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This story out of New Berlin, WI, reports about very extreme case of cyberbullying.  It is reported that an 18-year-old male student posed as a female student on Facebook and tricked other male students into sending him nude pictures or videos of themselves.  There were at least 31 male students who apparently did so, and the offender in this case also reportedly coerced several of them to engage in sexual acts with him by threatening that he would post the pictures online and/or send them to others in the school.

We have certainly heard more and more stories lately of teens taking naked pictures of themselves or others and distributing them electronically.  Like anything, it is important to educate students about the risks inherent in engaging in these kinds of activities.  For example, teens all around the country are being charged with possession or distribution of child pornography for these behaviors–not to mention the social implications associated with this.  By the way, here is a short, but humorous video that can be used to educate youth about this phenomenon.

It goes without saying that youth are exploiting new technological developments (even though everyone is saying it).  I wondered if you all saw the story from Maryland over Christmas break discussing how teenagers are punking their peers by impersonating their vehicles while flying past speed cameras.  This is done by taking a digital photo of an “enemy’s” license plate, printing it out with a laser printer, and taping that sheet of paper onto their own license plate.  Then, they drive past cameras that cannot distinguish between real license plate numbers and the laser-printed ones.  Called “speed pimping,” it leads to a $40 citation for the victim.  So, this begs the question we’re always wrestling with as we work with IT companies, educators, and parents – do we just need better technology, or do we need more education and the teaching of ethics and morals, or do we just shrug it off because adolescents will always pull pranks like this?

Also, could this be considered a form of cyberbullying?  The article makes me think of how some other misbehaviors might be “staged” in a creative fashion by youth using hardware and software to make “evidence” that incriminates another person.  We’ve already heard of impersonation where images of parents’ signatures are inserted by their kids into official documents they (the parents) are to sign.  And we’ve heard of youth impersonating their peers through sites that anonymize emails and text messages – which sometimes has led to conflict and violence in the real world.  When we discuss various forms of cyberbullying, impersonation is rare as compared to other types.  I’m thinking, though, that it’s a pretty serious form that merits closer examination.  I also wonder if policy and practice needs to be targeted and specific in highlighting the wrongfulness of impersonation, or simply addressed through general prevention and response strategies for cyberbullying….