Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying

Interesting findings

During the last few months, I have conducted much research on bullying and cyberbullying. As a teacher of 17 years I've seen cyberbullying have a bit of an uptick in activity. I never considered it a serious issue, but after my reading and research, I've come to a better understanding of its impact on our students.

I'm writing a paper on my findings and then will transfer it into a professional development piece to put online. During this time I've learned that gender is not a big factor in bullying. My research has found that in fact, it is more time related to a child's development. Boys tend to bully more in elementary school and they tend to be more physical, while girls bully more in upper-grade levels. Human development sees girls being more self-conscious of themselves and comparing themselves against each other. In addition, where boys might fight it out, girls tend to harbor hard feelings for a long time. So where the bullying is not more so in gender it just occurs at different developmental stages of our children.

Times are changing

Bullying has changed considerably in the past several decades. Where bullying wasn't rare to even when I was in school, now with the innovations of today, cyberbullying has long-lasting, even permanent effects online. Posts are there for a considerable amount of time and where bullying affected students locally in the past, now it is a global mockery.

A Global Concern

This is a global issue. Even the UN has made strides towards addressing this issue.
https://youtu.be/VGBKONEVSFY   There is more that we must do as adults. We need to recognize the signs and know how to address incidents as they come up.