when they were first installed, which is almost certainly due to undetected malware or more inefficiencies added to the network. (My G3 iBook is LIGHTNING fast compared to the current speeds of the Dells that were brand new, and quite fast, at the beginning of last semester.) Wireless access is slow at best, with numerous dead spots in areas where there is supposed to be extensive coverage.

To put things in perspective, it commonly requires 30+ minutes to log onto the network, download a file I gmailed to myself, send it to the printer, log out, and print the file. That's over thirty minutes to print a single page, without waiting in any lines. (There isn't a system in place for students to send print jobs to a printer via their own laptops and the wireless network.)

Websites for online courses and registration, grades, etc. have absolutely hideous user interfaces, as though they were designed by a sadistic eight year old with severe ADHD. Often I have to switch between to pages that are only linked via a chain of several links, and the browser's back button is not often supported. To make matters worse, the system does not allow a user to have two or more pages open simultaneously. Consequently, tasks that should take five minutes can require an hour or two to complete.

Could you explain that for a non native english reader?

Thanks

Well, I'm also not a native speaker...
But I understand it this way: she easily deals with his dominant character:)

Not to hijack the thread, but that is the Director of IT's fault for not hiring capable people. Some institutes are like that and it is directly management's fault.

A Duck (Canard) is waterproof. Rain just rolls off it's back. The analogy is that a person is unimpressed or unmoved by traits or behavior in another; is oblivious to things that strangers find very impressive. -- these dominance characteristics are to her like like rain is to a duck; no effect.

Here, here! Absolutely. I guess I have been lucky that the universities I have taught at had very well managed IT departments, with competent people in charge of the many aspects of IT, and CompSci students at all the help desks. The lady who ran student records, for example, had a Masters in CS and was very responsive to both student and faculty needs -- not always a speeding bullet, but she got there. My Faculty staff had a very competent manager who reported to and was paid by the director of IT, but whose equipment budget was divided into two parts; university facilities (the backbone, servers, and network) and infrastructure (the machines and student facilities). He was on the faculty committee that apportioned budget for Faculty/Departmental facilities to advise and restrain. Below him was a UNIX/Apache/PHP/etc. guru, two "fixers" -- IT staff who untied the knots students and staff managed to get into (and were bilingual Mac/PC), and a hardware guy -- hardware installer/upgrader/board swapper/etc. who kept the physical equipment up to snuff.

If your University is a mess, JC, it's because it is either very poorly managed, extremely underfunded, or both.

For two years, in my High school, the tech instructor did it. Then they brought in some guy who was quite quiet and OK. Then they brought in some partisan hack who disliked Macs and was determined to keep them off the network.

Even better, I had to play the role of tech in Middle School. It was all Macs, few PCs. I'll never forget the time I actually outsmarted the "IT guy" they had sitting around. He opened up someone's PC (which was dropped and the powerswitch was useless), found the loose power switch inside the case, pressed it, and instructed the teacher not to turn the computer on. (This merits a big W...T...F) The teacher called me (I did this job before lunch) to have a second look. I did the proper thing and put the switch back in it's place, allowing the computer to be turned on from the outside normally.

Shows how smart their staff is. Being outsmarted by a (then) 13 year old.

As far as I know, a good 25% of kids in my school last year had a disc player of some sort. The other 50% had iPods of varying generations. (I've even seen a 1G there!) The other 25% are various other brands. (No, not Zune. I've only seen two of those)

The disc player is not doing well, but it isn't totally dead, either. I myself used one until mid-Junior year, when I got an iPod shuffle from a friend.

The war on bullies (Physical ones that can deal physical harm to you) is indeed futile in my area because the staff never act on bullies. I've been screwed with more times than I can count, and my reports go unnoticed by the staff.

Nice way to prevent it, eh?

Here is the problem I think with IT departments and this even affects cyber bullying. Is that there is no need to split up responsibilities into some micro managed SNAFU. It should be streamlined and more simplified, making it more efficient all the way around. There are of course a few exceptions. Anyone in IT should be able to replace RAM, HD, or motherboard. Some all in one machines and other Apple's are harder to take apart and have a margin of error. That error being breaking the plastic snap pieces, or some other ridiculous thing that Apple does to their systems to make them hard to work on. So, you need to train people on that aspect, which still isn't hard. Same theory goes for networking and the like. It isn't hard and the more people capable of doing it the better overall support you will have.

Not cross training your IT staff is a horrible thing, and it will cause issues down the road. You will see people become elitist or in their own little world and it makes it hard to accomplish other things. I have been down that road many times with IT people, and it is just ridiculous.

This also is why some things fall through the cracks in organizations. Things like cyber bullying could easily fall through the cracks, with people not properly training other people with technology. Or, how responsibilities are shifted to other workers. Personally, I do not hold anything above me, I do all kinds of work. I haul equipment around, I do hardware repairs, I reset passwords, I help with network deployment, and heck I have even hung a picture for a user before. That is right a picture on their wall in their office. I even used a level to make it perpendicular with the sides of the walls.

This being said, can bring up many issues. A decline in the quality of service you get creates more problems, and the more problems everyone has to deal with lets other things slip through the cracks. Also, having technophobes on your board is not a good idea either for technology. Technology is the future regardless of whatever you do with yourself career wise. It is everywhere and used in every business model.

So, really what you should look at as a IT manager or Director is how does your technology benefit the user, how responsible is it, and how do you protect your users and your assets? That is a management decision, and it doesn't always directly involve technology. Sometimes it just involves proper training, which that organization or company should provide to everyone. If everyone was properly trained, problems like cyber bullying or any type of abuse of technology that can lead to these types of things could possibly be mitigated at a higher rate. Of course nothing will stop it completely, but there are measures to help.

Thank you. Funny how idioms can be hard to understand when you don't know their meanings.

I've experienced similar problems at two different schools, but I still suspect it is due to both poor management and underfunding.