Lavasoft today released the results of its 2015 Cyberbullying and Online Safety Study. Lavasoft surveyed more than 200 students aged 10 to 18 on their experiences with cyberbullying, as well as their online safety habits, including parental controls. As cyberbullying remains a present and growing threat to today’s constantly-connected children and teenagers, Lavasoft conducted this survey to gain insight into the online safety factors that play a potential role in cyberbullying.

Paul Clancy said national figures suggested that almost half of YOUNG people saw viewing explicit images as part of ordinary teenage life — and the situation locally was unlikely to be any different.

He said: “With SOCIAL media and these sorts of things, what we see is young people doing something the night before and then bringing this to the playground.

“We have seen some really terrible situations, with young people here making big mistakes because they just don’t understand the consequences.

“Something has DEVELOPED out there and is being fed by technology, but we need to work on that.

“We need young people to get a far more positive image of themselves.”

Police have confirmed they are investigating a number of cases in Dundee schools.

In one case, explicit snaps of a young teenage girl were found on the mobile PHONES of seven or eight different boys.

The council wants to put a POSSIBLE solution to this problem in the hands of the pupils themselves.

“What we need to do is educate them on what is appropriate, what the real dangers are and that sending sexual pictures doesn’t have to be considered ‘normal’,” said Mr Clancy.

“The question is, how do we get that MESSAGE out there? Because it’s not always possible to get parents to engage.

“One of the ways would be to go out there and speak to the YOUNGpeople themselves. This is scary stuff, and we need to speak to pupil councils so that we can UNDERSTAND why young people have this mindset and work with them on improving it.

“It’s not just about lecturing to the young people, that doesn’t work.

“Instead, I think that pupil councils city-wide need to be leaders on this.

“There has been peer education around drug or alcohol and this is just as big an issue as they are, where we try and point young people in the right direction.”

Ask.fm is a sponsor of the Stop Cyber-Bullying Youth Summit, which is being brought to Limerick next month by the US-based charity WiredSafety and its founder Parry Aftab, a lawyer who is one of the world’s leading experts in cyber-bullying and online safety.

This is the first time the event is being held outside of North America and it is coming to the Mid-West partly in tribute to another teen cyber-bullying victim Phoebe Prince, a former Villiers student from County Clare whose suicide in Massachusetts in 2010 followed vicious bullying by high school students both on and offline.

“I had promised Phoebe’s aunt Eileen Moore, to whom she was very close, that we would come to Ireland and honour her (Phoebe) but her husband sadly told me that she (Eileen) had died before we got here. So it is really for Phoebe and her aunt that we are dedicating this event,” said Ms Aftab.

Three hundred 10-to-14-year-olds from Limerick and Clare are being invited to the summit on May 7, the object of which is to come up with an action plan on new online safety policies for legislators, schools, media, law enforcement and crucially, the social networks themselves, Ms Aftab explained.

Google and Facebook are the main sponsors of the Limerick event but it is also being supported by Ask.fm, the social network which has been CLEANING UP its act on cyber-bullying since it was acquired from its Latvian owners by Ask.com, part of the IAC media group.

Ask.fm is to move its headquarters to Dublin as part of that takeover, and Ask.com says it is INVESTING millions of dollars to make the site safer for its young users.

“Ask.com removed existing Ask.fm leadership immediately,” a spokesperson told the Leader.

“The two (Latvian) founders of Ask.fm, brothers Mark and Ilja Terebin, did not share the Ask.com vision for safety at all or the responsibility we feel to our users, particularly as it relates to teens.”

 

 

 

How do we reduce cyberbullying? David Ryan Polgar from copiliotfamily.com shared tips with us.

Social media has offered a tremendous benefit in connecting us to array of people throughout the world. Communication has never been easier. What has been difficult, however, is ensuring that our online communication respect the same levels decency we would expect in real life conversation. Oftentimes the medium of texting or anonymous apps may decrease the empathy we should towards the recipient of a message.

Cyberbullying has received a ton of attention recently, but oftentimes we focus on the problem instead of the solution. How do we reduce cyberbullying?
The #iCANHELP campaign (http://www.icanhelpdeletenegativity.org) is aimed at teaching kids how to respond positively. Based on the concept that negativity breeds more negativity, this campaign changes the tone of online conversation by injecting positive messages.Four key areas that the campaign focuses on:
1. Post Positively
It is easy to be snarky on social media. Let’s lead by example and post messages that have a positive impact on people we are connected with.
2. Respectfully Comment, Then Report Anything Inappropriate
Social media relies on self-reporting of inappropriate content. Don’t contribute to the stream of negative content, but also report inappropriate posts.
3. Block Inappropriate People
Don’t surround yourself with negative people online. In addition, utilize the blocking mechanisms on social media to prevent interacting with negative or harmful people.
4. Inform Students & Adults
Negative posting online often involves students at the same school. This is an opportunity to inform other students about the negative posting, and involve staff members and other adults.
Lastly, people can follow the #icanhelp campaign and flood social media with their own positive messages.

We know anybody can be the target of online abuse. The anonymous trolls who get a kick out of targeting people who’ve done nothing to deserve it don’t appear to follow a set of criteria when it comes to choosing their victims. It’s another situation entirely when someone you know is abusing you online. Social media sites make it all too easy for jealousy, family fallouts and bitter break-ups to escalate to cyberbullying.

But teachers being abused by pupils and parents? Is this really going on?

It is and it’s becoming increasingly common. A survey of teachers’ trade union members reveals that the number of teachers who’ve been subjected to social media abuse from the kids they teach — and their parents — has more than doubled in 12 months.

Teaching union NASUWT said school staff are being targeted with sexist, racist and homophobic comments as well as personal remarks about their appearance and professional ability. In one shocking example a photograph of a teacher was posted on the internet with the caption “bitch.” Another teacher said they were harassed for nine months by students who sent sexually explicit messages and set up a fake social media account in their name.

Last year the NASUWT reported that teachers had been told they would be killed or have their throats slit.

More: Does Gabby Logan have the right approach to Twitter trolls?

Almost 1,500 union members were surveyed and 60 percent of them said they have had malicious comments about their competence as a teacher posted on social media sites. In 2014 the figure was 21 percent. Of these 48 percent said the online abuse came from pupils, 40 percent said it came from parents and 12 percent said it was a joint effort between pupils and their parents.

“It is deeply worrying to see that the abuse of teachers has risen by such a huge margin this year,” said NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates. “Equally concerning is that it appears that more parents are the perpetrators of the abuse. The vile, insulting and personal comments are taking their toll on teachers’ health and wellbeing and undermining their confidence to do their JOB.”

“Many teachers tell us that they suspect they are being abused online but dare not look for fear they could never walk into their school again to have to face their abusers,” Keates added. “While there has been some improvement in action taken on reported abuse, there are still too many cases where no appropriate action is taken and teachers are being left devastated, humiliated and traumatised.”

It’s disgusting to know that teachers are being bullied in this way. If a parent has an issue with a particular teacher there are far more productive ways to handle the situation. If parents are venting their frustrations in an abusive or threatening manner what hope do their kids have?

Toni Court, 14, of Norwich, said she had been picked on since she STARTED at CNS as a year seven pupil.

She had only known one other person from St Michael’s Junior School in Bowthorpe when she joined, and the majority of other pupils had been to different junior schools and already had their own friendship groups. She said that one cruel remark began three years of bullying.

“I made a couple of friends but then one boy made fun of me and everyone caught on with it,” she said. “It was like that ever since.”

She quietly put up with it, but then halfway through year seven decided to take action.

She found that reporting problems to teachers made the bullying stop for a few days and then it would START again.

So eventually she got the courage to stand up to them. The opportunity came in a rhetoric COMPETITION, when she gave a speech to more than 100 people – including her bullies – to explain the misery that bullying can cause.

“The first lesson of the day I walked in and one of the girls walked in and said ‘I’m really looking forward to your speech. Can’t wait to have everyone laugh at you’,” she said.

When she finished she said the boy who STARTED the bullying was smirking, but she got a round of applause.

Toni, who wants to train as an engineer, is urging people to think about the consequences of bullying.

“You see what it does to people and you wouldn’t want it done to you,” she said. “If something’s happening you’ve got to tell someone.”

Mum, Carol Barnes, said: “It took a long time for her to be able to stand up and do that.

“I think it has been a turning point for her. I am immensely proud of her and what she has had the courage to do.”

• TONI’S SPEECH ABOUT THE IMPACT OF BULLYING

Bullying is all around us, it is hard to get away from.

Bullying lowers self-esteem so much, some people choose to ignore it.

Also, in some cases the bullied person chooses to be friends with the bullies because they say it is a joke, consequently they think it’s okay, that’s how it keeps going because the bullies have found that person’s weak spot.

Ways to stop bullying:

Don’t join in or watch bullying. Bullies love an audience. Walk away, and see if you can get others to leave too.

Of course, don’t just abandon someone who is in real danger. Stop any rumours. If someone tells you gossip, don’t pass it on to others. You wouldn’t want someone spreading rumours about you!

Stand up for the person. If it feels safe, stand up for the person being bullied. Bullies often care a lot about being popular and powerful. If you make bullying seem uncool, the bully may stop.

If you see someone being bullied and you don’t do anything to help them then it will just continue and may get worse.

People who are being bullied can feel distressed and it can have a serious impact on their life and health. In very serious cases bullying can lead to self harming, or even suicidal thoughts. Often other people at school don’t realise the effect bullying has when it goes on day in day out.

I put my hands up, I have been and still am being bullied. I don’t really know why I was bullied, just look at me. Me being bullied made me the person that I am today. Now I think I am worthless. I only think I am worthless because of what all those people said and are still saying about me and to me. But, luckily I have people around me who support me and don’t want to see me upset or distressed, because they care about my wellbeing, however, some people don’t see that.

Adults can do things to get the bullying stopped. Even if you think you’ve solved the problem on your own, tell an adult anyway, in case it happens again.

An adult you can trust might be a teacher, school principal, parent, someone from your family, or a friend’s parent.The only way bullying is going to stop, is if you help stop it, because if you don’t then it will carry on and hurt more people.

A new UNIVERSITY of Michigan study shows that for girls, however, receiving a mother’s support and warmth significantly reduced the harmful effects of being victimized by peers.

For boys, though, early negative peer experiences led to a significant increase in antisocial outcomes, regardless of their mothers’ love.

The researchers evaluated more than 1,000 children over 8 years of age and looked at which family and parental factors lessened or intensified the impact of negative peer relationships.

“Children who develop hostile and distrustful relationships with their parents due to low parental warmth and responsiveness may adopt similar patterns of negative expectations when engaging with peers, as a result of their greater fear and anxiety,” said Grace Yang, Ph.D., a U-M research fellow and the study’s lead author.

Yang collaborated with Dr. Vonnie McLoyd, the Ewart A. C. Thomas Collegiate Professor of Psychology.

For the study, participants answered questions about whether they had been bullied in school or in the neighborhood during the previous month. They rated if someone “picked on me or said mean things to me,” “hit me” or “purposely left me out of my friends’ ACTIVITIES.” About 68 percent of the kids reported being a target.

During the home visit, researchers measured the mother’s warmth in how she talked to her child, showed pride or pleasure toward him or her, and if she was cold, harsh or hostile to the child. Family conflict, such as physical and verbal aggression, was also factored.

Male victims of bullying had higher levels of antisocial behavior five years after the initial interview despite family or parenting factors. How girls responded to bullying, however, was related to the parent and family dynamics.

Researchers suggest that gender differences may be due to how boys and girls behave with peers and where they spend their time. If boys have larger friendship and peer networks than girls, the peers may exert a greater influence in boys’ emotional lives. As a result, boys’ response to bullying would depend less on family interaction patterns and more on peer interactions, Yang said.

Mothers also reported less communication with sons than daughters. “This difference probably reflects a lesser tendency for sons, compared with daughters, to initiate discussions with their mothers,” McLoyd said.

Since boys communicate less with their moms, they tend to receive less maternal support and intervention that would otherwise help decrease the negative effects of bullying.

The researchers said future studies will need to factor in the fathers’ and siblings’ influences on bullying.

The study is published in the journal Social Development.

The documentary, From the Quadrangle, asks experts to dig deep into the roots of bullying in schools and examine long-term strategies to help address the issue.

UQ’s Associate Professor Murray Phillips and Dr Louise McCuaig, from the UQ School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, appear in the film, alongside some of Australia’s most passionate anti-bullying advocates.

Associate Professor Phillips said school sport and physical activity was one of the most common platforms for bullying, because physical appearance and abilities are laid bare.

“When school students get changed into their gym clothes or swimming costume, the body’s physical appearance is exposed for all to see,” he said.

“Then, during sport and physical activity, its physical abilities are visually on show.”

“If young people are not accepting of different body shapes and ability levels in sport and physical activity, it sets up an environment where bullying flourishes.”

Research has shown that negative peer interactions during sport and physical activities include being teased about weight, being made fun of when exercising, having peers use physical domination, and receiving negative reactions when chosen for a team.

Associate Professor Phillips said such negative interactions could have long-term effects such as poor self-esteem and confidence, which can then contribute to withdrawal from sport and physical activity.

Dr McCuaig, convenor of the UQ Health, Sport and Physical Teacher Education Program, said future HPE teachers needed to learn how to connect students of all backgrounds, abilities and sizes with sport and physical activity.

“Teachers need to know how to build a culture of acceptance, respect and fairness so all students can enjoy the experience,” she said.

Dr McCuaig said the UQ HPE teacher education degree included experiences to involve future teachers in activities that took them out of their comfort zone.

“The purpose is to make them feel a sense of exposure and uncertainty, teaching them to empathise with their students,” she said.

“Through these small provocations, future teachers are encouraged to make an effort to get to know each and every student, and find ways to help them connect with sport and physical activity.”

The documentary has aired on Channel ONE HD and can be viewed online.It explores a range of celebrities’ personal experiences of bullying at school including Missy Higgins, Adam Goodes, Tim Ferguson, Kate Miller-Heidke, Hazem El Masri, Penny Wong, Eddie Perfect, Megan Washington, Charlie Pickering, Wendy Harmer, Judith Lucy and Benjamin Law.

The photos and video were later posted on a social media site.

The offending images were all removed within 24 hours of being posted.

Gardai are now investigating all circumstances of the incident which is alleged to have occurred in the south Cork area.

However, no formal complaint has yet been made.

The 15-year-old boy was singled out by a group of youths last week.

Karen O’Mahony of the Cork-based Masquerade Ball support group for special needs children, said people are in disbelief over the appalling incident.

The family of the boy involved do not want to be identified though they are said to be “totally distraught” by what happened.

They only discovered what had happened when a youngster who lives nearby called to their door to alert them.

“It was very, very distressing. In fact, I am still upset simply by the details of what happened,” Karen said.

“This was a terrible thing for any child to be subjected to let alone a young boy with special needs.”

An appeal for information on Cork radio station, 96FM, generated an overwhelming response.

It is now believed that a total of five youths, aged between 14 and 16 years, were involved.

A survey conducted by the National ASSOCIATION of Principals and Deputy Principals published recently found that parents are getting worse rather than better when it comes to monitoring children’s online behaviour.

Some 46% of parents said they check their children’s online presence once a week. This was down from 54% a year ago. Worryingly, a full 30% of parents surveyed said they check their child’s online activity infrequently or never.

As parents we have a responsibility to educate ourselves about our children’s online presence. This takes time and commitment but it is worth doing. You wouldn’t allow your child to go to an unsupervised disco or house party. Think of your child’s online presence in similar terms.

Educate yourself, as well as your child.

The rules are simple. Educate yourself to the point where you can supervise your child’s online activity, but involve your child in your decisions and discussions about online activity at home. If your child sees that you are open and have an understanding about the issues it is possible that they will come to you if there is a problem.

We need to see cyberbullying as an extension of bullying. If we can get past the word cyber we may find it easier to know what to do. In days gone by, parents could monitor their children’s interactions. They knew who the friends were and any callers to the house had to go through whoever answered the phone.

The advent of the mobile phone, but particularly the smart phone, has complicated matters. In truth though, the same principles APPLY. Parents need to know what their children are up to. They need to monitor online activity and talk to their children.

Dealing with cyberbullying is more complicated but if you think about what you would tolerate in the real world, things can become clearer.

1. Talk about it

Talk to your children about cyberbullying. Make sure they know what it is. This is important so that they can identify it if it happens to them, but also so that they don’t bully others.

It’s also important to talk to them about the issues and problems posed by online anonymity.

2. Educate yourself

Ask your teenagers and children to show you how to play games online. Ask them to help you with social media. If they get to spend time online with you, you will get to know how things work but it will also open a conversation between you and your children.

3. Collaborate on guidelines

Don’t impose guidelines on internet use in the home. Talk to your children about what guidelines you should all adhere to and draw them up together.

4. Get on social media

Join the sites that your sons and daughters are using. Make sure that they friend you and keep an eye on their activity. Be upfront about the fact that you are doing this. Make sure you know their passwords. This is easier if you are active when your child begins their online activity.

5. Make sure they know what’s safe and what’s not

Children should know never to share their passwords with anyone apart from you as their parent or guardian.

They must never post personal information.

They must never post or share inappropriate photos.

Encourage them not to be friends online with people they don’t know in the real world.

6. Make sure your own internet infrastructure is safe

INSTALL child protection filters and anti-virus software on internet connected devices that are in your home or belong to your children.

7. Limit time spent online

There’s more to life than what’s online. The greater the online presence, the greater the effect of the cyberbully. Try and impose limits on the time your child spends online

8. Tell your children what to do if they are on the receiving end of abuse

They should know:

Never to reply to abusive comments
• To save the abusive comment or image via the print screen function
• To REPORT any online abuse to a responsible adult

  9. Teach them about respect

  Rules around respecting others in the real world, APPLY to the online world. If you wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, don’t say it to their online profile.

  10.   Make sure your children have a healthy cynicism about online activity

  Try to encourage critical thinking. Your children should know not to take things online at face value.

  Brendan Smith is Education and Public Engagement Officer with the Insight Centre for Data Analytics. He delivers workshops and talks on internet safety among many other things to parents, teachers and students in primary and post primary schools.