Parry Aftab, WiredSafety’s founder and
privacy and security lawyer, hates when she is asked during an interview to
contrast the risks of cyberbullying with those of offline bullying. “Both are
hurtful and unacceptable,” she responds whenever asked.
While physical bullying
involves physical pain and fear, often the protracted nature of a cyberbullying
campaign and its persistence long after the cyberbullies have ceased their
attacks leads to higher rates of depression for victims. Over the sixteen years
since WiredSafety’s volunteers began their work assisting victims of
cyberbullying and cyberharassment, the charity had substantial anecdotal
evidence of this fact. But until recently, no credible research existed to
support this premise.
Reprinted below, with permission from the US
Department of Health and Human Services, are
the results of research conducted at the National Institute of Health
demonstrating higher depression rates among victims of cyberbullying than with
victims of traditional offline bullying. The research was conducted using
survey responses received in 2005/2006. It is important to note that this
predated the explosion of social networking use by teens and Facebook’s opening
its use to more than university students. Parry Aftab suspects that if this
research were conducted with fresher data, the differences between
cyberbullying and traditional bullying victims’ depression rates would be even
more marked.
Why? There are many reasons why cyberbullying
can lead to more depression than offline bullying. And when a campaign involves
both offline and cyberbullying, it represents the worst of both worlds.
Anonymity is probably the worst culprit, when students feel that they can do
things and hide behind the cyber-mask and rarely risk being identified.
Another
big problem is the lack of digital literacy and digital hygiene skills.
Passwords are easily guessed and frequently shared. Privacy settings are not
used effectively or at all. They don’t screen for malware or use firewalls and
often share devices. They share too much, don’t think before they click and
misinterpret others’ communications. There is no escape. No changing
neighborhoods, schools or cliques can avoid it. It follows the victim to
grandma’s house and back again, to the mall, the gym, school, home and camp. But
there’s more.
When asked to identify the main reasons
cyberbullying results in higher incidents and levels of depression, Parry and
WiredSafety’s “KidDoc”, pediatrician and Vanderbilt University faculty member,
Dr. Deanna Guy agreed:
1. It is persistent. Once
posted or shared, digital communications and content have a life of their own.
Parry’s most frequently repeated quote, “what you post online stays online –
forever” underscores the caching, publication, and viral nature of digital
information.
2. Victims tend to revisit the
scene of the cybercrime, re-reading text messages, logging in to view hijacked
accounts, viewing hurtful images and seeing the latest postings. Each time they
do, they are being revictimized. Each time is a renewed hurt.
3. The written or multimedia
message has tremendous power. It enables a single post to spread to thousands
of students.
4. It brings groups together.
Messages among students at the victim’s old school come to the attention of
students at the new school. Teens from camp connect with teens from church.
What was private to a few becomes public and never-ending.
5. It is credible. After having
read and re-read the messages and view and reviewed the images, the victim
starts to believe that the cyberbullies have merit.
6. This is especially the case
when a “mean girls” cyberbullying campaign gains traction with active posses,
bystanders and rumor-mongers joining in. These campaigns persist long after the
original cyberbullies have lost interest.
7. Cyberbullying is a renewable
resource. New groups or individuals pick up the campaign when the victim comes
to their attention, and old cyberbullying campaign members renew it when bored
or the victim does something noteworthy.
8. The anonymity of
cyberbullying (more than 2/3s of cyberbullying occurs anonymously or through
the use of fake accounts or accounts that have been taken over by the
cyberbullies) contributes to the problem in two ways – more students cyberbully
knowing that there is a limited risk of being exposed and the victims don’t
know if the cyberbully is their best friend or worst enemy. They become
paranoid about not knowing whom can be trusted. This isolates them further.
9. There is no safe place to
escape to; no place to hide from cyberbullies. Offline bullies need offline environments
to do their damage - playgrounds, the walks to school, school buses, locker
rooms or hallways. The devices and technologies used by teens to cyberbully
others are designed to provide access to users 24/7/365. It can come at victims
in the middle of the night, on vacation or in the security of their bedroom.
10. Cyberbullies often pose as a
trustworthy friend, causing conflict and further isolating the victim from
those who could help them address the attacks. Students have told Parry that
they don’t know if the cyberbully is their best friend or worst enemy – they
become paranoid.
11. Parents are rarely effective
in helping students handle offline bullying, largely because it is hidden from
them. But even those parents who learn of the cyberbullying are rarely prepared
to address cyberbullying. One student told Parry that she wouldn’t bother
telling her parents since they would be “clueless” about the issue and
“worthless” in providing help or support.
Sadly, the same digital communication tools
and devices that allow the students to stay in touch and receive support from
their friends are now seen as a source of pain.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that
there are more cyberbullies than bullies.
Cyberbullying attracts equal opportunity
offenders. Everyone can be a cyberbully, no matter how small, shy or
physically-challenged they are. They can act out their fantasies. They can act
on impulse with technologies designed to be used impulsively. They aren’t
really mean and nasty students, just playing one online. They can masquerade as
others harassing friends of that student, providing two victims for the price
of one. It is entertainment. It’s fun. It’s empowering. And it rarely involves
serious risk of exposure.
With all of this, the NIH findings are not
surprising at all.
Depression high among youth
victims of school cyber bullying, NIH researchers report
Finding underscores need to monitor,
obtain treatment for recipients of cyberbullying
Unlike traditional forms of bullying, youth who are the
targets of cyber bullying at school are at greater risk for depression than are
the youth who bully them, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the
National Institutes of Health.
The new finding is in contrast to earlier studies of
traditional bullying, which found that the highest depression scores were
reported by another category of youth involved in bullying-bully victims. Past
studies on traditional bullying show that bully-victims — those who both bully
others and are bullied themselves — are more likely to report feelings of
depression than are other groups.
Traditional forms of bullying involve physical violence,
verbal taunts, or social exclusion. Cyber bullying, or electronic aggression,
involves aggressive behaviors communicated over a computer or a cell phone.
"Notably, cyber victims reported higher depression than
cyber bullies or bully-victims, which was not found in any other form of
bullying," the study authors wrote in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
"…unlike traditional bullying which usually involves a face-to-face
confrontation, cyber victims may not see or identify their harasser; as such,
cyber victims may be more likely to feel isolated, dehumanized or helpless at
the time of the attack."
The analysis, of 6th through 10th grade students, was
conducted by Jing Wang, Ph.D., Tonja R. Nansel, Ph.D., and Ronald J. Iannotti,
Ph.D., all of the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research
at NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development.
Dr. Iannotti noted that, although bullies are less likely to
report feelings of depression than are bully-victims or victims, they are more
likely to report depression than are youth not involved with any bullying
behaviors — either traditional bullying or cyber bullying.
Being bullied interferes with scholastic achievement,
development of social skills, and general feelings of well being, explained Dr.
Iannotti, the study's senior author. In a study published last year, he and
study coauthors reported that the prevalence of bullying is high, with 20.8
percent of U.S. adolescents in school having been bullied physically at least
once in the last two months, 53.6 percent having been bullied verbally, and
51.4 percent bullied socially (excluded or ostracized), and 13.6 percent having
been bullied electronically (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19766941).
The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration
advises parents to encourage children to tell them immediately if they are
victims of cyberbullying or other troublesome online behaviors. The agency also
lists a number of steps that parents can take to help prevent cyber bullying
and how to respond to it, at http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/adults/default.aspx.
The site also includes extensive information on preventing and dealing with
traditional forms of bullying.
In the current study, the research team sought to examine
the association between depression and cyber bullying, which has not been
studied extensively.
To conduct the study, the researchers analyzed data on
American students collected in the 2005/2006 Health Behavior in School-aged
Children Study, an international study of adolescents in 43 countries (http://www.hbsc.org/overview.html).
The researchers measured depression by gauging responses to six survey items.
Students were asked to indicate, if, within the past 30 days, they felt very
sad; grouchy or irritable, or in a bad mood; hopeless about the future; felt
like not eating or eating more than usual; slept a lot more or a lot less than
usual; and had difficulty concentrating on their school work. Students ranked
their response according to a five item scale ranging from "never" to
"always."
They were also asked to indicate whether they were involved
with bullying behaviors, whether as perpetrators or victims. Survey questions
were designed to measure the following forms of bullying: physical (hitting),
verbal (such as name calling), relational (social isolation and spreading false
rumors), and cyber (using computers or cell phones). The researchers classified
bullying others or being bullied "two or three times a month" as
frequent, and "only once or twice" as occasional. Respondents were
further classified as either not involved with bullying (either as bullies or
victims), bullies, victims, or bully-victims (who had bullied others and also
been bullied themselves).
Compared to students who were not involved with bullying,
adolescents who were bullies, bully victims, or victims tended to score higher
on the measures of depression. Those frequently involved with physical, verbal,
and relational bullying, whether victims or perpetrators, reported higher
levels of depression than did students only occasionally involved in these
behaviors.
The researchers found that youth who were frequently
involved with bullying behaviors, regardless of the type of bullying involved,
reported higher depression scores than did youth only occasionally involved
with such behaviors.
For physical violence, no differences were found in
depression scores among bullies, victims, or bully-victims. For verbal and
relational bullying, victims and bully-victims reported higher levels of
depression than bullies.
For cyber bullying, however, frequent victims reported
significantly higher levels of depression than frequent bullies and marginally
higher depression than frequent bully-victims. The finding that victims of
cyber bullying reported higher depression scores than bully victims was distinct
from traditional forms of bullying and merited further study.
Victims of cyber bullying scored higher for feelings of
depression than did bully-victims, a finding not seen with any other category
of bullying.
Because of the association between bullying and depression,
bullies, bully-victims, and victims are candidates for evaluation by a mental
health professional, Dr. Wang said.
Dr. Wang noted that in their earlier study, she and her
coworkers had found that students were less likely to bully or to be victimized
if they felt they had strong parental support—feeling that their parents helped
them as much as they needed, were loving, understood their problems and
worries, and helped them to feel better when they were upset.
The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after
birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population
issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute’s
Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a
component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the
primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and
translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and
cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its
programs, visit www.nih.gov.
