Cyber Bullying

When the use of New Media in school is discussed today, there is one topic which mustn't be forgotten: Cyber bullying is one of the greatest danger, our pupils are confronted with in our digital world. As a short introduction to the topic, you can have a look to this clip on YouTube:

When cyber bullying is compared to 'usual' bullying on the school court, some people may say that no body is physcally harmed and that dealing with this topic in school is just a waste of time. But, as I made already clear in the header: "Cyber bullying affects real lifves" and should therefor not be played down. It takes even bigger dimensions, because the terrain in which the bullies are moving, offers so many hiding-places for offenders and victims that the clarification of an incident is hardly possible without putting high effort in it. Services such as Schüler-Vz, Twitter or chats are used in order to pick on their victims. Writing humiliating or even threatening messages, spreading rumors and uploading intimate photographs or videos are just some offenses against the dignity of a pupil that occur in today's online world. Because of the local and temporal distance between the bully and the victim, the step into bullying is much easier than on the school court, because the bully do not have to cope with the reactions of his victim.

Furthermore, the bullies remain, in most cases, anonymous so that they will be hardly identified. The problem a victim faces to, when he has been bullied online is however much more severe, than the identification of the offender: Once private photographs, to humiliate a person have been uploaded, hardly can they be removed from the net. So it is theoretically possible people are still humiliated by others than the original offender, due to the fact that the media is still available somewhere on the net (caches) or that it has been stored on other computers by classmates, for instance. Once a rumor has been spread on the net, the victim has no chance to stop other people from gossiping and spreading further rumors. Some consequences might even be foreseen, when pictures of the latest party are uploaded by others: It is no secret today that employers look for information about the candidates online. Cyber bullying may in this case not only affect a real life, but also a future career.
Cyber bullying does not stop when school is out. It goes on....and on.....and...on. Every time when the mobile phone is used or the computer is switched on a new attack is to be expected anxiously.

What can be done in school?
First of all prevention. Teachers should make there students aware of the dangers of the Internet and should teach them how to protect themselves from cyber bullying attacks.

• Do not give away sensible, private data (full / real name, address, phone number...)
• Do make your profiles only visible to friends
• Think before you post!
  
• Do not take your passwords (face-book, schüler-vz, email) to school
• Log out, shut down the computer, when you used one in school
  
• Inform the parents: "Dear parents, please have a close look at your children's internet consume whenever possible...."

If there is an incidence of cyber bullying the teacher should take an active part in trying to stop the attacks. Give your pupils the chance to discuss the matter in class, if they want it.
Don't forget: Just because, you are the teacher, that doesn't mean you cannot become a victim.
If you need more information about the topic you can have a look at klicksafe which sums up further information in German.