Cyberbullying

Class
CPSC 203. L05. T31. Team 4

Group Members
Anthony Wai, Bonnie Kung, Candace Eng

Initial Project Statement


For children who are growing up in our world today, the internet, cell phones, and cameras are just a part of their everyday lives. However, these technologies have not been around long enough for society to see and come up with proper rules to govern the use of such technologies. A lot of this has been due to unfamiliarity with mediums, due to the rapid introduction of new and improved technologies daily, but it has also been a result of a lack of knowledge of the consequences associated with new technologies.

One of the biggest consequences due to the widespread nature of the internet is cyberbullying. This issue is especially problematic as it seems to be children who are most adept at perpetrating it, having grown up with these technologies, as well as being the ones who are suffering the most from it.

To prevent the negative effects of cyberbullying pervading into society any further into the future, cyberbullying must be examined and dealt with today. To do this, it is not only important to look at the nature of cyberbullying, who it targets, but it is also significant to look at how society is dealing with this, and steps that can be taken to prevent it.

What is Cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is one of the fastest-growing forms of harassment which affecting both children and adults.

"Cyberbullying" is when a person under 18 is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another minor using information and communication technologies. The person who is doing the bullying, as well as the victim, must be a minor, or the bullying must have at least been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, the cyberbullying becomes cyber-harassment or cyberstalking.

History of Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is like a fun fact for the bullies of the past and now. It has been something schools and kids have been struggling with for a long time. Bullies have always enjoyed embarrassing people and fooling around with them, only now it can be done on a computer. It is not known exactly when cyberbullying started but the strategies of cyberbullies have expanded greatly in correlation with the fast growth of technological tools in communication. An Internet bully usually makes demands for personal information of others, constantly repeating the requests and attempting to embarrass and imitate those who refuse to give such information.

Types of Cyberbullying
There are two kinds of cyberbullying: direct attacks for the people who send messages out directly, or cyberbullying by proxy, which is using others to help cyberbully the victim, either with or without the accomplice’s knowledge. Cyberbullying by proxy often gets adults involved in the harassment, and so it is generally much more dangerous.

Direct Attack
1. Instant Messaging/Text Messaging Harassment

2. Stealing Passwords

3. Blogs

4. Web Sites

5. Sending Pictures through E-mail and Cell Phones

6. Internet Polling

7. Interactive Gaming

8. Sending Malicious Code

9. Sending Porn and Other Junk E-Mail and IMs

10. Impersonation

Cyberbullying by proxy
Cyberbullying by proxy sometimes starts with the cyberbully posing as the victim. They may have hacked into their account or stolen their password. They may have set up a new account pretending to be the victim. But however they do it, they are pretending to be the victim and trying to create problems for the victim with the help of others.

The most typical way a cyberbullying by proxy attack occurs is when the cyberbully gets control of the victim's account and sends out hateful or rude messages to everyone on their buddy list pretending to be the victim. They may also change the victim's password so they can't get into their own account. The victim's friends get angry with the victim, thinking they sent the messages out, not knowing that they have been used by the cyberbully. However, cyberbullying is not always this minor, sometimes the cyberbully tries to get more people involved.

Most Common
The most frequent modes used for cyberbullying are:

1. Instant messaging (MSN, ICQ, YahooMessenger, etc.)

2. E-mail

3. Social networking site – (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) 

Who is Being Cyberbullied & Who is Cyberbullying
Boys and Girls appear to be equally likely to be targets of online harassment. There is some indication that girls might be more likely than boys to be targeted infrequently, but both sexes are just as likely to be targeted frequently. Older teenagers seem to be more likely to be involved in cyberbullying than younger teenagers. In fact, a recent national survey of youth reports that the average age of a teenager involved in cyberbullying is 15 years old. The people who are harassed on the computer may also be experiencing harassment in real life. Cyberbullying occurs mostly because teenagers do not know how to handle with their related or unrelated social problems.The main appeal to cyberbullying is anonymity: kids feel freer to do things online that they would never do in the real world, even if they can be identified online, kids can accuse someone else of using their screen name, and kids don't have to own their actions, that is, if a person can't be identified with an action, fear of punishment is diminished.

CANADA
There is no specific Canadian legislation against cyberbullying, but cyberbullying can already be addressed under current Canadian criminal and civil law

Civil Law:

1.Defamation – When the bully does harm to someone`s reputation by spreading false information : If the defamation is temporary such as in unrecorded speech, it is called slander. When it the defamation is permanent for example in a book or on a website, it is called libel. The perpetrator may have to pay damages if sued if libel does occur. To classify a statement as libelous it must the target must : Harm a person`s reputation Have a clear and obvious target Be seen by other people

2. Unsafe environment – schools and workplaces are obligated to provide safe spaces for students and employees, failing to do so may be cause for a lawsuit

In Ontario, one of the civil laws passed adding to legislation against cyberbullying is the Safe School Act which allows for the expulsion of students for a minimum of 21 days if they engage in activities such as cyber bullying.

3. Reasonable Guess – A perpetrator is responsible for any consequences if there is any reasonable probability for the perpetrator to believe the consequence will be carried out

Criminal Law:

1. Harassment – when someone makes someone fear for their safety or safety of others -  intentional or unintentional is punishable for up to 10 years in prison

2.Defamatory Libel – is a crime if it is directed towards a person in authority that could potentially harm their reputation – is punishable for up to 5 years in prison

Human Rights Act

A perpetrator may also be violating the Human Rights Act if they spread hate or discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status or disability. 

UNITED STATES
In the United States, many states have passed or are considering laws that allow for schools to take action against off-campus cyberbullying as well as on-campus cyberbullying. In general, most states have done this by including cyberbullying into the definition of bullying. There is no national law against cyberbullying. 

UNITED KINGDOM
In the UK, there has been a criminal case recently that holds Internet Service Providers responsible for the content that goes up, in this case any sites that may be used to bully anyone. 

How to Prevent Cyberbullying


To help prevent cyberbullying, parents can keep the home computers in easily viewable places, or they can consider installing parental control filtering software or tracking programs on the computers. The most important thing to stop cyberbullying is to educate kids about the consequences of bullying, and to encourage a child to tell a trusted adult if they are being bullied. Also, if there is material posted on a website or webpage, someone can contact the ISP providers and request to have the pages taken down.

Statistics
There are some shocking statistics when it comes to the amount of youth and kids affected by cyberbullying. Here are a few: - 50% of Canadian kids say that they are online most of the time - 25% of young Canadian Internet users say that someone has sent them messages that have said hateful things about others - 42% of kids have been targeted while online - only 10% of those kids who were bullied told their parents about the incident - a mere 18% of the cases were reported to a local or national law enforcement agency - chat rooms are currently where the most cyberbullying occurs, with various sources finding anywhere between 45% - 57% of all incidents originating there - Cyber bullying has increased in recent years. Twice as many children and youth indicated that they had been victims and perpetrators of online harassment in 2005 compared with 1999/2000

What is Preventing Legislation
Arguments against specific legislation on cyberbullying are that a large number of youth do engage in it, and so if a criminal law was implemented regarding cyberbullying, a large number of youth would end up with criminal records. This seems to be harmful in principle as it would lead to a harder time finding employment as well as other social costs for such a large sector of the population. Another argument that has been frequently used is that having such a law would go against the individual's right for freedom of speech, however in Canada, that argument can be effectively displaced because section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees everyone's right to security. 

Effects on Society


Cyberbullying has the same effects as normal bullying: drop in grades, emotional pain, withdrawal, no place to feel safe, eating disorders, anxiety for both victims and perpetrators and can lead to suicide.

Case Study:Lori Drew Case
In October of 2007, Josh Evans sent a message to 13 year old Megan Meier that said "You're a sh---y person, and the world would be a better place without you in it." A few hours later, Megan committed suicide.

After her death, investigators found out that Josh Evans was not a real person, but instead a persona on MySpace created by Lori Drew, the mother of one of Megan's classmates. Lori Drew apparently created the persona to keep tabs on what Megan was saying about her daughter. Under the persona of Josh Evans, Lori began to communicate with Megan, and became friends with her. However, after a few months, Josh Evans began saying mean things and Megan was unable to understand why.

In what can be seen as the first United States criminal law case against cyberbullying, Lori Drew was brought into court on charges for one count of conspiracy, and three counts of authorizing a computer without permission. Because there is no national law on cyberbullying in the United States, she was prosecuted based on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Usually, the Computer Fraud and Abuse act is used to prosecute hackers.

On December 4th, 2008, Drew was convicted of "unauthorized access." In fact, it was not any American law that Drew violated, but rather the MySpace regulations stating that a profile cannot be created to impersonate another person.

This case clearly shows the negative side effects that cyberbullying has, and the difficulty in combating against it. 

=Conclusion= In conclusion, it can be seen that cyberbullying is one of the biggest problems facing youth in our society today. It has also been shown that there is insufficient legislation to combat against it. Instead, parents and teachers should focus on prevention, and educating kids about the effects of cyberbullying. As awareness of the problem increases, hopefully cyberbullying will stop.

Bonnie
http://www.isafe.org/channels/sub.php?ch=op&sub_id=media_cyber_bullying

http://www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying?gclid=CLzb7KPGkZcCFRPZDAodsQh0xw

http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/CyberBullying.aspx

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/how_it_works/index.html

http://www.mediaeducationweek.ca/press_articles_cb.htm

http://www.cyberbullying.ca/pdf/Cyberbullying_Information.pdf

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html

http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/adult/indexAdult.asp?Area=cyberbullying

http://www.speedbrake.com/tips/bullies.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/bullying/cyber_bullying.html

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=974494

http://www.slais.ubc.ca/COURSES/libr500/04-05-wt2/www/D_Jackson/what.htm

http://www.cyberbullyalert.com/blog/2008/08/cyber-bullying-statistics-that-may-shock-you/

Anthony
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/

http://www.need2know.co.uk/need2know/relationships/bullying/article.html/id=978

http://www.newman.ac.uk/Students_websites/~a.a.behan/history.htm#hist

http://www.cyberbully411.com/who-is-targeted-by-cyberbullies.php

http://www.onlinesecurityauthority.com/myspace/targeted-cyberbullying-occurs/

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/how_it_works/direct_attacks.html

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/how_it_works/cyberbullying_by_proxy.html

http://www.newman.ac.uk/Students_websites/~a.a.behan/Introduction.htm

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html

http://www.newman.ac.uk/Students_websites/~a.a.behan/bullying%20technologies.htm

Candace
http://www.youthone.com/articles/?id=35

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_9878.aspx

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/lessons/secondary/cyber_bullying/cyberbullying_law2_h4.cfm

http://www.bewebaware.ca/english/CyberBullying.aspx

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-06-cyber-bullying-list_N.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-bullying#Legislation_against_cyberbullying

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/theeditorialpage/story.html?id=f5493c36-fb20-4b3e-a8fa-cd73b5601c67]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ivSEI0g__v3nS2lR3dkKwyuA_2Eg

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081204.wgtweb05/BNStory/Technology/home

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=974494

http://www.StopABully.ca