Cyber Bullying
Research and Trends
SPA Conference
2010
Kate Hadwen
Cyber Friendly Schools Projects
2009 – 2010
Strengthens parent’s capacity
to communicate with children
about cyber interactions
Cyber Friendly
Parents’
Project
2009
Review of Existing
Australian &
International
Cyber-safety
Research
(Telstra)
Pilot Test
Cyber Friendly
Schools &
Families
Cyber Friendly
Parents’
Intervention Trial
2007 – 2008
2007 – 2008
Australian Covert
Bullying Prevalence
Study
The Cyber
Bullying
(DBCDE)
Literature Review
2008 – 2012
Cyber Friendly
Schools Project
2010 – 2014
Social Aggression
Capacity Project
Formative Study
(Healthway)
(DEEWR)
National Prevalence
Study
Developing evidence based
policy and practice
COVERT BULLYING
2009
CYBER BULLYING
CYBER SAFETY
Solid Kids, Solid Schools Project (2007-08)
Childhood Aggression Prevention Project (2007-08)
Supportive Schools Project (2005)
Friendly Schools & Friendly Families Program Release (2004)
Friendly Schools, Friendly Families (2002 -03)
Friendly Schools (2000-01)
Collaborative
capacity building to
support schools
SOCIAL AGGRESSION
Overview
• Definitions
• Statistics
• Cyber Bullying and the Law
• Social Networking
• Informed Action
• Evidence based indicators to reduce bullying
Relationships, Relationships,
Relationships
The problem lies NOT
with technology
BUT
With the people using
the technology
• TODAY
• Around 200 million young people are
being hurt by their peers 
What is bullying?
• Repeated and unjustifiable behaviour
• Intended to cause fear, distress or harm to
another
• Physical, verbal or relational
• By a more powerful individual or group
against a less powerful individual who is
unable to effectively resist
Students who reported being bullied
Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study (ACBPS) (Pub 2009, CHPRC)
*all forms - every few weeks or more often
Definition of cyber bullying
Same fleas different dog…
Cyber bullying is when,
over a period of time, an
individual or a group use
Information and
Communication
Technologies (ICT) to
intentionally harm a
person, who finds it hard
to stop this bullying from
continuing.
Origins of cyber-bullying
• Cassidy et al (2009)
– 64% reported CB most likely to start at school and
continue at home
• Brown et al (2006)
– CB typically starts at school
– F2F methods used at school
– Victim retaliates at home using ICT
Correlation between online and
offline bullying, ACBPS
Online bullying
Offline bullying
83% of
students who
bully offline
also bully
online
Our challenge – prevalence
assessment of cyber bullying?
Use a global
question* for cyber
bullying
(that has limited
meaning for young
people)
AND
List specific cyber
bullying behaviours
(as suggested by
young people)
*as proposed by Solberg and Olweus for offline bullying
Who’s at highest risk - according to how
these behaviours are measured…?
Ways of
measuring
cyber bullying
combined
global and
specific
behaviours
yes to any of
the specific
behaviours
Global
Highest rates of
being bullied
Males; Govt
schools, metro
area
Prevalence
rate across
Grades 4-9
10.3%*
Females, Non-govt
7.3%*
schools and non*every few weeks or more often
metro area
Males, Non-govt
schools and non-
4.5%*
What’s going on?
• Flaming – heated exchange
• Harassing and threatening messages eg: “text wars”,
“griefers”
• Denigration - sending nasty SMS, pictures or prank
phone calls “Slam books” (websites or negative lists)
• Impersonation - Using person’s screen name or
password eg: message to hate group w/ personal details
• Outing or trickery sharing private personal information,
messages, pictures with others
• Posting “set up” images/video e.g. “happy slapping”
• Ostracism - Intentionally excluding others from an
online group eg: knocked off buddy lists
• Sexting sharing explicit material by mobile phone
Differences between cyber and
offline bullying
• 24/7 access
• Broadcast, even
repeatedly
• Anonymous
• No authority
• Not telling – punitive
fears
• Nastiness /disinhibition
(Toxic cocktail?)
Cyber bullied – behaviours
(every few weeks or more often)
(Public Education Endowment Trust (WA) Study Results, 2008/9)
Percentage of students who have been
covertly bullied in this location at least every
few weeks, ACBPS
65.2%
Year 7 Primary
Year 7 Secondary
48.8%
20.8%
15.1%
2.6%
Classroom
To school
4.6%
16.9%
5.7%
From school Friend's house
(Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study, 2009)
More evidence as to why a whole school
approach is needed, ACBPS
Percentage of students who have been covertly
bullied by these age groups at least a few times
60.0%
41.1%
32.0%
One year above
Two years above Three years or more
(Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study, 2009)
Transitioning Concerns
Types of bullying behaviour experienced by students who have been covertly
bullied
40.4%
31.9%
10.3%
14.6%
31.2%
13.8%
17.7%
6.9%
22.3%
7.2%
21.2%
17.6% 15.5%
10.8%
6.0%
3.4%
Year 7 Primary
Axis Title
(Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study, 2009)
Year 7
Secondary
Students engaging in bullying are
in need of support
Percentage of
students who were
covertly bullied and
never felt safe at
school
Percentage of
students who covertly
bullied others and
never felt safe at
school
26.8%
22.6%
3.6%
Year 7 Primary
1.8%
Year 7
Secondary
Year 7 Primary
(Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study, 2009)
Year 7
Secondary
In 2009 students who
were cyber bullied were…
(Logistic regression*)
 6 times more likely to feel disconnected to school
 3 times more likely to feel lonely at school
 7 times more likely to never feel safe at school
 5-6 times more likely to experience greater socioemotional difficulties and some depressive symptoms
*Controlling for gender, year level, SES, school size
Significant at 0.01 level of significance
In 2009 students who
cyber bully others are…
(Logistic regression*)
 7 times more likely to never feel safe at school
 2-3 times more likely to experience greater socioemotional difficulties and feelings of depression
 3 times more likely to feel less connected to school
*Controlling for gender, year level, SES, school size
Significant at 0.01 level of significance
Reactions when cyber bullied (2009)
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
(Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study, 2009)
Male
Female
How are young people
responding to cyber bullying?
45%
Tell an adult at school about
the cyber bullying
Tell a friend about the cyber bullying
50%
39%
40%
45%
45%
35%
40%
30%
35%
32%
25%
25%
30%
20%
20%
25%
15%
20%
10%
8%
15%
8%
13%
9%
10%
5%
5%
0%
Always
Mostly
Unsure Sometimes
Never
2%
0%
Always
Mostly
Unsure
(Public Education Endowment Trust (WA) Study Results, 2008/9)
Sometimes
Never
Bullying
Question: Do students who are regularly bullied find it easier to talk
about their problems in an online environment???
Seeking information or
concerned for a friend
Reporting an isolated
instance of bullying
Experiencing episodic
incidents of bullying
Experiencing frequent
incidents of bullying or
continual harassment
Total
All
(N-1,976)
Telephone
(N=1,575)
Online
(N=401)
3.4%
3.7%
1.8%
11.4%
13.0%
5.0%
34.6%
34.2%
36.3%
50.6%
49.1%
56.9%
100%
100%
100%
Kids Helpline (2010). Kids Helpline 2009 Overview. Retrieved on 22
September 2010 from http://www.kidshelp.com.au/upload/22862.pdf
So does telling work?
What happened regarding the bullying after student asked
an adult for help
44.8%
50.0%
45.0%
40.0%
35.0%
30.0%
27.4%
27.8%
Not bullied/did not ask for help
Yes, things got better
25.0%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
Things stayed the same or got
worse
(Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study, 2009)
Asking an adult for help (2009)
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Asked adult for help
Got better
Didn't get better
Male
Female
(Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study, 2009)
BYSTANDERS….
‘Observing bullying at school predicted risks to mental health over and
above that predicted for those students who were directly involved in
bullying behaviour as either a perpetrator or victim.’
‘The current findings indicate a need for school principals, teachers,
and school psychologists to be aware of the possible impact that
witnessing bullying can have upon the mental health of their students.’
Rivers, Noret, Poteat, Ashurst, 2009. (2002 – 12 to 14 year olds. United Kingdom)
Mobilise bystanders
our best chance…
-
The majority of peer interventions are effective, with the
bullying stopping within 10 seconds of peer intervention
(Hawkins et al., 2001)
-
Reconciliation occurred when bystanders intervened
and less when teacher intervened. (Fujisawa et al, 2005)
-
Students who are ‘defended’ are better adjusted, and
report less peer-reported victimisation one year later
(Sainio, Veenstra, Huitsing, & Salmivalli, 2009)
Teachers need more training to discuss covert bullying with
students, staff responses
The extent to which staff felt they were skilled
to deal with cyber bullying by State
Pair and Share Activity
• What is the number one statistic which will
serve to inform change in your school?
Cyber Bullying and the Law
Civil
Law
Criminal
Law
Should the school take precautions against a risk of harm?
Michael Winram (Associate at Emil Ford & Co Lawyers, Sydney)
Is the risk
foreseeable?
NO
There is NO duty to
take precautions
YES
NO
Is the risk more than
insignificant?
NO
YES
Would a reasonable
teacher have taken
precautions?
YES
There is a duty to
take precautions
Percentages of students involved in technology-based only and both forms of
bullying, by gender (2009)
Percentage
bullied through
technology only
Percentage bullied
through technology
and in other ways
Male
8.1%
91.9%
Female
16.3%
83.7%
Total
11.9%
88.1%
Students who were bullied
through technology:
By gender
Be aware of the high
correlation – online bullying
is an indicator of offline
bullying and vice versa.
The risk factors
www.howstuffworks.com
Web 2.0 101…
Where are they going?
Do you know where young people
‘hanging out’ these days?
Use of Social Networking Services(SNS)
Click and Connect Report (2009) n=819
Age ( of Child)
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
Sample
106
87
182
222
222
Bebo
3%
7%
21%
34%
30%
Clubpenguin
21%
25%
15%
6%
2%
Facebook
11%
13%
36%
59%
63%
MSN
20%
42%
64%
80%
83%
MySpace
4%
9%
42%
66%
78%
Any other site
like these
3%
4%
6%
4%
6%
Never used a
SNS
63%
36%
20%
6%
3%
Social Networking Sites
e.g. MSN, Facebook, Twitter
• Post personal information, photos,
music and blogs (web logs)
• Communicate with people they know,
their friends or others
• Some instant messaging capabilities
• Some believe adding large number of
contacts to ‘buddy lists’ increases
social status
Facebook has 400 million active users
500 billion mins per month are spent on Facebook
F8 location based SNS services
Twitter, foursquare, facebook
(can opt in now – only 25% do)
Managing your
Digital Reputation
• Search different sites
• Search in different ways
• Search regularly
Chatroulette
About half of all Chatroulette spins
connects you with someone from the
USA. The next most likely country is
France at 15%.
Of the spins showing a single person,
89% were male and 11% were female.
You are more likely to encounter a
webcam featuring no person at all
than one featuring a solo female. 8%
of spins showed multiple people behind
the camera.
1 in 3 females appear as part of such
a group. That number is 1 in 12 for
males.
1 in 8 spins yield something R-rated
(or worse) You are twice as likely to
encounter a sign requesting female
nudity than you are to encounter
actual female nudity
Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/16/chatroulette-stats-male-perverts/#ixzz0nmEe3LZq
Emphasis on whom?
Informed Action
Now that you are informed...
How do you take action?
Overall reported helpfulness of adult actions
Listened to me
1.7
Gave me advice
1.4
Checked in with me afterwards to see if the behavior stopped
1.3
Kept up increased adult supervision for some time
0.8
Used punishments for the other student(s)
0.8
Sat down with me and the other student or students together
0.7
Said they would talk with the other student or students
0.7
Talked about the behaviour in class more than once
0.7
Brought in a speaker
0.6
Talked with the whole class or school about the behaviour
0.6
Told me to solve the problem myself
0.3
Told me that if I acted differently this wouldn't happen to me
0.3
Ignored what was going on
0.3
Told me to stop tattling
0.2
Davis, S. & Nixon, C. (2010). The Youth Voice Project. Retrieved on 22
September 2010 from http://www.youthvoiceproject.com/YVPMarch2010.pdf