With the ever-increasing social media presence in the lives
of young adults, it is unfortunate that with it also comes the creation of a
new issue: cyberbullying. While bullying
has been an unfortunate occurrence for many young adults, the issue is
heightened when an entirely new level of bullying is brought to the table. The
way that teenagers interact with each other has changed drastically over the
last 20, 10, even 5 years. Not only are there social networking sites, such as
Facebook and Twitter, but also blogs, online journals, and, undeniably, texting
via cell phones. Teens and Social Media have sparked media coverage often
because parents worry that these sites may be unsafe. While adults may
recognize more ideas of what is or is not appropriate to make public, teens
often reveal too much because they are ill-informed of positive online
interactions and the risks associated with disclosing too much personal/private
information. Cyberbullying is becoming an extensive threat to the online
security and emotional well-being of teens. Cyberbullying is defined as “online
aggression by peers” (Agosto, Forte, & Magee, 2012, p. 39). This is a very
serious issue and, in some extreme cases, has led to suicides. Websites such as Ryan’s
Story (http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org)
and the Megan Meier Foundation (http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/)
describe heartbreaking stories of how cyberbullying and bullying can lead to suicide and are, in turn, seeking to
raise bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide awareness and prevention. Nancy Willard for the Center of Safe and
Responsible Internet Use defines eight categories of specific cyberbullying
behavior:
1.
Flaming, or engaging in arguments using angry or
offensive language.
2.
Harassment, or sending repeated frightening
and/or offensive communications.
3.
Denigration, or posting false information to try
to damage a person’s reputation or relationships.
4.
Impersonations, or pretending to be someone else
online and causing mischief using the stolen identity.
5.
Outing, or revealing another person’s secrets or
embarrassing information online.
6.
Trickery, or tricking someone into revealing
private information and then revealing it online.
7.
Exclusion, or deliberately excluding a person from
an online group.
8.
Cyberstalking, or using online media to stalk
and frighten someone.
(as cited in
Agosto et al., 2012, p. 39)
Educating all young people on appropriate online use and safety,
and also providing bullying education and intervention, will be crucial in diminishing
the effects that cyberbullying can create. It is important the librarians are
able to provide assistance in reducing cyberbullying by setting up workshops,
not only for teens but for parents and teachers as well, in which cyberbullying
and online safety are addressed. Agosto et al.(2012) describes that it is
important to teach teens:
· That threatening messages, images, videos, and
other materials posted online as jokes or games can become dangerous or
damaging to others
· Never share account passwords with anyone other
than their parent or guardians
· To limit the amount of personal information that
they put online
· To periodically review their privacy and safety
settings on their social networking sites, cell phone, and other social media
accounts, generally choosing the most restrictive settings
· How to take appropriate action if they witness
threatening behaviors online
· About the importance of reporting cyberbullying
attacks to appropriate adults
(Agosto
et al., 2012, p.40)
With the increasing awareness being drawn to cyberbullying,
it is important that librarians review laws and policies (locally and
nationally) regarding the issue. Young Adult librarians are in a position where
they can spread awareness and create educational programs. There are many
helpful sites that librarians can use to gain inspiration for new program ideas;
for instance:
Agosto, D.E., Forte, A., & Magee, R. (2012).
Cyberbullying and Teens: What YA librarians can do to help. Young Adult Library Services, 10(2), 38-43.
As my niece nears her "double digits" birthday, I am in awe of how much she already has at such an early age! She has her own iPod touch and the family shares an iPad2. She LOVES to use the "Text Free" app on her iPod. Her and her friends all "text" with it. It worries me so much that kids are growing up much faster than I feel we did and are being exposed to many topics / scenarios too early in life and are put in situations that they may think they can handle but they are not mature enough to handle with their mindset yet. Creating programs to attract parents and young adults would be a great asset to libraries to help increase knowledge AND awareness to all!
I love that you posted this! We just recently had an incident at my library involving cyberbullying, but previous to that I really hadn't thought of it being a library issue.
This is such an important topic! As a parent of two teenagers I see firsthand how They use Facebook, online gaming and texting as their primary source of communication with their friends. I think it is essential that public and school librarians be aware of the dangers of cyberbullying. I also think it would be great if they created awareness programs for the public and kids to bring this issue to their attention.
I think this is a very heartfelt and well intended post, Heather! While educating teens and parents on cyberbullying is virtually becoming a necessity, I am wondering if perhaps controlling the actual cyberbullying within the confines of the library you work for should also be addressed? I work in a public library and countless times witness teens actively visiting websites (and presumably commenting). While obviously a person deserves his or her own privacy while surfing the Internet, should a library be held accountable for what a person does while utilizing the Internet? Or at the very least, discourage patrons from inappropriate language and bullying from library computers?
Thank you for your post. It is sort of sad to think that the public library, a place I have always thought of as a safe haven, can become a bully's playground. I love that librarians are trying to take a proactive approach by educating teens and adults about online safety. I think Rachel asks an interesting question, "should a library be held accountable for what a person does while utilizing the internet?" I agree with Rachel that librarians should discourage patrons from using inappropriate language but I don't feel that librarians should be held accountable. I think the person that chooses to engage in that activity should be held accountable and to try to shift blame to others teaches that teenager that they don't have to be accountable and think through the consequences of his or her actions.
Although strapped for time and money, librarians and school librarians in particular need to be on the educational forefront for helping kids be responsible digital citizens. In many schools, there isn't a part of the curriculum and thus it isn't anyone's "job" to teach skills like this to kids. I think there is a misunderstanding that because kids can navigate and use technology, often with much more ease than we can, we assume they don't need education. Not only teaching them that there is more to online research than Google, we must help them understand that their digital lives are in many ways permanent and what they say can hurt others more because of the instantaneous and wide reach afforded in an online social network. Librarians need to be leaders in this area, in my opinion. What form this takes and how this works practically is in flux, but instances of cyberbullying, etc. highlight the need.
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/do-i-really-have-to-leave-the-school-library-to-do-the-work-of-a-school-librarian/
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/04/k-12/next-years-model/
From Sara Magnuson:
Great post! I agree with Amy that while librarians should be aware of issues, they can't be held accountable for what public PCs are used for. Other than posting acceptable use policies, with specific restrictions and their consequences, it's impossible to monitor (and violating privacy) what teens do while in the building. Hosting gaming programs and discussion groups is a great platform for addressing online etiquette though.