When I founded SiliconANGLE in 2009 our editorial motto is “Where Computer Science meets Social Science”.   It still is true today.  This is an important angle for technology coverage. That is why we cover a range of topics that general news sites like Techcrunch don’t cover and why we focus on relevant trends not pageview hits.  One such topic is Cyberbullying.

Linda Miola-Furrier is covering this within the SiliconANGLE community and within the Palo Alto school district leading curriculum changes and education to educators.  She has been deep in the issues for many years now.  Linda is a leading voice in Silicon Valley when it comes to Cyberbullying involving kids, child development, and schools.

Linda ran her first feature part I on this on March 5, 2009 titled – Online Parenting: Part I: Cyber-bullying: Who is responsible enough to take the first step? Parents, Law Enforcement, Social Networks, or the Schools? and a followup part II on August 10, 2009 titled – Online Parenting: Part II: Cyber-bullying: Tackling the Mounting Pile of Unanswered Questions

Social Science Issue:  Cyberbullying In Schools

This past Sunday a important story came in the NY Times Style section around Cyberbullying – How Should Schools Handle Cyberbullying?

So important our mission and motto of Where Computer Science meets Social Science” that it was quickly validated and adopted by technology legend Steve Jobs in his recent Apple keynote where he put forth the Apple mission and motto “intersection between Liberal Arts and Technology. A great complement to SiliconANGLE – Thanks Steve.

This Cyberbullying issue is central to the intersection of society and technology – one that SiliconANGLE pointed out in 2009 and Steve Jobs affirmed in his keynote this past June.  Technology does great things to enable change both for business and society.  That being said the social change impact like Cyberbullying is important to solve and it’s a great issue for social scientists out there to tackle – I’m thinking like Dana Boyd.

Obviously SiliconANGLE and Apple are on top of it. Thanks to Linda Miola-Furrier (my wife and mom to our four children) for covering Cyberbullying for SiliconANGLE.

Cyberbullying Is A Social Issue

Cyber-bullying is the new cyber-parenting frontier, no one knows exactly what to do, or how to take the first steps in understanding it and dealing with it.

Bullying has been a problem for years, physical, verbal, and social, but because of the massive growth in social networks we now have a new fourth way – cyber bullying. We are living in an age of rapid communications, connectedness, and public transparency which is causing an amplification of bullying – cyber bullying.

Here is the problem – not enough is being done to address it. It’s happening, and it is a loaded gun. One with more than one bullet and nobody fully understands where it is aimed.

In one recent example (and there are many) a teenager, who we will call John Doe, posted a creative and talented music video online to share with his friends. Harmless right? No. Some intolerant high school kids decided to create a Facebook group called, “I hate John Doe”. Many other minors proceeded to e-rip this kid apart for no apparent reason other than to cyber-bully at the entertainment expense of John Doe. There were more than 90 mean spirited and downright hateful comments. One commenter offered, “I would stomp on your windpipe and kill you” among other disapproving personal orientation references.

Most of these cyber bullies do not even know the individual they were berating. We all know that kids can be mean, and we all know that some conflict is part of creating your own identity. However, social networks and rapid communications can create “out of context” meaning. As the virtual word of mouth takes on higher velocity so does the distortion of the context, and as a result reputations, egos, confidence, and safety of the minors are at stake.

This incident above is one of thousands going on today on other online social platforms not just Facebook. How can the school, parent, or police deal with this? An incident like this requires swift and strong discipline. The problem is that there are no good solutions today. Government and authorities are slow to act. Schools feel like they don’t have enough muscle, parents are often unaware, and the kids lack the judgement to deal with the problem.

Back to our example above, what happened? Did the school suspend the offenders? Did the police warn or otherwise discipline the kids? Were all the parents notified? Did Facebook remove their account privileges? The answer is NONE OF THE ABOVE.

What To Do With Cyberbullying – Solving The Problem

Most recently a cyber bully was asking for her online rights back, and it looks like she will get them. You all remember her, Lori Drew. She is the Missouri woman who set up a MySpace page which allegedly lead her daughter’s so-called friend to commit suicide. The 2006 case created a spotlight on the prevalent new parenting issue of the decade: cyber-bullying.

We’ve all been asking unanswered questions.  Is it really prevalent? Is it getting worse? How does it affect the kids in the long term? Are my kids doing it? How can we “fix it”? Are the lack of regulations within social networks to blame? Should we create new laws?

Is Cyber Bullying Legitimately Any Different from Traditional Bullying?

In scouring the research and reading the public response we can see that this is a current issue of importance.

Cyber bullying methods are as varied as the old fashioned bullying techniques: name calling, berating, publicizing compromising photos, blocking out, threats.  The new twists created by the online method are the anonymity and viral paths that these cyber-bullying instances take on.

One person’s unkind commentary or action can be spread to hundreds within a few minutes.  The victim is left scarred and unable to remove the public humiliation which has left it’s permanent track in the cyber cloud. Social networks such as MySpace and Facebook provide loopholes of anonymity and freedom where the bully is not held accountable for their actions.

A parent friend of mine quotes: “With cyber bullying, kids (and adults, really) find some sort of security in hiding behind an alter ego via the computer, and therefore, they might take steps they normally wouldn’t take in person.  It Gives them a false sense of courage of sorts.  But words, alone, can be brutal…and internet stalking can be just as terrifying as being stalked in person… just pointless and so very cruel.”

Evidently it is becoming more prevalent among our youth.  According to Jupiter Research, there were 20.6 million US teens online by the end of last year. One third (33.4%) of the 20.6 million equates to 6.9 million incidents of cyber bullying.

One can wonder if the advance and readily available technologies are to blame or if children of this generation simply have shifted the norm of behavioral boundaries.  Parents ask what can we do? How do we help our children deal? We are working to find the right answers.

Responses and Research Around Cyber Bullying Revolve Around Common Sense

Larry Magid and the staff at ConnectSafely.org have been in and around this issue for some time and put together helpful “netiquette” tips for online use and victim help alike.  They offer common sense advice: don’t respond, don’t retaliate, talk to a trusted adult and save the evidence.  Many counseling centers have worked to plan educational events and seminars for parents, teachers and kids, in hopes of community working together to address the problem.

We research, we converse, we litigate. We all feel the pain of our kids and cringe when we think that one of our own could be the perpetrator. Are we as a society giving kids the lessons they need to be kind human beings on the internet?
Locally, we have seen an uncertain balance of efforts to aid our youth from schools, police and parents.  It is new territory and no one is willing to firmly take the first step… to draw a line in the sand and state, “this is not tolerable”.

Although California instituted AB86 in January, a law to give muscle to the schools, their administration is timid in forcefully punishing its students.  We saw a local case this Spring where a boy was violently threatened after a more than a hundred kids made rude and otherwise nasty commentary regarding his character and nature.

The local law agencies and schools claimed their hands were tied, beyond a mild reprimand by the school. After several attempts by the parent to seek justice, she was left shaking her head in hopelessness. Many a blog posts were written, Facebook was contacted, and friends rallied. The end result was that the passage of time was the weak solution.

Do Adults Participate in Cyber Bullying Just as Often as Children?

Books are being written. Research studies are being conducted. Educational seminars are being held. All of these actions help our youth to some extent. At a minimum we are all looking at the issue together: social networks, law enforcement, schools, educators, parents. But let’s ask the big question here: how can we expect kids to act differently than the adults they observe in their lives?

Ratings on TV shows such as American Idol soar when bully Simon Cowell publicly berates performers. We laugh as the performers make fools of themselves. Reality TV raises the bar higher and higher, almost expecting us to accept and applaud bullying and other negative behaviors.  In the adult world of Facebook, Twitter and blogs I am witness to non-anonymous comments which I feel sure would not be stated vis a vis.  Social surveys on social networks “rate” friends as if they are products sold on the store or hotels you might consider.

If we as adults can not restrain ourselves, can not be kind, can not role model positive behaviors online or otherwise, can we expect any more from our children?

Join the conversation and help elevate this discussion to understand the issues and develop a plan around a positive user experience that can bring value to the web for kids and parents.