Parental Involvement Key In Decreasing Cyber-Harrassing Incidences

By David Simms, Senior Contributor
The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards

Recent trends in youth cyber-bullying indicate a sharp decrease in large cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, where research shows greater parental involvement. This is ironically contrasted with increased social media penetration in smaller towns where generally less parental control is reported.

It seems there is a rather strong correlation between parents having free and clear access to their children’s accounts, and a trend of less reported incidents of cyber-bullying behaviours. Experts are calling this an indicator that knowledge of one’s parents monitoring actions online is enough to deter most young people from instigating or participating in bullying and other harrassment behaviours. They stretch further to suggest adults would react quite similarly – refraining from cyber-harassment activity – under like circumstances and with the impending sense of consequences for their actions.  

Children fear immediate repercussions from their parents and are under their authority. In most Indian households parental authority is respected and abided by. However, in the adult world, the authority structure necessarily shifts to allow for more autonomy and rights such as privacy. This is so because there is an expectation of maturity and awareness of one’s actions. Interestingly however, the same bully-like behaviours experienced online by children are also seen in adults. It is alarmingly common to see child-like immaturity in many adults who, under the right circumstances, will act out as reckless children. Unfortunately, it takes a sense of consequence and threat of punishment to quell these destructive behaviours for both young and old.  

One key problem arises when right-to-privacy issues come to bear. Whereas children have little privacy with their parents as the monitoring authority and wielders of discipline, adults have ample rights to privacy and with no monitoring, especially on the Internet. It seems for adults a better balance must be struck between reasonable monitoring and the complete lack thereof. Until this happens, there is no doubt the problem of cyber-harassment and all its forms and degrees will continue on indefinitely creating further victim hazard and tangible loss and impeding authorities from dispensing appropriate justice. Much has been done to combat the issues of internet safety and these destructive behaviours but until the safety and standards community stops chipping away at the surface consequences and begins to address the underlying causes and ways to cut them off at the pass, we can expect to boast little about any true degree of change leading to a safer online navigation for users trusting they will be safe when logging on. 

Female Bullying vs. Male Bullying Behaviours

By David Simms, Senior Contributor

The Global Institute of Cyber Safety and Standards 

There is a general misconception that aggressive bullying behaviours online are primarily instigated and carried out by males, however this is not accurate.  Female bullying has been found to be especially dominant particularly when it comes to verbal and psychological torment in a cyber context. Although females are also responsible for physical bullying, it is drastically less likely to occur in-person as compared to the Internet. 

A common misunderstanding held by many is that verbal abuse online is relatively harmless and therefore, until recently, has been categorised and dealt with as a trivial matter.  However, to the contrary, scientific research shows that virtual harassment in the form of name calling, rumour spreading, threats, ostracising from groups, and the creating of false realities online, have a definite tangible and physical effect on victims, a fact that is fortunately, albeit slowly, being recognised as a legitimate issue among law enforcement agencies in countries around the world.

Females also tend to partake in online mobbing behaviours. Whereas males traditionally act alone in their aggression, females will often incite others in their group to gang up on a victim, typically another female.  Unfortunately, as the issue of online harassment and bullying is gaining more notice, males are being shown in PSAs and other raising-of-awareness articles and videos, to be the primary instigators. This is not to say that male involvement in online harassment shouldn’t be treated with the same seriousness; male aggression online is known to escalate to physical confrontations much more often than females.  However it is important to recognise that as the cyber harassment issue evolves, we must be mindful that it is much more complex than previously thought, and therefore should be dealt with in a fair and comprehensive fashion.

Parental Responsibility in Raising Responsible Internet Users

By: David Simms, Senior Contributor

The internet has exploded with bullying, harassment, and other hate activity that has taken the lives of many and effectively crippled the lives of so many more. What has created such a havoc-ridden climate?  Small children are mostly influenced, whether they believe it or not, by the adults in their lives. From them they learn manners, right from wrong, and how to interact with the world. They are formed by watching what adults do and how they treat others. This has been going on since the beginning of time and is why parenting is such a critical responsibility accountable not only to the family unit but to all those we come in contact with throughout life. It can be monumentally confusing to a child when they witness their parent or other respected adult, treat others harshly and with disrespect especially if they are not accustomed to this. It only takes one event to rock the sensitive and impressionable reality of a child. Children can intrinsically sense something wrong about inconsistent behaviours they observe. Unfortunately, if they are exposed to this on a regular basis, their own inner compass of right and wrong can be overridden. This is usually the beginning of acting out in the same manner they have seen in adults and is typically reinforced by other children they interact with at school and may lead to physical bullying others. Realistically though, most children do not become playground bullies because most of us shy away from physical aggression. 

However, the internet lends itself as an easy platform on which to release passive aggression on others. It is this reason it has become so dangerous.  Children, and adults, who would normally never be involved in physical confrontation, become the most aggressive and cruel creatures when online. This is seeded in the experiences they had, and the observations they made, when a younger age.  It is also coupled with the fact that the internet world is perceived as detached, almost as a fantasy game where people, feelings, and lives are not real. This makes for a dangerous recipe and outlet for aggression and harm to others.

As adults raising children in the computer age, there is a new and unexpected responsibility incurred. We must educate children from a very young age that the online world is a very real place where people can be harmed.  Children must be made to understand that their actions online can hurt and destroy others and that it is not acceptable, just as it is not acceptable to harm others in the street. They must know there are rules to abide by that cannot be broken and that they will be held accountable for what they do online. Adults must be more aware of their own actions in front of children.  It is only in these ways that positive change can occur and a true difference can be made.