Five Reasons Students Don’t Report Cyberbullying

February 24th, 2010 By: Diane Trim in Articles, School Climate, Teachers' Corner

Chelsie, a vibrant freshman in third period, is no longer vibrant. Most days, she’s not even present. When she does show up to class, she often comes early and alone. Her grades have slipped. She makes up excuses in the computer lab about why she can’t go online or she pleads a stomach ache and heads for the nurse’s office. When she’s in class, Chelsie prefers to work alone and not in groups. If other students ask her to join a group, she snaps at them.

Chelsie’s change in behavior is consistent with that of a cyberbully victim, Hindjua and Patchin wrote in Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying.

Students who have problems with a cyberbully often change their behavior, avoid technology, and avoid school, the authors wrote.

“Our own research identified a link between cyberbullying victimization and adolescent problem behaviors, such as recent school difficulties, assultive conduct, substance use, and traditional bullying,” Hinduja and Patchin wrote.

Chelsie’s behavior is unusual for her, but she won’t confide in any adults, either. At parent-teacher conferences, Chelsie’s mom was concerned about her daughter’s behavior, but said that Chelsie won’t confide in her. The parent is worried about Chelsie, uneasy about her constant illnesses and absences, and upset about her grades. The mom wants to help but she thinks that Chelsie’s problem is just an adolescent phase.

It’s not just a phase. Chelsie, like 60 percent of cyberbullying victims, has chosen not to confide about her cyberbullying problem to a teacher, parent, or other adult. Why do students like Chelsie choose to suffer in silence? They have their reasons.

• Embarrassment. Chelsie is mortified that another student used a cell phone to snap a locker room photo of Chelsie. Worse, that photo has made the rounds. Chelsie’s hoping that by laying low, not socializing with anyone, staying off electronic devices, and avoiding school that the whole embarrassing incident will blow over.
• Attacks will escalate. Chelsie’s not a wimpy tattletale who runs to an adult when there’s trouble. She thinks that if she tells an adult about the cyberbullying, the attacks will only get worse.
• Adults don’t understand. Hinduja and Patchin’s cyberbullying study found that students don’t tell adults because they believe that the adults don’t know enough about the technology to help, the adults won’t do anything, or the adults will over-react. Chelsie believes her teacher wouldn’t help her, even if the teacher knew about the bullying. After all, Chelsie’s problem is a cell phone photo text message and students don’t use their phones in school. It’s really not the teacher’s problem. She doesn’t want to tell her mom because Mom will call the cyberbully’s parents and escalate the problem.
• Adults will blame the victim. Instead of working out a solution with the victim, an adult might chide the student for allowing someone access to an online account, sharing a password, or giving out a phone number. Chelsie thinks that if she told her dad about the cyberbullying, he’d give her a lecture about how she’s been irresponsible with her cell phone and private information. She’ll feel like she’s to blame for the malicious text.
• Adults will restrict digital access. Students prize their access to their electronic devices and they’re afraid that an adult’s solution to the cyberbullying problem is to remove the medium – the cell phone or computer. That kind of response punishes the victim and sends her the message that she is indeed at fault. Chelsie’s convinced that telling her parents will mean that they’ll take her cell phone away. She hates the bullying text messages, but she clings to the supportive ones her friends send her.

Better responses are to encourage students to confide in an adult about cyberbullying, explain how they can block cyberbullies cell phone and e-mail messages, and create strong passwords. Make sure that students don’t respond to bullying messages, but instead take the time to print out a hate-filled screen or save a harmful text message as a record of the bullying.

Cyberbullying isn’t a victimless crime. Teens don’t have the maturity to shrug off insults or respond appropriately to a bully. Studies have shown that students who suffer from bullying are five times more likely to be depressed than their peers. One out of ten of these bullying victims drop out of school.

When a cyberbullying victim confides in a teacher, the teacher needs to listen more than talk. Praise the student for talking about the problem. Students need to know that adults will do something about the problem and that the outlook for the bullying to stop is good.

“One of the reasons why cyberbullying is not taken seriously is that there remains a number of adults who continue to perceive traditional bullying as simply ‘a rite of passage among adolescents,’ as ‘boy being boys,’ or even as an inevitable and instructive element of growing up,” Hinduja and Patchin wrote. “However, we believe that if emotional, psychological, and potentially even physical harm stemming from online aggression can be reduced or prevented, it is definitely worth the effort.”

References:

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2008). Cyberbullying: an exploratory analysis of factors related to offending and victimization. Deviant Behavior. 29, 129-156.

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2009). Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

Tags: bullying, computer, cyberbullying, digital, parents, safety