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A new report was released last week that zeroed in on online social interaction among youth between the ages of 8 and 12.  The “Tween Internet Safety Survey” found that at least half lie about their age online (in keeping with our own findings from discussions with kids around the nation).  They also found that approximately half of those 11- and 12-year-olds have their own cell phones.  This number seems a bit high to me, but the research was conducted among children with “online access” – and so that population may have more access to technology (and wealth) than a completely random group of kids.  Finally, there seems to be some sort of a divide between 8-10 and 11-12, in that the latter group participates significantly more online with personal email, instant messaging, texting, and sending multimedia over their cell phones.  Many parents are deciding to allow increased computer- and cell-phone use when their children venture into middle school and the data reflects this.  With more kids embracing technology in elementary school, though, similar findings in the future will trend in that direction.  This has positives and negatives.  Our hope is that parents educate their kids before providing the technology, and that teachers and administrators proactively fill in the gaps.

This is another one of those questions that we get all of the time.  Of course, there is not one easy answer to this question.  Moreover, what causes one adolescent to cyberbully may not influence another to engage in similar behaviors.  So, while we have a number of theories or hypotheses, what do you think?  We are going to leave this discussion up to you all, loyal readers of this blog.  Let us know that you are out there and reading this by posting your answer to the question: Why do youth engage in cyberbullying?  We’ll share our thoughts in a future post.

I was talking to a friend today, who was interested in the two research papers on MySpace we’ve written.  He posed two major questions: “What is the worst piece of information that an adolescent can reveal on their profile page?” and “What is the biggest single suggestion you can give to promote safety among youth who use social networking sites?” I thought they were worthy of discussion here.

Basically, there is no worst piece of information a youth can reveal. However, we highly recommend they do not post information that can be used to contact them directly, such as phone number, email address, and instant message screenname. It is important because it reduces one’s vulnerability to being directly contacted by strangers with perverse or malicious motives. Also, we caution against revealing the name of your school and your city. People who know you will know your school and city, and so there is no need to advertise that information to others. The biggest single suggestion we give is that all youth set their profile page to “private” or otherwise restrict its viewing to only those they have approved as “friends.” Also, we recommend that before you approve someone as a “friend,” you know them in real life (offline). This is easier to do on some sites (e.g., Facebook) than others (e.g., MySpace). Carelessly approving anyone and everyone as a “friend” so that you can run up your “friend” count is just not wise. Research has shown that it is generally much more likely that youth will be abducted, physically or sexually assaulted, or otherwise victimized by a friend or acquaintance than by a stranger.

By the way, one of our articles has been published in Journal of Adolescence, and the other is in peer-review…if you’d like to read either, please drop us a note. In these articles, we’ve shared data-based trends in how youth are using that site and revealing personal information that may render them susceptible to harm.  They also provide useful strategies for prevention and education.

This is one of many questions we have received via email over the last several weeks. The answer is a bit more complicated than many adults realize. If there were a quick fix, Web site administrators would have implemented the changes by now. I don’t think it is so much a problem with Web sites. Clearly, Web sites need to have clear policies about inappropriate behaviors and content and mechanisms available for users to report problems. Web site administrators then need to respond immediately when instances of cyberbullying are called to their attention and remove offensive content immediately. Thankfully most of the mainstream sites have gotten better at this in recent months, so they are moving in the right direction.

It is also important to remember that much of the responsibility resides with the users of the technology (and the adults charged with teaching kids how to use the Web). For example, youth shouldn’t say things online that they wouldn’t say in person. They should keep their personal information safe and not reveal contact information (like their phone number or home address). They should also learn to be skeptical about people they only know from online. These online friends may not be who they say they are. Finally, youth need to feel comfortable talking with an adult they trust about any bullying they may experience (or any other problem they encounter online). Teach kids how to be responsible users of technology and it won’t matter what site they are on. They will know what is appropriate and what is not and know where to go for help if they run into trouble.

Florida’s Governor Charlie Crist has just signed into law the “Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act.” This is due mostly to the efforts of our friend Debbie Johnston from Cape Coral, Florida, a first-grade schoolteacher whose son Jeffrey took his life after being bullied and cyberbullied.

This law:

- requires districts to adopt policy prohibiting bullying & harassment, and to specify procedures for reporting, investigating, notifying, referring, and collecting data on incidents

- provides a measure of immunity for school districts in their investigation and response

- provides restrictions with respect to defense of action & application of provisions (which basically means that victims who defend themselves by fighting back won’t also be punished)

-makes DOE Safe Schools Funds conditional on compliance (which means that these anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying policies must be in place in order for the school district to keep receiving federal funds)

The law also states: “The physical location or time of access of a computer-related incident cannot be raised as a defense in any disciplinary action initiated under this section.” IANAL, but from my understanding this means that a perpetrator cannot point to the fact that the bullying took place via an electronic device as a justification to temper or qualify the severity of the behavior.

Congratulations, Debbie. We share your joy with this outcome.