Cyberbullying Policy Brief - State of Victoria

This policy brief discusses the negative impacts of cyberbullying on adolescents and recommends educational campaigns and digital citizenship initiatives to address the issue. It covers the prevalence of cyberbullying in Victoria, its impact on adolescents, and risk factors.

Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
Cyberbullying Policy Brief
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
ISSUE COVER SHEET
Issue: Cyberbullying has negative impacts on the adolescents’ emotions, psychology, and
cognitive aspects thus leading to depression, poor academic performance and in some cases
suicide
Background: The adolescent population forms the most users of internet and consequently
the most affected with cyberbullying. The negative impacts of cyberbullying among
adolescents include social anxiety, lower self-esteem, and cognitive outcomes. This can be
attributed to the risk factors that predispose teenagers to cyberbullying such as addictive
technology behaviour and peer pressure.
Comment: The key issues of consideration in this brief are the negative impacts of
cyberbullying among the adolescents, how cyberbullying causes these effects, risk factors of
cyberbullying, and the recommendations for addressing negative impacts of cyberbullying.
Recommendations: This brief makes two major recommendations in effectively addressing
the impacts of cyberbullying on adolescents. These include educational campaigns and digital
citizenship initiatives.
Name: [write here]
Date: [write here]
Readers: The Hon. Jill Hennessy MP, Minister for Health, Victorian Government
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
Purpose
The internet, mobile phones, and other advancements in technology have become part of
Australian life. The development of these technologies has been of immense help to the youth
(Rice, Milburn, & Monro, 2011). However, these technologies have also come with bullying
habits that take place online called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has for long been identified
as in issue affecting the youth (Price, & Dalgleish, 2010). Nonetheless, the matter has had
immense negative effects on adolescents as the number of them that use social medial
increases (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). Cyberbullying has been defined as the
recurrence of behaviour by a wrongdoer with the motive to inflict injury to a victim, in a
situation of power imbalance that favours the wrongdoer (Chalmers et al., 2016). Examples
of cyberbullying include sending mean or threatening messages or images, exposing ones
privacy among others. Studies have shown that cyberbullying among adolescent leads to
colossal distress including psychological and mental health harm, and even to suicide (Smith
et al., 2008: Aricak et al., 2008). This brief aims at outlining the prevalence of cyberbullying
among in Victoria, its impact on adolescents and recommendations for addressing
cyberbullying.
Background
Negative developmental outcomes that may be as a result of cyberbullying among
adolescents include: social, emotional and cognitive impacts
1.0 Emotional impacts
1.1 Social anxiety
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
Social anxiety is the mixture of fear, uneasiness and worry that individuals undergo when
they foresee their inability to make an optimistic impression on others, especially in meetings
within strangers in public places (Lee, Tam, & Chie, 2014). The study by Kowalski and
Limber (2013) showed that social anxiety, stress and low self-esteem are both as a result and
a precursor of cyberbullying habit. Consequently, adolescents that are victims of the above
mentioned symptoms can be deemed as “an easy target” for constant online execution
(Kowalski & Limber, 2013). Lee, Tam, & Chie (2014) found out that people suffering from
social anxiety are more likely to resort to the use of social media and online texting as a
means of communication
1.2 Physiological impacts
1.2.1 Lower self-esteem
The developmental stage of adolescence is a significant period when people develop their
personal identity. The study by Beaty and Alexeyev (2008) show that cyberbullying victims
are more inclined to experience lower self-esteem compared to non-victims.
1.3 Cognitive outcomes
DeHue, Bolman, & Völlink (2008) found out that some bullying leads to negative
experiences in academics. For example, the Connolly study found out that about 90% of
cyberbully victims had a drop in grades after the experience. Wallace (2011) also found out
that fear of bullying made some students to skip classes and performed poorly.
2.0 How Cyberbullying causes the above impacts
2.1 Social anxiety
Social anxiety is a disorder that takes place when an individual is fearful of humiliation or
being perceived by others in a negative way. It is for this reason that individuals of such class
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
are an easy target for cyberbullies. This can also be attributed to the fact that people who
suffer from social anxiety more often use social media and internet as means of
communication. The fear of segregation or denial that is experienced by most of the socially
anxious people in social platforms is unavoidable in the world of internet (Stapinski et al.,
2014). The outline of social media websites enhances intimidation and exclusion of
individuals.
2.2 Low self-esteem
The development of one’s identity is the major issue that adolescents face (Gestsdottir &
Lerner, 2008). In order to achieve this, the adolescents depend extensively on their social
environment to accomplish this. The rise in the usage of social media and mobile technology
amongst the adolescents is an indication that their social and emotional development takes
place in cyberspace. The negative messages that are accompanied by cyberbullying makes
the adolescents who are in a crisis of looking for self-identity to develop an unfavourable
attitude towards oneself (Patchin & Hinduja, 2010).
2.3 Cognitive outcomes
Cyberbullying demotivates the adolescents who are constantly seeking for recognition and
meaning in life. This is because cyberbullying causes the development of fear among the
adolescents and they no longer feel worthy like their peers. This causes emotional distress
and depression thus impairing the mind that is needful in academic performance. As a result
the youth are demotivated to attend school and instead resort to become aggressive thus
increasing their chances of dropping out of school (Konishi, Hymel, Zumbo, & Li, 2010).
3.0 Risk Factors of Cyberbullying
3.1 Addictive technology behaviour
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
Most of the adolescents cannot certainly operate without their mobile phones. Credible
studies have linked internet addictions as precursors for increased addiction issues and are
primary causal factors to cyberbullying activities. According to Erdur-Baker (2010), people
who are frequent internet users have higher chances of being exposed to cyberbullying
activities than non-users. The situation is made even worse with the increasing percentage of
adolescents that use internet frequently.
3.2 Influence or peer pressure
The advancement in technology has made it much easier and convenient for the adolescents
in the 21st century to stay connected with friends. Most of social media platforms and text
messaging services are imbedded with software which enable the users to confirm whether
the messages have been delivered or read. The instant nature of these exchanges has caused
dependence on instant feedback by some users. This piles pressure to respond to the texts
immediately after delivery and has significantly contributed to adolescents being
disconnected from normal life outside cyberspace. Rosen, Whaling, Rab, Carrier, & Cheever
(2013) observes that such peer pressure leads to internet addiction causing anxiety and
depression.
Key Issues
The negative impacts of cyberbullying are immense, but still proper implementation of the
recommendations in this paper will be much beneficial in counteracting the negative impacts
caused by cyberbullying. The implementation of educational campaigns to create awareness
on cyberbullying among students, parents, counsellors and teachers will ensure that people
become accountable of their online acts and thus will be cautious before committing
cyberbullying acts. Educational campaigns will also ensure that there is easy reporting of
such cases to relevant authorities thus helping to mitigate incidences of cyberbullying.
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
Digital citizenship initiatives should be incorporated in the school curriculums to ensure that
the students have digital literacy thus leading to the development of confidence, self-esteem
and self-efficacy when the teenagers are in online platform.
Recommendations
Educational Campaigns
There is need for revamping policies and protocol on cyberbullying and the use of internet so
that they become more specific and reliable with adolescent technological use. The rules
should be reliable and well broadcasted so that all parents and adolescents are aware of the
consequences associated with the usage of technology. Individuals should be held more
answerable for any act of disobedience, and there is need for effective discipline of the
adolescents to make sure that bullying culture is eradicated. Some of the policies might
include restorative justice programs such as the implementation of digital citizenship training
where teenagers are trained on how to become responsible digital citizens, strategies of
attaining good character, and how to become compassionate and caring people (Chisholm,
2014). Bhat (2008) observes that restorative justice programs will ensure that cyberbullying
victims freely express their feelings in relation to cyberbullying and can become much more
responsible for their acts.
Digital Citizenship Initiatives
Cyberbullying students need to be provided with training in digital literacy. There is need for
a current, applicable and relevant digital citizenship curriculum to meet the needs of the
adolescents. Sense Media and Media Smarts (Notar, Padgett, & Roden, 2013) are examples
of programs that offer effective lesson plans and activities that can easily be implemented in
varying levels of grade. A digital literacy committee can be created to supervise the
implementation of such programs. These programs are intended to develop confidence, self-
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
esteem and self-efficacy when the teenagers are in online platform. Digital citizenship
initiatives will also promote an ethic of care among adolescents leading to more respectful
and responsible online adolescent users.
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Cyberbullying Policy Brief State of Victoria
References
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Bhat, C. S. (2008). Cyber bullying: Overview and strategies for school counsellors, guidance
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