Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Cyberbullying: Four Teens Sued for Creating Fake Facebook Profile

A good reminder for parents that they can potentially end up on the hook financially for their kids' cyberbullying. This might prove to be a good case study that parents can discuss with their kids about the potential effects of cyberbullying.

Teenagers can be cruel, and so can the Internet. Mixing the two can lead to some real drama-fests, and four Illinois teenagers are about to find out if there are consequences to using Facebook to aggressively target a classmate. The teens have been accused of creating a fake Facebook profile for one of their peers, representing him as a sexually obscene racist and amassing hundreds of "friends" as if he were running the profile himself, thus potentially running off college recruiters. The teen's mother has now filed a lawsuit against the four, accusing them of defamation and causing severe emotional distress.

According to the complaint, the group created a Facebook profile for John Doe (an apparently well-respected student involved in athletics and other school activities) by using real photos of him and posting some of his real contact information, such as his cell phone number. However, the group also made numerous statements on his profile as him, many of which were obscene, racist, and sexual.

Those behind the fake profile sent vulgar, sexual comments to various peers at school, and the complaint says that at least one person who read the profile represents a collegiate athletic team who raised concerns over recruiting John Doe as a result.

The complaint accuses the four students intended malice when creating the profile, therefore categorizing it as defamation. Not only did Doe's family suffer out-of-pocket costs in dealing with the aftermath of the profile, Doe himself suffered "severe emotional distress" and could have even been passed over by numerous college recruiters. The profile has since been removed by Facebook (after much work by Doe's family, it seems), but the lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages against the four attackers.

Source: ars technica
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/that-obscene-racist-may-be-fake-4-sued-for-profile-prank.ars

High School Put-Downs Make It Hard For Students To Learn

High-school put-downs are such a staple of teen culture that many educators don't take them seriously. However, a University of Illinois study suggests that classroom disruptions and psychologically hostile school environments can contribute to a climate in which good students have difficulty learning and students who are behind have trouble catching up.

"We need to get away from the idea that bullying is always physical. Bullying can also include verbal harassment, which can be just as damaging and detrimental to student learning," said Christy Lleras, a U of I assistant professor of human and community development.

The study used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study and included 10,060 African American, Latino, and white tenth graders in 659 U.S. high schools. It is one of the first to look at the national incidence of verbal harassment in public and private high schools, she said.

"In looking at whether students felt safe at school, students' fear for their physical safety was actually pretty low. But 70 percent of the students said they were bothered by disruptions in their classroom, and one in five students said that they were often put down by their peers in school," she said.

Source: EurekAlert!
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/uoia-hpm090109.php

Dismissal In MySpace Suicide Case Could Spark Cyberbullying Crackdown

A federal judge's recent decision to dismiss charges against Lori Drew in the "MySpace suicide" case is already fueling an attempt to enact a new federal cyberbullying law.

"This decision is disappointing, but is a direct example of why we need laws to address new crimes like cyberbullying," Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) said in a statement issued after the case was dismissed. Sanchez recently proposed a law, the "Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act," that would criminalize online harassment.

Drew, an adult Missouri resident, was prosecuted for allegedly violating a federal computer fraud law by helping to hatch a plan to create a fake profile of a boy, "Josh," who sent messages to 13-year-old Megan Meier. The messages, flirtatious at first, eventually turned hurtful. Megan hanged herself after receiving a final message from "Josh" that the world would be a better place without her.

Sanchez's bill would make it a crime to send electronic communications "with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person." The bill would also require that the sender exhibit "severe, repeated, and hostile behavior."

Source: Online Media Daily
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=109153

Recent Statistics on Cyberbullying, Bullying

New research shines a light on the phenomenon of “cyber bullying,” suggesting that nearly 1 in 10 children are bullied through electronic means such as text messages, and girls are more likely to be victims than boys are.

Other kinds of bullying remain much more common, however. Large numbers of kids continue to harass each other by spreading rumors, turning fellow students into outcasts and intimidating others through words and violence.

The study authors examined a 2005 national survey that asked 7,182 students in grades 6 through 10 about bullying. The study findings appear online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Eight percent said others bullied them through computer pictures and messages; 6 percent received bullying messages through cell phones.

Thirteen percent of students said others physically bullied them — hit, kicked, pushed or shoved them or locked them indoors.

About a third of students said others called them mean names, made fun of them or teased them in a hurtful way; about a third acknowledged doing the bullying themselves. Moreover, 26 percent to 32 percent said others spread rumors about them or ostracized them.

Source: EmaxHealth
http://www.emaxhealth.com/2/50/32049/nearly-1-10-kids-report-cyber-bullying.html

Boy-Girl Bullying in Middle Grades More Common Than Previously Thought

Philip C. Rodkin, a professor of child development at the University of Illinois' College of Education, said that while most bullies are boys, their victims, counter to popular conception, are not just other boys.

"We found that a lot of male bullies between fourth and sixth grade are bullying girls – more than people would have anticipated – and a substantial amount of that boy-girl, cross-gender bullying goes unreported," he said.

Rodkin, who along with Christian Berger, a professor at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile, published the paper "Who Bullies Whom? Social Status Asymmetries by Victim Gender" in the most recent issue of the International Journal of Behavioral Development, said cross-gender bullying hasn't been fully explored because of the ways researchers have thought about the social status dynamic of bullying in the past.

"Bullies are generally more popular than their victims, and have more power over their victim, whether it's physical strength or psychological power," Rodkin said. "Researchers have taken it for granted that a bully will also have a higher social status than their victims. Based on our research, that's not necessarily the case."

"In those cases where it was a boy picking on a girl, the bullies were regarded by their classmates as being quite unpopular," Rodkin said. "They were not alpha males, and they were probably more reactive in their aggression compared to the classic bully."

Source: Physorg.com
http://www.physorg.com/news148065117.html