Parents Aren’t Sure What Cyberbullying Is
There’s a widespread perception that cyberbullying is a big problem among kids at the moment, but after that things get fuzzy. Are things that much worse now than they were in the pre-internet days? Do we need new laws or school rules to handle what’s going on, or should we simply more consistently apply the ones we already have? To better understand parental attitudes on cyberbullying, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, part of the University of Michigan hospital system, polled a nationally representative sample of 611 parents, asking them whether they would define a variety of mean behaviors as cyberbullying, and what they think the punishments should be.
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The results suggest there isn’t quite a consensus about what constitutes cyberbullying:
Social media campaign to elect a certain student for homecoming court, as mean joke – 63% say definitely cyberbullying
Sharing a photo altered to make a classmate appear fatter – 45% say definitely cyberbullying
Posting online rumors that a student was caught cheating on a test – 43% say definitely cyberbullying
Posting online rumors that a student had sex at school – 65% say definitely cyberbullying
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There’s also wide variation when it comes to potential punishments:
Though the “refer to law enforcement” numbers are low, it’s striking that one in five parents thought the police should be involved in the case of a sex rumor, especially given past cases in which the involvement of law enforcement has arguably worsened the situation. If we’re going to treat cyberbullying as a category of its own, hopefully a clearer sense of exactly what it is — and what to do about it — will emerge soon. —Jesse Singal
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