SOCIAL MEDIA AND BULLYING AMONGST ADOLESCENTS

Transcription

1 SOCIAL MEDIA AND BULLYING AMONGST ADOLESCENTS Dr Stephen James Minton CPsychol AFBPsS! British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology Conference! Dublin Castle Thursday, 3 rd October, 2013

2 About the Presenter Chartered Psychologist with, and Associate Fellow of, the British Psychological Society. Full-time lecturer in the Psychology of Education at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. Graduate of the University of Glasgow (B.Sc. (Hons.) (1995)) and Trinity College Dublin (M.Sc. (Couns. Psychol.) (1997), Ph.D. (2007)). Author of Using Psychology in the Classroom (Sage, 2012), and co-author of Dealing with Bullying in Schools: A Training Manual for Teachers, Parents and Other Professionals (Sage, 2004), and Cyber-Bullying: The Irish Experience (Nova Science, 2011). Authored and co-authored over sixty scholarly articles on the subjects of cyber-bullying, school bullying and school violence. Psychological consultant to Vodafone in Techbridge s development of the Safety Net / Guardian call management / anti-sms-bullying app ( ). Thirteen years experience of designing, implementing and evaluating school and school community anti-bullying programmes at local, regional, national and international levels. Regularly called upon to provide training and presentations to various groups within schools and the broader community.

3 Topics of Discussion 1 Cyber-Bullying 2 Cyber-Bullying and Adolescents in Ireland 3 What Can and Should be Done 4 - Conclusions

4 1A Cyber-Bullying (I) Cyber-bullying is an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him- or herself (Smith et al., 2006) Often previously known as E-bullying (e.g., O Moore & Minton, 2004) Seven categories (Smith et al., 2005, 2006) (I) (a) Text message bullying (b) Picture / video-clip bullying via mobile phone cameras May involve happy slapping attacks

5 1B Cyber-Bullying (II) Seven categories (Smith et al., 2005, 2006) (II) (c) Phone call bullying via mobiles Can involve the theft and use of another s phone (d) bullying (e) Chat-room bullying (f) Bullying through Instant Messaging (IM) (g) Bullying via Websites Includes use of defamatory blogs, personal web-sites and on-line personal polling sites, general polling sites (e.g., rate my teachers ) Also includes some use of social networking and file-share sites (e.g., Facebook, You Tube, AskFM ) To which we now have to add other devices, including games systems

6 2A Cyber-Bullying and Adolescents in Ireland (I) Large-Scale Empirical Findings (O Moore & Minton, 2009) (I) 2, 794 students from eight post-primary schools (the entire student body of the first, second, third and fourth years) were involved in a study in May, Around one in seven students (14.2 per cent; 18.1 per cent of girls, and 12.3 per cent of boys) reported having been cyberbullied over the past couple of months. Around one in eleven (8.7 per cent; 8.0 per cent of girls, and 9.1 per cent of boys) reported having taken part in the cyber-bullying of others at school within the past couple of months per cent of students reported having received an abusive text outside of school in the past couple of months, and 10.7 per cent having sent such a message. School restrictions on the use of mobile telephones would seem to be having a positive effect inside school, these incidences were 8.7 per cent and 4.8 per cent respectively.

7 2B Cyber-Bullying and Adolescents in Ireland (II) Large-Scale Empirical Findings (O Moore & Minton, 2009) (II) 17.6 per cent reported that they had had embarrassing or nasty pictures or video clips taken of them; 15.9 per cent reported having taken such pictures or clips of others. Use of social networking Internet sites was very frequent, with over three-quarters (76.6 per cent) of the sample having used Bebo (85.5 per cent of girls and 72.3 per cent of boys) and You Tube (76.2 per cent; 68.9 per cent of girls and 79.7 per cent of boys) within the past couple of months. Around one in eight students (12.3 per cent of the sample 15.3 per cent of girls, and 10.9 per cent of bys) had had nasty web postings made about them on Internet sites over the past couple of months. Abuse via Instant Messages was fairly frequently reported by 12.9 per cent of the sample as targets, and 8.4 per cent of the sample as perpetrators in the past couple of months. Other forms of cyber-abuse were less frequent having received or sent abusive s were indicated by 6.2 per cent and 3.0 per cent of the sample respectively; having received or sent abusive messages in Internet chat-rooms were indicated by 9.5 per cent and 7.3 per cent of the sample respectively.

8 2C Cyber-Bullying and Adolescents in Ireland (III) EU Kids Online Project (Livingstone et al., 2011) Sample of 25, year-olds across 25 European countries In the whole sample, 13 per cent reported having been bullied face-to-face; 6 per cent on the Internet; and, 3 per cent via mobile phones. In the Irish sample, 15 per cent reported having been bullied face-to-face; 4 per cent on the Internet; and, 3 per cent via mobile phones. And Internet use amongst young people in Ireland is growing! In 2007, 65 per cent of Irish households had a computer; in 2011, this was 81 per cent (CSO, 2011) year-olds are the most likely demographic to access the Internet daily (77 per cent) (CSO, 2011) 86 per cent of nine-year olds had a computer at home, and 8 per cent had one in their bedroom (Williamson et al, 2009) 23 per cent of year-olds USUALLY use a Smartphone or other hand-held device to go on-line (O Neill et al., 2011)

9 2D Cyber-Bullying and Adolescents in Ireland (IV) Cyber-bullying research in TCD s School of Education Led by myself and Dr Conor Mc Guckin Recently completed Ph.D. Lucie Corcoran Traditional bullying and cyberbullying at post-primary school level in Ireland: countering the aggression and buffering the negative psychological effects Two current Ph.D. students Dean McDonnell (technology and well-being in schools) Jolanta Burke (cyber-aggression and positive psychology)

10 3A What Can and Should be Done (I) Psychologically Dangerous In Ireland last year, implicated in the suicides of Erin Gallagher, Shannon Gallagher, Ciara Pugsley (2012)! Problems specific to Cyber-bullying Those targeted can be bullied outside conventional space and time limits Easily hidden Each incident of bullying can reach a much wider audience Potentially-intervening adults may be far less familiar with technical media than are the young people involved Comparatively little known about these forms of bullying In / out of school - who takes the responsibility?! N.B. Schools were directed by the Department of Education and Skills to make specific reference to cyber-bullying in their school anti-bullying policies in September 2013

11 3B What Can and Should be Done (II) Potential Solutions shared with conventional (noncyber-) bullying The whole-school / community approach is still appropriate which should start with legislation on school policies (opportunity missed on ) Schools, parents, community interest groups, health / educational / psychological professionals, researchers and young people themselves all have a role to play Awareness raising and policy formation are still key first steps Changing attitudes towards oppression and violence are still overall goals

12 4 - Conclusions The seriousness of cyber-bullying and cyber-safety can not and should not be underestimated Whilst there are points of similarity with conventional forms of bullying, but cyber-bullying does present fresh challenges School policies and strategies should be updated, as directed by the DES last month, but schools will need further central support (including physical and staff training resources) to do this effectively Schools can play their part but other agencies must do the same

13 THANKS FOR LISTENING!

14 ! Please contact:! Dr Stephen James Minton School of Education Trinity College Dublin!