Pandora’s Blog

Maybe this is the way to go about it… a Brigham Young University student, Justin Bergener, created SchoolTipline.com, which lets students anonymously report incidents of cyberbullying, as well as information about thefts, drugs and harassment.

Bergener said he hopes students who might otherwise be too scared or shy to speak up will be willing to post on the site. Lots of schools are already using the site and even parents have reporter incidences.

Maybe this is the way to go. There is a code of silence in Middle Schools and a report in the Journal of School Health (see second story pasted below) shows that some 72% of teens who are frequent Internet users say they’ve been the victim of online bullying at least once during the past year. Yet, 90% of bullied teens don’t tell their parents about the incidents, mainly because they feel the need to deal with the problem on their own and are fearful of parental restrictions on Internet use.

If kids aren’t telling their parents, maybe this site can be the answer. This and, of course, monitoring software like our PC Pandora. With PC Pandora you’ll know if your child is a victim of a cyberbully, and you’ll know; you’ll also know if your child is the cyberbully and be able to stop them before the law does.

Web Site Lets Kids Report Cyberbullying

SALT LAKE CITY — Six Utah schools have started using a Web site that allows students to anonymously report bullies.

A Brigham Young University student, Justin Bergener, created the site, which also lets students post information about thefts, drugs and harassment.

Bergener said he hopes students who might otherwise be too scared or shy to speak up will be willing to post on the site.

“There really is this culture and code of silence that’s particularly prevalent in middle schools and high schools,” Bergener said.

Many students may not want to be seen in the office talking to an authority figure, said Rosanna Ungerman, principal of Provo’s Dixon Middle School.

“It allows students to have an outlet and avenue to report things they might otherwise not have reported,” Ungerman said.

Nearly 50 schools in other states are also using the Web site.

Even some parents have reported incidents anonymously, said Judy Runolfson, Lehi Junior High’s assistant principal.

“There’s a greater awareness that it’s a situation that needs to be looked into right away because we know it can lead from something that’s not that bad to something much worse,” Runolfson said.

Lehi seventh-grader Kimmy Mortenson said she hasn’t used the Web site, but thinks it’s a good idea.

“I think kids would feel more comfortable about reporting bullies that way,” Mortenson said. “They can safely report and not get bullied by the bully.”

Kids Hide Cyberbullying Incidents from Parents

By SLJ Staff — School Library Journal,
Cyberbullying is more common than you think, and teens aren’t telling their parents about it, says a new study in the Journal of School Health.

In fact, some 72 percent of teens who are frequent Internet users say they’ve been the victim of online bullying at least once during the past year.

“Extending the School Grounds?—Bullying Experiences in Cyberspace” says online bullying is associated with in-school bullying, with 85 percent of respondents who reported at least one online incident also reporting being bullied in school.

Meanwhile, 90 percent of bullied teens don’t tell their parents about the online incidents, mainly because they feel the need to deal with the problem on their own and are fearful of parental restrictions on Internet use, says the study.

“Just as school-based bullying is considered a public health concern, online bullying should be recognized as an issue that needs attention,” say the study’s authors Jaana Juvonen and Elisheva F. Gross of the University of California in Los Angeles. “Because of the generation gap in electronic communication, however, parents and educators need to better understand both the positive and negative functions of teen online behavior.”

Bullying is a national public health problem affecting millions of students, but with the rapid increase in electronic communication, bullying is no longer limited to schools, the study adds.

The most frequent forms of online and in-school bullying involved name-calling or insults, and the online incidents most typically took place through instant messaging. Repeated school-based bullying experiences increased the likelihood of repeated cyberbullying more than the use of any particular electronic communication tool, with about two-thirds of cyberbullying victims reported knowing their perpetrators, and half of them knowing the bully from school, the study says.

Both in-school and online bullying experiences also were independently associated with increased social anxiety.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 12:40 PM and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.