Tag Archives: cyberbullying
The Broadband Act and Protecting Children in the 21st Century
In October of 2008, the United States Congress passed into law the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492, Public Act 110-385). The intent of the Act was to improve the quality of data, at both the Federal and State levels, around broadband services across the United States. Insofar as the United States falls well below other nations in broadband penetration, the intent also included the promotion of affordable broadband deployment throughout the country. The Act required that the Department of Commerce, through the National Telecommunications Information Agency (NTIA), conduct studies around broadband deployment so as to inform future legislation, enhance economic development, and further public safety, health care and educational opportunities through broadband. Basically, the Act was intended to help bring the United States up to speed, technologically. Think: rural electrification in the 1930’s, nation-wide phone service…now, in the 21st century, broadband deployment and impact. Continue reading →
The Teen Sexting Problem and What Schools Can Do about It
In the recent past, the term “sexting” has come into our lexicon. Sexting can be defined as creating, sending and/or receiving sexually explicit images or texts. It has been described as a 21st century variation of you-show-me-yours-I’ll-show-you-mine game. However, with the added factor of 21st century technology, it is a whole new game!
There is a lot of conversation among law enforcement, the legal community, educators, prevention-intervention people, counselors and others as to whether sexting falls into the category of criminal activity as child pornography. There is no single, simple answer. Each situation is different.
Continue reading →
Social Networking and Students: A Bad Mix?
The teen years are full of drama and staring at one’s self in the mirror – for hours. It’s also about socializing. When I was a teen, I remember sneaking up to the den to make a covert phone call to a boy late on a school night. We had a code: one ring and hang up meant call me. It drove my parents nuts.
Now as a parent, I race my daughter to the bathroom in the morning and I feel around her pillow at night for the contraband cell phone. Continue reading →
Five Reasons Students Don’t Report Cyberbullying
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. Continue reading →
What Should Teachers Do about Sexting?
Like it or not, what happens in cyberspace doesn’t stay in cyberspace. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, 15 percent of our students have received a nude or nearly nude photo or video of someone they know. Four percent are sending sexual photos or videos of themselves.
As teachers we know that the schoolhouse gate doesn’t serve as a barrier to information from the real world. The sexual text messages and instant messages (sexting) our teens send to one another during their online evenings can create a lot of trouble during the offline school day. Continue reading →
Cyberbullying: Seattle Public School’s Online Lessons
Our students are digital natives, a term that means that teens look at the Internet, cell phones, instant messaging, and text messaging as a part of their normal social lives. Adults are digital immigrants who use technology as a tool to supplement our lives. For students, asking them to turn off the communications technology is like asking them to eat steak without a knife and fork. Sure, the kids could eat the steak, but it’s messy and awkward without the right tools. Our students are so used to their digital tools that face-to-face communication and online communication blend seamlessly.
That seamless blend of the live and the virtual makes cyberbullying, bullying that takes place through a digital medium, a more complex problem to solve than just turning off the cell phone or logging off the computer. Thirty percent of our students have experienced cyberbullying, the effects of which extend beyond the online universe and into their offline world – including the classroom. Continue reading →
Cyberbulling and the Classroom
According to a study released by the McArthur Foundation, teens aren’t wasting time when they’re updating Facebook pages and surfing the Web. They’re learning technological and networking skills that are crucial to success as a digital citizen.
Like the real world, the virtual world can turn from friendly to ugly. Social communities can become cyber-nightmares for teens who find themselves the victims of a timeless foe: the bully. Continue reading →
