Cyberbullying

Neeraj Shukla, MD Chief Fellow Child & Adolescent Psychiatry April 17, 2013

Outline
Background Tactics High Profile Cases in the Media:
Megan Meier Tyler Clementi Rehtaeh Parsons Steubenville, Ohio Audrie Pott Amanda Todd

Prevention Obstacles in Treatment

Background
Online Social Networks (OSN):
Identity of online persona linked with patients own identity Reputation of online presence carries over to real life Offers opportunities for positive peer interaction, self-expression, control of selfpresentation and experimentation that users find difficult to obtain in face-to-face interactions

Background
Bullying:
Abusive treatment that is repeated over time Intentionally harmful and occurs without provocation Behaviors range in severity:
Mild pushing, spreading rumors Moderate stealing, spitting, making intimidating phone calls and using racial slurs Severe inflicting bodily harm, threatening with a weapon and spreading malicious rumors

Background
Bullying:
A large number of people participate in an indirect manner as an audience Bystanders may witness the bullying event but remain uninvolved Afraid of becoming the next victim if they interfere Historically, not seen as a problem: normal part of growing uphelps toughen you upRelax, just teasing!rite of passagecharacter building

Background
Bullies:
Interest in their own pleasure, desire for power over others, willingness to manipulate others to get what they want and the inability to see things from another's perspective Disproportionately from lower SES families with poor childrearing techniques Impulsive and are frequently unsuccessful in school Regardless of their intelligence, usually receive poor grades and lack good connections with their teachers

Background
Bullies:
Find it difficult to solve problems without violence Strong self-esteem Low levels of anxiety Bullying persists because it is rapidly and substantially rewarded:
Status, domination and material possessions

Aggression becomes a problem-solving mechanism early in life

Background
Bully consequences:
Conduct disorder, serious antisocial and criminal behavior in adulthood Most bullies remain bullies throughout their lives Drop out of school, have trouble holding jobs and fail at maintaining positive close relationships 60% of bullies in grades 6 to 9 had their first criminal conviction by age 24, compared with 10% of controls who were neither bullies nor victims as children (Olweus, D. 1991)

Background
Victims:
Insecure, react submissively and anxiously to situations Smaller, cautious, sensitive and quiet Negative view of themselves, seeing themselves as failures and feeling lonely, stupid, ashamed and unattractive Children with learning disorders and/or physical disabilities Lack social graces and friends Close to their parents, who may be overprotective

Background
Victim consequences:
Low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, poor academic progress, isolated because their peers fear losing status or becoming victims themselves Female victims may later find themselves in abusive relationships Suicide Retaliation shootings

Background
Bullying used to be confined to schools, neighborhoods, or some small geographic location that the bullied child could leave and seek respite Cyberbullying allows no escape from taunting and harassment Verbal bullying not as embarrassing if done alone, but cyberbullying can be read over and over by entire peer group indefinitely As of 2011, across 35 peer reviewed articles, 5.5-72% of students had been cyberbullied (cyberbullying.us)

Background
Cyberbullying:
Introduced a form of bullying never seen before Attitudes starting changing in 1999 with a report from Attorney General Janet Reno to Vice President Al Gore, suggesting that cyberspace harassment incidents were an increasing problem for law enforcement officials (Beckerman & Nocero, 2003)

Background
Wide variance, rarely see numbers lowerthan 10% or higher than 40% 6-30% of students admit to cyberbullying others Increase in suicide attempts (cyberbullying.us):
Offenders:
Traditional bullying 2.1 times more likely Cyberbullying 1.5 times more likely

Victims:
Traditional bullying 1.7 times more likely Cyberbullying 1.9 times more likely

Background
Duke study (Copeland et al, 2013):
1420 participants across 11 counties in NC in 1993 Bullies 4x likely to develop antisocial personality disorder Victims 5x agoraphobia, 3x GAD, 3x panic disorder Both (5%) 5x MDD (HPA axis changes resulting in altered cortisol response leading to depression), 15x panic disorder, 19x suicidal

Tactics
Exclusion:
Indirect, without the need for verbal deprecation Developmentally fixated on being recognized by their peers

Flaming:
Passionate online arguing that frequently includes profane or vulgar language in public communication environments for peer bystanders to witness Flamers endeavor to assert their power or establish a position of dominance

Tactics
Exposure:
Includes the public display, posting or forwarding of personal communication or images that are personal to the target More detrimental when it is sensitive personal information or images that are sexual in nature

Harassment:
Sending hurtful messages to the target child that is worded in a severe, persistent, or pervasive manner, causing the respondent undue concern

Tactics
Phishing:
Tricking, persuading, or manipulating the target child into revealing personal and/or financial information about themselves and/or their loved ones (e.g. passwords, credit cards, etc.)

Chicanery:
Similar to phishing in that a cyberbully purposely tricks a target child into divulging secrets, private information, and/or embarrassing information about themselves and then publishing that information online

Tactics
Impersonation:
Aka imping where cyberbullies impersonate the target and make unpopular online comments on social networking sites and in chat rooms Cyberbullies set up websites that include vitriolic information, leading to the target being ostracized or victimized

Denigration:
Sending, posting, or publishing cruel rumors, gossip, and untrue statements about a target to intentionally damage their reputation or friendships Aka dissing

Tactics
E-mail & Cell Phone Image Dissemination:
A form of information exchange that can be a criminal act if the images are pornographic or graphic enough depicting underaged children

Images & Videos:

E-mailed to peers, while others are published on video sites such as YouTube Usage of video and images are extremely dangerous, and criminal in most states

Tactics
Interactive Gaming Harassment:
Having the ability to exchange information with gaming opponents and fellow peers, children will verbally abuse others, use threatening and profane language, lock others out of games, pass false information about others and depending on their computer savvy, hack into other childrens accounts

Griefing:
Habitually and chronically causing grief to the targets, their peers, and other members of an online community or game

Tactics
Password Theft/Lockout:
Stealing a targets password and then chatting with other people pretending to be the target Communicate provocative and adversarial messages that are offensive and anger the target Targets friends or even strangers

Website Creation:
Cyberbully creates websites that insult or endanger the target child

Tactics
Voting/Polling Booths:
Examples include the ugliest, fattest, dumbest, most sexually promiscuous and a plethora of other deprecating attributes

Bash Boards:
Posts that are often frequented by the cyberbully and targets peer groups and school acquaintances Encourage postings that are mean, hateful, malicious and embarrassing

Tactics
Happy Slapping:
Target child is physically attacked or embarrassed and an accomplice video records or takes pictures of the incident Image or video is then posted online at video and social networking sites for public consumption

Text Wars and Text Attacks:

Cyberbully and a group of his/her accomplices gang up on the targets by sending them hundreds of emails or text messages Besides the emotional toll it can take on the target, their cell phone charges may escalate

Tactics
Sending Malicious Code:
Cyberbullies deliberately send viruses, spyware, and hacking programs to a target that can be very costly to repair Usually reserved for children and adolescents advanced in ICT (information and communications technology)

Tactics
Warning Wars:
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer a way for consumers to report an online user who is posting inappropriate or abusive information Make false allegations to the ISP regarding the target posting inappropriate information By doing this frequently enough, often times the target has their profile and/or account suspended

Tactics
Screen Name Mirroring:
Constructing a screen name or user name that is very similar to the targets name May have additional or removed letters, numbers, or combinations of the two to appear the same as the targets screen name

Tactics
Cyber Drama:
Gossip that was not supposed to be shared on a blog or a flame war that ends after a few messages

Sexting:
Use of a cell phone or other ICT to distribute pictures or video of sexually explicit images

Megan Meier
Oct 2006, 13 y/o Missouri girl who hanged herself as a result of cyberbullying on MySpace 47 y/o mother of friend of Meier was indicted in 2008 as per the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act but acquitted in 2009 who created a fake profile allegedly in retribution for Megan spreading gossip about her daughter She pretended to be a 16 y/o boy whom the patient fell in love with to eventually obtain personal information that she later spread to humiliate Megan Cyber Harassment law passed in Missouri

Tyler Clementi
Sept 2010, 18 y/o Rutgers student posted to Facebook, jumping off the gw bridge sorry. Roommate and hallmate used a webcam to view, without Clementis knowledge, Clementi kissing another man Roommate and hallmate were indicted for their roles in the webcam incidents, though they were not charged with a role in the suicide itself:
Roommate sentenced to 30 days in prison, though served just 20 of them

Rehtaeh Parsons
Nov 2011, 17 y/o Nova Scotia girl hanged herself after photos of alleged rape went viral Endured months of cyberbullying Taken off life support April 7, 2013 No charges filed against 4 teenage boys being investigated

Steubenville, Ohio
August 2012, two OH high school football players found guilty of raping a 16 y/o WV girl after a night of heavy drinking 12-minute online video, text messages and posts from Facebook and Twitter described the details Victim testified in court that she had no memory of the 6hour period in which the rapes occurred, except for a brief time in which she was vomiting on the street as she was transferred from party-to-party

Audrie Pott
Sept 2012, 15 y/o San Jose girl posted on her Facebook that her life was ruined, "worst day ever," and hanged herself 8 days after allegedly being sexually battered while passed out at a party Humiliated by cell phone photos of the attack that went viral Three 16 y/o boys charged with sexual battery Audries Law family calling for harsher penalties for cyberbullying

Amanda Todd
Sept 2012, 15 y/o British Columbia girl posted a 9-minute YouTube video 7th grader received compliments on the photo that she selected to use for video chat Christmas break 2011, topless photo was circulating on internet as her new Facebook profile pic where he was contacting her friends despite her changing schools twice Old male friend had sex with Amanda and then his girlfriend plus 15 other physically attacked her at school

Amanda Todd
Diagnosed with depression, anxiety, panic disorder and abused drugs and alcohol Drank bleach, overdosed, started cutting Teased about her low grades, a consequence of a language-based learning disability and time she spent hospitalized for severe depression Hung herself at home Oct 2012

Amanda Todd

Prevention
Educate yourself:
Research what constitutes cyberbullying as well as how and where it is most likely to occur

Protect your password Keep photos PG Never open unintended or unsolicited messages:
Delete them without reading as they could contain viruses that automatically infect your device if opened to collect your personal or private information Avoid being charged with possession of child pornography

Prevention
Raise awareness:
While you may understand what it is, it is not until others are aware of it too that we can truly prevent it from occurring

Always logout:
Do not save passwords in form fields within web sites or your web browser for convenience Do not stay logged in when you walk away from the computer or smart phone

Prevention
Setup privacy controls:
Restrict access of your online profile to trusted friends only to ensure maximum protection

Google yourself:
Regularly search your name in major search engines (e.g., Google, Bing, Yahoo) Try to remove any personal information or photos which may be used by cyberbullies

Prevention
Parental Supervision:
Just as teachers patrolling school grounds reduces physical bullying, parents should place desktop computer in area visible to others Avoid filtering/spy software with older children who are more computer savvy than their parents and they will likely circumvent or go underground and become more secretive

Prevention
Empower bystanders:
Social and school curriculum awareness that allows reporting of cyberbullying

Do not be a cyberbully yourself:

By cyberbullying others, you are reinforcing the idea that the behavior is acceptable

Report:
Do not retaliate, save the evidence and report to ISP

Prevention
Internet Use Contract or Cell Phone Use Contract:
May work in some families to foster a crystal clear understanding about what is appropriate Post in a highly visible place

MD rating sites:
Give patients name of website and encourage their comments to dilute negative/harassing comments

Prevention
MEAN managing bullies (Kepple et al, 2013):
Model alternative positive social behaviors Empathize with victim by focusing on their own pain that is likely driving their aggression Assess costs/benefits of behavior, such as lost privileges, detentions etc. Nurture pro-social strengths to build self-esteem to reduce aggressive acts as a means of gaining a sense of control or personal security

Obstacles
Less than 25% report their incidents of being bullied (Rigby, 1997) Students do not want to be labeled as a snitch/rat Feel that teachers will trivialize/ignore complaint Embarrassed to show adults the nature of their complaint (e.g. anything involving nudity, drug paraphernalia, etc.) U.S. court rulings have held that even the most provocative internet bulletin boards cannot be held liable for their content if there is no attempt to edit the site, so web sites owners cannot be sued for what appears (Guernsey, 2003)

References
Beckerman, L. & Nocero, J. (2003). High-tech student hate mail. The Education Digest, 68 (6), 37-40. Campbell, M.A. (2005). Cyber bullying: An old problem in a new guise? Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling , 15(1):68-76. Copeland, W. et al. (2013). Adult Psychiatric Outcomes of Bullying and Being Bullied by Peers in Childhood and Adolescence. JAMA Psychiatry; 70(4):419-426. Guernsey, L. (2003, May 8). Telling tales out of school. New York Times, G1. Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. (2012). Preventing Cyberbullying: Top Ten Tips for Teens. Cyberbullying Research Center. http://www.cyberbullying.us

http:// cyberbullying.us/blog/how-many-teens-are-actually-involved-in-cyberbullying.htm

References
Kepple, A. & Madaan, V. (2013). MEAN: How to manage a child who bullies. Current Psychiatry, 12(4), 28. Nuccitelli, M. 2012 Cyberbullying Tactics: An Introduction. The Forensic Examiner, Summer 2012, pg. 20-22. Nuccitelli, M. 2012. Cyberbullying Tactics: The Forensic Examiner, Fall 2012, pg. 24-27. Olweus, D. 1991. Bully/victim problems among school children. The Development and Treatment of Childhood Aggression , pg. 411-448. Rigby, K. (1997). What children tell us about bullying in schools . Children Australia, 22(2), 28-34. Sivashanker, K. 2013. Cyberbullying and the Digital Self. JAACAP, 52(2), 113-15. Supervision provided by Manuella Zisu, MD