Bullies have always been with us.
But today’s Internet technology has spawned a 21st century mutation: the cyberbully. Thanks to the massive popularity of social networking Web sites, bullies and gossips can ceaselessly spread their poison to billions of potential recipients via computers and cell phones. This means that painful encounters are no longer confined to harrowing walks past tormentors on a playground.
"It’s a normal thing for kids to pick on each other. Like it or not, kids bully other kids. But when you add on the technology of cell phones and Internet, it’s a 24-7 thing," said Charleston Police School Resource Officer Dean Fowler. "When we were young, you could at least get away from it when you got home. Now if a kid’s a victim, it’s hard for him to get away from it. These kids usually have their own MySpace page and they check out their friends’ MySpace pages and see other kids picking on them. It’s inherent that they are interested in what other people think about them."
Fowler has been working at local schools for four years, including his current posting at Daniel Island School. He’s conducted seminars on how to combat cyberbullying to teachers, students and parents but said it is under-reported. Sadly, the damaging effects go unnoticed until something extraordinary occurs such as when a victim commits suicide or responds with a deadly firearm.
"One of our biggest problems is the reporting of it," he said. "A lot of the kids who are victims of bullying already have low self-esteem and they’re afraid that if they tell mom and dad they’ll take away their cell phone or restrict their computer privileges, so they don’t tell."
Daniel Island resident Thad Schmenk is an assistant principal at an area high school. He said that an estimated 30 to 60 percent of students in sixth through 10th grades are involved in moderate or frequent bullying. And he has seen how students use cell phone instant messaging to torment others.
"Kids are using cell phones at school for bullying and what they’ll do is they’ll take a picture of a person they don’t like with their camera phones and they will post that picture to MySpace," Schmenk said. "That’s why schools don’t want that in the school. They’ll text message their friends stuff about you. At school they can send that picture to other people so that they know who it is you’re trying to bully, so maybe they can ‘group bully’ that kid.
"They will also coordinate with each other: ‘Hey, I just saw so-and-so coming down the hallway.’ If a kid is going to get jumped at school, one of the signs that we look at is if I look at a crowd of kids and I see a bunch of cell phones come out, I know that a fight is about to happen because they are coordinating that with their friends. As soon as one kid finds out there is going to be a fight, they start texting all of their other friends. So that again is one of the reasons we don’t like (cell phones) in schools because we don’t think kids need any assistance in coordinating fights."
Emerging, cutting-edge technologies are being employed, too, according to Fowler. For example, global positioning satellite software is becoming increasingly common in modern mobile phones.
"Kids ‘geotrack’ each other so that they know exactly where they are at a given moment," Fowler said. "But if a child’s login and password falls into the wrong hands, someone can locate the child to harrass them."
Cyberbullying is not confined to schools, according to Fowler, who noted that unsupervised Internet usage at home can be equally hazardous.
"Parents should be checking how their children are using the Internet," Fowler said. "They can’t just give kids unlimited access to this technology at home."
There are software packages available that can block inappropriate Web content and secretly monitor a child’s computer usage right down to each keystroke. Fowler also recommends that a computer be placed in a central location in a home so that parents can see what children are looking at while online.
"The problem is that some kids are smarter than their parents about computer technology and they know ways to get around these blocking technologies," Fowler said. "Parents need to get up to speed and it’s their responsibility to know what their children are doing. You just can’t say this won’t happen to my child. You’ve got to become knowledgeable."
Fowler said there are dozens of Web sites dedicated to recognizing and combatting cyberbullies. Here are four that he recommends:
• isafe.org
• stopcyberbullying.org
• netsmartz.org
• ikeepsafe.org
If parents have questions about cyberbullying, they can contact Fowler at: fowlerd@ci.charlestoncity.sc.us
