Examples of Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying takes many forms [enlarge]

Cyberbullying takes many forms. A US study revealed that one-third of cyberbullying incidents took place via instant messaging, or IM, in which users chat electronically in real time (Finkelhor, Mitchell & Wolak 2000, 23). Close behind were chat room exchanges on the web (32 per cent of incidents), followed by e-mail (19 per cent). Slightly more than three quarters of the youth were logged on at home when the bullying took place.

Explore some real-life examples of cyberbullying to get a fuller flavour of the kinds of bullying that takes place through electronic means.

David Knight of Burlington, Ontario

A web site about teenager David Knight of Burlington, Ontario had been active for several months before a classmate told him about it. "I went there and sure enough there's my photo on this web site saying 'Welcome to the web site that makes fun of Dave Knight' and just pages of hateful comments directed at me and everyone in my family." Whoever created the web site asked others to join in, posting lewd, sexual comments and smearing David's reputation. "I was accused of being a pedophile. I was accused of using the date rape drug on little boys," says David. Along with the web site, there were nasty e-mails too. "Here's an e-mail, 'You're gay, don't ever talk again, no one likes you, you're immature and dirty, go wash your face.'"

>> Read David's full story in the CBC's "Indepth Report on Cyberbullying" (Leishman 2005).

Amanda Marcuson of Birmingham, Michigan

Amanda Marcuson, 14, of Birmingham, Michigan, reported some girls in her eighth-grade class for stealing a pencil case filled with makeup that belonged to her. As soon as she got home, the instant messages started popping up on her computer screen. She was a tattletale and a liar, they said. Shaken, she typed back, ''You stole my stuff!'' She was a ''stuck-up bitch,'' came the instant response in the box on the screen, followed by a series of increasingly ugly insults. That evening, Amanda went to a basketball game with her family. But the barrage of electronic insults did not stop. Like a lot of other teenagers, Amanda has her Internet messages automatically forwarded to her cell phone, and by the end of the game she had received 50 - the limit of its capacity. ''It seems like people can say a lot worse things to someone online than when they're actually talking to them,'' said Amanda. The girls never said another word to her in person.

>> Read Amanda's full story in the New York Times article "Internet Gives Teenage Bullies Weapons to Wound From Afar" (Harmon 2004).

Amy Boucher of Montreal, Quebec

When Montreal teen Amy Boucher discovered a web site about art where she could chat with others, it gave her a sense of belonging and acceptance. But all that changed when Amy got into a spat with another girl on the site over an unanswered e-mail. Amy tried to make up, but the girl rebuffed her attempts, and for the next three years made her the object of an online bullying campaign that drove Amy to depression. A posse of girls would taunt Amy over e-mail or sign onto the site under her name before launching attacks on other members that she would then be blamed for.

>> Read Amy's full story in the Maclean's article "Stalked by a Cyberbully" (Snider & Borel 2004).

Jodi Plumb of Mansfield, England

Jodi Plumb, a 15-year-old girl from Mansfield, England, was horrified to discover an entire web site had been created to insult and threaten her. The site contained abuse concerning her weight and even had a date for her "death." Jodi found out about the web site when a fellow pupil tried to take a photograph of her with a digital camera and said it was for the web.

>> Read Jodi's full story in the BBC article "Cyberbullies Target Girl" (BBC 2003).

Lauren Newby of Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas high school sophomore Lauren Newby was the subject of nasty postings on a web site message board started by a former student at her school. The thread, which was called "Lauren is a fat cow MOO BITCH," made fun of her weight ("people don't like you because you are a suicidal cow who can't stop eating") and her bout with multiple sclerosis ("I guess I'll have to wait until you kill yourself which I hope is not long from now, or I'll have to wait until your disease [M.S.] kills you"), and urged her boyfriend to break up with her. The message board was exceptional not only for the viciousness of the attacks on Lauren (which included an entire page of the words "Die bitch queen!" repeated hundreds of times), but also because the violence online escalated into the offline world. Lauren's car was egged, "MOO BITCH" was scrawled in shaving cream on the sidewalk in front of her house, and a bottle filled with acid was thrown at her front door.

>> Read Lauren's full story in the Salon article "Cyber Slammed" (Benfer 2001).

Ghyslain Raza of Trois-Rivières, Quebec

Ghyslain Raza, a 15-year-old boy from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, is perhaps the most famous victim of cyberbullying. After making a film of himself emulating a Star Wars fight scene wielding a golf ball retriever as a light saber, he became an unwilling celebrity after the film was posted on the Internet by some classmates. Millions downloaded the two-minute clip and the media dubbed him the "Star Wars kid." Ghyslain was so wounded by the unflattering attention that he has been under psychiatric care and finished the 2004 school year at a child psychiatry ward. His parents have launched a lawsuit.

>> Read Ghyslain's full story in the Scholastic article "Cyberbullying" [Berhane 2005].

>> Next, the prevalence of cyberbullying.