cyber bullying - preliminary investigation on parental awareness

8/12/2019 Cyber Bullying - Preliminary Investigation on Parental Awareness

1/21

Nadia Abdul WahabProf Madya Dr. Wan Ahmad Jaafar Wan Yahaya

Center for Instructional Technology & Multimedia,Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Malaysia


2/21

Cyber bullying can be defined as sending orposting harmful texts or images through theuse of digital communication devices

(Willard, 2005). Among consequences of Cyber bullying to

the victims: isolate themselves from other people and

activities, become stressed,

become ill,

possibly contemplate suicide (Willard, 2005).


3/21

Flamingsends an angry, impolite or rudemessage to someone, either concealed oropenly;

Harassmentrepeatedly sends messages aimedat offending the feelings of someone;

Denigrationsends a message that brings harm

(false information or slander) about someone toothers; Cyber-stalkingharassment or threats with

intimidation that could harm the bullys victim;


4/21

Masqueradingthe bully pretends to besomeone else and spreads certain information ormaterials in a smear campaign;

Outing and trickerytry to obtain confidentialinformation about someone and then publicizethe said information with the intention tohumiliate or tarnish the victims reputation.

Exclusionthe act of excluding someone froman online community for example online groupsand such.


5/21

Since 2010, 7.5 million of Facebook users areunder-aged, being younger than the

conditional 13 year-old. 5 millions are aged 10 or younger, and theyare allowed to use Facebook withoutparental supervision.

1 million of them are bullied, harassed orthreatened through this site.

("Facebook a Magnet for Underage Users,Survey Finds," 2011).


6/21

According to Beale & Hall (2007), parents need to:

monitor their childrens use of the computer,

understand what they should be vigilant against,

find out what they should discuss with theirchildren regarding the Internet understand the acronyms frequently used like PIR

(parent in room), ILU (I love you) and such. Most parents are not aware that Internet service

providers offer parental control facilities to monitortheir childrens Internet activities.

Only 16% of children agreed that they discussed withtheir parents what they do on the Internet.


7/21

Keith and Martin (2005) suggested that at thevery least, parents should have onlineagreementswith their children.

This agreement should clearly state which websites the children could visit,

what they could do at the particular website,

determine the durationto browse the Internet, what should be done when there is a cyber

threat,

how to protect personal information.


8/21


9/21

Unstructured Interviews with 9 respondents: Primary School Students

2 girls and 1 boy

aged between 10 and 12 years

Secondary School Students 1 girl and 2 boys

aged between 14 and 17 years Parents

2 Female and 1 male

2 has tertiary, 1 has secondary education.


10/21

All of the students that we interviewed: Have Internet access at home, Facebook and email accounts, Know how to use SMS and MMS services, admitted around of their classmates have Facebook

accounts, Agreed that facebook accounts are the most popular

channel of communication, They had never been educated about cyber bullying, Their parents rarely monitor their online activities, Had revealed passwords to friends.


11/21

The students admitted that they have friends whohave bullied or been bullied in the Internet e.g:

friends spilling and sreading their secrets,

insulting and on the Facebook or forwarded SMS spreading superimposed pictures or pictures of an

embarassing nature via Facebook and MMS. One student had been insulted with coarse words on

the Facebook, did not know the bully, complained toher parents but no action had been taken.

One student admitted that his Facebook account hadbeen hackedand the bully had written rudeexpressions on his wall.


12/21

The students : 2 have Internet at home, 1 access internet at cyber cafe.

Have mobile phone, Facebook and email accounts.

2 have Twitter acount, 1 is an active blogger. Know how to use SMS and MMS services. Almost all of their classmates have Facebook and email

accounts, several has their own web blogs. Often use chatting application on Facebook. Read and are followers of their friends web blogs. They had never been educated about cyber bullying. Their parentsrarely monitor their online activities. 1 had revealed passwords to friends.


13/21

All three admitted that they had been involvedwith this phenomenon, or at least know of friendsthat cyber bullied or have been cyber bulliedthrough acts like slandering, spreadinguntruestories, hackedaccounts and such.

One boy admitted that he has criticised aclassmate on the Facebook with the intention ofmaking fun of that friend.

A girl admitted that she had circulated emailsthat revealed the secrets of someone.

One girl had friend who spread untrue storiesabout her on the Facebook.


14/21

All three students admitted that if the incidentswere not serious, they would not complain totheir parents or teachers.

They would instead feel more at ease sharingthe experience with their peers.

Two of the teens revealed that their parentsrarely monitored their online activities

Only one admitted occasional monitoring byparents but this teen had removed the motherfrom the Friend list.


15/21

All have Internet access at home Parents to children who are actively pursue

online activities. All did not fully grasp the concept of Cyber

Bullying

2 parents never had any exposure 1 parent had heard about cyber bullying but had not

been too concerned about it before.


16/21

2 parents (one with tertiary and another withsecondary education) rarely monitor their

childrens online activities. All were uncertainif their children had ever

been cyber bullied. All admit that there had never been any

discussions with the children concerning safetyand privacy as well as bullying in the virtualworld.


17/21

All three parents agreed that : Their children might probably have been or will be

involved with cyber bullying if they were not

monitored. Cyber bullying is a serious problem that could

distract their childrens attention from learning aswell as have negative consequences on their

childrens psychological growth. They should gain more in-depth exposure so that

they would be better able to comprehend thisproblem.


18/21

Cyber bullying clearly is present in our societyespecially amongst children and teenagers.

Nevertheless, the understandingandawarenessof the parents and children regardingthis issue is still at a very low level.

The effortto increase understanding andawareness should be extended to all levels ofsociety especially amongst parents.

In Malaysia, academic background did not play arole nor did it determine the level of awarenessand monitoring of cyber bullying.


19/21

It was found that most parents in Malaysia arestill in zone C and D whereby, awareness and

monitoring of cyber bullying is considered low.


20/21

Web-based Multimedia Learning (WBML) hasgood potentialfor development as it could beused as a tool to assist parents in increasing their

awareness and monitoring of cyber bullying It is hoped that WBML will affect changes in the

scenario in Malaysia, whereby parentalawareness and monitoring of cyber bullying willshift from zone C and D to zones A or B.

At both zones A and B, awareness andmonitoring are at the highest levels withouttaking into account if the parents have a higheror lower educational background.


21/21

cyber bullying - preliminary investigation on parental awareness

Documents