Yes the expert's name is Mishna. I know nothing more about her...
Schoolgirls bullied into stripping online
By Natalie Armstrong Wed Mar 28, 2:21 PM ET
TORONTO (Reuters) - Bullies are no longer content to taunt their victims in the playground but are turning to cyberspace, according to Canadian researchers.
They are using e-mail, text messaging and social networking sites in new forms of victimization.
Cyber bullies are even forcing their girlfriends to undress in front of webcams and then sharing the images with others online.
"They're pressuring each other. This is particularly (true) for girls to send pictures of themselves with their tops off," said Professor Faye Mishna, of the University of Toronto, who has been researching the cyber abuse of children.
"Girls might send it to their boyfriend and she is pressured to do it thinking he's just going to see it. So she gives in and the next thing you know it's all over (the place)."
The images are even more likely to be passed on if the couple breaks up, said Mishna who headed a research team that held focus groups with 47 students in grades 5-12.
Preliminary results from the research show so-called computer geeks are becoming the new schoolyard bullies. Final results of the study, which will be completed in June, are expected to be published in the autumn.
"Traditional bullying is a power differential," Mishna said in an interview....more.
This has been going on since attachments to email came about. As Dean of Discipline at Bronx Science in the late nineties and early part of this decade much that challenged me came from exactly this kind of situation. There was a website called Xanga where students would post and boast the most outrageous things. Bullying has tacit approval from parents in certain ethnic areas and the internet was a tool in the matter.
ReplyDeleteBullies use every kind of tech, high and low, don't they?
ReplyDeleteTrouble with bullies is the psychological hold they have exists more in the victims head than in reality. They use threats to keep the victim intimidated so that they cannot reflect rationally on their predicament. This would indicate that advice to people being bullied would be to discuss the situation with someone removed from the situation.
ReplyDelete