Cyberbullying Affects Half Of US Teens
Cyberbullying is an increasing problem affecting up to 50 percent of U.S. teens, with consequences that can be as bad or worse than being beaten up in a school yard, according to a Reuters report.
Whether through emails, texting, instant messaging, cell phones or Web sites, cyberbullying causes such emotional devastation that some victims have turned to suicide.
Over the last decade, 37 states have enacted legislation requiring schools to implement anti-bullying statutes.
"It is becoming something that people recognize as a significant issue as more and more students start talking about it, and unfortunately, as these extreme cases of suicide and students hurting themselves is becoming more prevalent," Dan Tarplin, the New York Educational Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), told Reuters.
Unlike schoolyard teasing or fights, the anonymity provided by electronic media can encourage bullies, Tarplin said. And the ubiquity of electronic medic allows a vicious comment, nasty remark, unflattering photos or videos to be sent to countless numbers of people instantaneously.
"With electronic forms of bullying there is no refuge," said Scott Hirschfeld, director of curriculum and training in ADL’s education division, during an interview with Reuters.
Hirschfeld’s group created the ADL’s program to raise awareness to counter cyberbullying.
"Here it is 24/7. It is always online. Even if you turn off your computer you know that Web page is up, or that people are spreading this rumor about you. The relentlessness of it is very psychologically devastating,” he said.
Teens attending an all-day ADL conference said they viewed cyberbullying as "just messing around" until they heard John Halligan tell the story of his 13-year-old son Ryan, who committed suicide in 2003 after years of both on and offline bullying.
"He was continually harassed about being potentially gay," said Halligan, who now recites Ryan’s story at schools throughout the U.S., in an interview with Reuters.
It was only after Ryan’s death that Halligan discovered the extent of the torment his son had endured.
"He was trying to manage the situation on his own, which a lot of these kids do, tragically," he said.
"I never anticipated that his peers would become such a danger to him."
Halligan urges bystanders and students aware of cyberbullying to use the power of peer pressure to stop it.
His message to parents is to communicate with their children.
"Make sure you turn that computer off, often, and have a sit-down conversation about what is going on in their lives. Create as much opportunity as you can to allow them to express their feelings and what they might be going through."
Halligan played a key part in getting a Bullying Prevention Law passed in Vermont seven months after Ryan’s death.
For states without such a law, Tarplin said the ADL’s civil rights department has created model legislation to assist lawmakers in addressing bullying and cyberbullying.
"It would make schools and other institutions accountable to insure that prevention measures were happening in their institutions," he said.
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