From this day forward I publicly commit myself to end all violence. Additionally I shall strive to contribute to a safe and supportive cyberspace. I shall neither participate in, encourage, nor endorse any form of cyberbullying.
In the spirit of femtorship and mentorship and in the spirit of comm-unity, I promise to respect, honor and learn from myself as well as others.
Sign the Pact
Signed by on September 27, 2008:
It's unfortunate that Deaf Hope took down the "The Pact" link.
Now, in general, once a person becomes a cyberbully over the internet and doesn't stop then it can become a vicious circle. The circle gets bigger. The hole digs deeper. A cycle that never ends just to ensure the continuing character assasinations of people by personally going after named individuals. But the maxim "once a cyberbully always a cyberbully" is not always true but in general I hope people would get the gist of where I'm going with this.
The word "cyberbully" can and do apply to adults. A child can cyberbully a child. A child can cyberbully an adult. An adult can cyberbully a child. An adult can cyberbully an adult. Everybody knows exactly what it means and what it's all about. No need to get "technical" about it because it can confuse the matter at heart when it's about bullying. Excessive harassment is bullying gone too far. You can have an adult bully. By convention you can have an adult cyberbully which is an adult who take to the internet (or phone) as the preferred method to harass and bully others. In other words, cyberbullies use their computer screen as their shield because a cyberbully would not ordinarily say those harassing words or comments online to the same person in person.
The legal definition of "cyberbullying":
Cyber bullying refers to any harassment that occurs via the internet, cell phones or other devices. Communication technology is used to intentionally harm others through hostile behavior such as sending text messages and posting ugly comments on the internet.
The National Crime Prevention Council defines cyber-bullying as “the process of using the Internet, cell phones or other devices to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.”
Cyber-bullying could be limited to posting rumors or gossips about a person in the internet bringing about hatred in other’s minds; or it may go to the extent of personally identifying victims and publishing materials severely defaming and humiliating them.From the National Science Foundation on recognizing cyberbullying:
Cyberbullying is not only associated with children and adolescents. The Cyberbullying Research Center website run by Justin Patchin, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and Sameer Hinduja, an associate professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University, claims to receive more inquiries from adults than teens.
"We get a lot of emails, phone calls and comments on this blog from adults who are being bullied through technology. They stress to us that cyberbullying is not just an adolescent problem. Believe me, we know," they write on their website.
"We know that cyberbullying negatively affects adults too. It's just that we spend the majority of our efforts studying how this problem impacts school-aged youth due to their tenuous developmental stage," they write.A woman explains that cyberbullying occurs among adults just as well and as viciously, too.
"Cyberbullying does not just apply to children. There are adult groups dedicated to harassing and defaming others as well," says an adult woman in an online article titled "The Anonymous Attacks of Adult Cyberbullying Cross the Line and Enter the 'Real World.'"
"Cyberbullying does not just apply to children. There are adult groups dedicated to harassing and defaming others as well, along with websites created online specifically to make fun of and demean individuals. These people can be found in communities linked to blogs and chat rooms and they use the disguise of “anonymity” to harass their prey. Sometimes, these bullies will take their online squabbles offline and press people online to harass their prey's family and friends. As a bully myself, then a victim of large-scale bullying, let me tell you my story.In November of 2006, my grandfather had a massive heart attack. My way of dealing with my pain was to go online and take it out on nameless, faceless bloggers, and I posted things to people that would probably result in me being beaten up if it were said to someone in 'real life.' When one of these people I attacked told me my grandfather deserved his death, I upped my ante, lashing out at these words with racial slurs, vulgar names and just about anything else you can imagine."These people, despite their differences, are part of a group that has one thing in common-all of them have been impacted in some way by cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is a huge problem over the internet. Not just among the deaf/hh community but everybody. It's also a problem over cell phones through texting or voice. There were past public and private discussions on cyberbullying within the deaf/hh community. It continues to be discussed. I have covered the cyberbullying topics several times in my blogs. Courts have recognized that cyberbullying is not protected speech. People who continue to regularly use the internet to harass, make fun of, defame, attack, spew hate, produce ad hominems and such at private individuals whether the person is an adult or child is a cyberbully in my book. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Once a bully always a bully. Once a cyberbully always a cyberbully but there is always hope that a bully can change. The only guarantee to not be a bully whether online or in the physical presence is not to behave like one.
6 comments:
Exactly. Technical definition tend to state that cyberbullies applies to children, however, technically one have and still continue to use the word cyberbullying among adults which are then technically labeled as cyberharassment and/or cyberstalking. Still, falls under cyberbullying, nevertheless. It is still cyberbullying when adults are involved.
In that one website you shared (the second link), it states that they receive more inquiries from adults than teens and that they KNOW that cyberbullying negatively affects adults TOO!! And, it went on to say "it's just that we spend the majority of our efforts studying how this problem impacts school-aged youth due to their tenuous developmental stage."
Another thing, that I found covers one of the elements of cyberbullying, which is: Repetition.
As we know, cyber laws are still new and over time, they will be re-defined and strengthened. I believe that already this 'repetition' element is being discussed.
In one of the site I checked out, http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/ncjrl/pdf/CyberbullyingDefined.pdf
Covers repetition element. I will copy and paste that part here:
"Cyberbullying, however, creates scenarios where it is difficult to determine repetition.
Robin M. Kowalski explains that a single act of cyberbullying often creates repeated harm:
A single act (e.g., a nasty e-mail or an inflammatory (sic) text message) may be forwarded to hundreds or thousands of children over a period of time. From a victim's perspective, he or she may feel repeatedly bullied, to say nothing of the (sic) fact that the victim may reread the email or text message himself or herself multiple times, again leading to the feeling of being bullied repeatedly. Even though there may have been only one initial act, it may have been perpetrated through many people and over time.
This creates questions of whether repetition should be a required element of cyberbullying and if it is included how repetition itself should be defined."
So, in essence, someone makes a Youtube video which consists of machine gunning someone down in the form of cyberbullying tactics, the video is shared hundreds, if not thousands of times via email by sharing the link, via Youtube by liking the video which is plastered over their fan's initial page when they open Youtube, via Facebook by sharing the video and so on. So, the victim is being attacked not once but many times as the video is being shared on the Internet.
There has been too much incidents of bullying on line lately and Community Accountability is just another way for them to get away with using that term in order to bully others.
Common denominator we see online as it relates to advice on how to handle bullies is to simply ignore them, do not respond to them.
This is definitely a great post, albeit a topic you've covered in past, it still needs to be a reminder, unfortunately.
Candy,
Repetition is also about creating a website solely designed to bully, harass, call names, make claims, ridicule their victims and such.
I agree about the "Community Accountability" and how some people used that as a cover over their cyberbullying behaviors. It's a way to help satiate their desire to somehow continue with their need to cyberbully people. It's a vicious cycle disguised as something else. Granted, there are some good on having "Community Accountability." However, people have cyberbullied/cyberharassed and even cyberstalked their intended victims under the guise of "Community Accountability." Their own words and actions betray them. It becomes patently obvious when known cyberbullies do this and those joining in on the fray.
Narcist C....
I got your message. Read next comment.
Narcist C...
My email contact is kokonutpundit@hotmail.com
The biggest problem? For the pact to work, everyone who signed has to have some self-awareness and humility, things that Ridor doesn't exactly have in spades. To this day, he still believes that he doesn't engage in cyberbullying at all.
Anony @ 6:29 PM,
True. I hadn't really thought about that. For those who signed the pact should recognize when one breaks the pact. For those who continue to address a known cyberbully should know better to do that because it essentially nullify their own pact by looking the other way. Tsk. That *IS* a problem.
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