Interview:
Susan Limber Discusses Bullying in
The Digital Age

	Susan Limber is a professor of psychology at Clemson University who works within the Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life.

Susan Limber is a professor of psychology at Clemson University who works within the Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life. Her work on bullying prevention has been recognized as exemplary by three federal agencies. Since 2003 she has worked with the National Bullying Prevention Campaign sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration.

Q1: Besides the means of communication involved, what are the major differences between cyber bullying and traditional bullying?

Cyber bullying has some rather unique characteristics that are different from traditional bullying:

1. Anonymity. A student who bullies through traditional means can be easily identified and potentially avoided. Someone who cyber bullies is often anonymous and his or her target is often left wondering who the perpetrator is, which can cause a good deal of stress. Our own research on middle school students revealed that about half of those who had been cyber bullied did not know who had bullied them.

2. Disinhibition. The anonymity afforded by the Internet can lead children to engage in behaviors online that they might not engage in face-to-face.

3. Accessibility. Most children who use traditional ways of bullying terrorize their victims at school, on the school bus, or walking to and from school. Although bullying also may happen elsewhere in the community, there usually is a standard period of time in a school day during which children who bully have access to their victims. However, children who cyber bully can wreak havoc any time of the day or night.

4. Punitive fears. Victims of cyber bullying often do not report their experiences to adults because of fear of retribution from their tormentors and fear that their computer or phone privileges will be taken away. That is, often, adults’ responses to cyber bullying are to remove the technology from a victim which in the victim’s eyes can be seen as punishment.

5. Ambiguous bystander roles. Most episodes of traditional bullying occur in the presence of other people who assume the role of bystanders and witnesses. The phenomenon of being a bystander in the cyber world may be quite different from witnessing bullying firsthand because bystanders may see the harmful material on a Web site or in a message but not witness face-to-face confrontation.

Q2: What are the most likely consequences of cyber bullying?

Researchers have much to learn about possible consequences of cyber bullying. In a recent study that my colleague at Clemson University, Robin Kowalski, and I conducted with sixth–12th graders, we compared “cyber victims,” “cyber bullies,” “cyber bully/victims” (children who cyber bullied others and who also were cyber bullied), and those not involved in cyber bullying in any of these ways on a variety of psychosocial, health, and academic measures. We found that children who were both cyber bully and victim had higher rates of anxiety and depression and higher school absenteeism rates than did the other students.

In some rare and tragic cases, there have been accounts of children who have committed suicide as an apparent result of cyber bullying they have received. On the other hand, students who had not been involved in cyber bullying had the lowest rates of anxiety, depression, school absenteeism, and health problems, and they had the highest rates of self-esteem and the highest grades of all students.

It is important to stress that these data are all correlational. They do not prove that experiences with cyber bullying cause students to have more problems with anxiety, depression, health, and grades. We simply know that children who are involved, particularly as both cyber bully and victim, seem to have the most difficulties—and, therefore, they deserve our attention.

Q3: What can school personnel do to intervene in cyber bullying?

Implementing prevention “best practices” will help reduce the occurrence of cyber bullying among students; however, school personnel will still have to address cyber bullying instances as they arise.

Here are some suggested best practices for educators to respond appropriately and effectively if they are aware of or suspect cyber bullying.

1. Notify parents of all involved children. Unlike traditional bullying, there is often printed evidence from Web sites or e-mails that can be shared with parents of children involved in a cyber-bullying situation. Sharing this evidence with the involved parties may be sufficient to empower the parents to address the cyber bullying in an appropriate manner.

2. Share their concerns about cyber bullying with other educators at school. This will allow educators to monitor the school environment for evidence of traditional bullying and to investigate whether cyber bullying may be in retaliation for traditional bullying that may have occurred.

3. Provide information on various response options. Educators can provide helpful tips for parents and students, including how to report offensive social networking sites, appropriate responses to avoid escalation, and when to contact the police or other legal-related resources.

4. Contact the police in a serious case. Although laws vary by jurisdiction, threats of physical harm, sexual harassment, the posting of nude or compromising photographs, extortion or stalking behavior should be reported to the police immediately.

5. Discipline students involved in cyber bullying. In efforts to protect students from the harm caused by cyber bullying, administrators may suppress cyber speech that takes place on school grounds by disciplining involved students under certain conditions. These include cyber speech that:

(1) is lewd, vulgar or profane;
(2) appears to be sponsored by the school;
(3) constitutes a threat; or
(4) disrupts the school or the rights of others.

School personnel should be aware that when cyber bullying occurs off campus, through a student’s home computer or personal cell phone, it is much less clear what school personnel can do to sanction a student, without violating a student’s First Amendment rights to free speech.

6. Make referrals to mental health resources. If a child has been emotionally affected by cyber bullying, school counselors should be involved and referrals to outside mental health resources may be appropriate. It is important not to underestimate the harm that cyber bullying may have on children.

7. Consider informal resolution. In some carefully controlled and orchestrated situations, a restorative justice approach, for example the use of accountability circles (see next paragraph), may be used in an effort to repair harm that may have occurred from cyber bullying if the involved parties are interested in participating and if they agree to guidelines for participating.

Accountability circles are meetings for the parties involved to discuss an incident’s impact and what, if any, actions may resolve the situation created. They should be used only when the parents of the parties involved are willing, when the targeted student is willing and emotionally prepared, and when the student who engaged in the cyber bullying (and his or her parents) have demonstrated some remorse. The school counselor or other student-assistance professional typically arranges and facilitates the meeting.

Q4: In what ways does cyber bullying outside of school affect students’ behavior and academic performance in school?

Although most cyber bullying does take place outside of school, students and educators tell us that it can “bleed” into the school day in any number of ways. A student who is cyber bullied often does not know the identity of his or her tormentor. In such cases, he or she may be extremely anxious and distracted at school— wondering whether the perpetrator is in their homeroom, on their bus, or in gym class. In other cases, anxiety may be caused by wondering or worrying about embarrassing messages being spread throughout a student body. Even those who are not targets of cyber bullying may come to school “buzzing” about cyber bullying that they have witnessed or heard about. All of this can be extremely distracting to the entire student body.

Q5: What are the emerging areas of research on cyber bullying?

More research is needed to understand the possible effects of different modalities of cyber bullying on students who are targeted. New products and materials have been developed to help prevent and address cyber bullying as part of comprehensive bullying prevention efforts. Research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies in reducing bullying.

We also have much to learn about effective ways of engaging parents in prevention and intervention. How can we best bridge the digital divide that exists between many adults and youths?

Finally, we know very little about the emotions and behavior of bystanders to cyber bullying. How can we best engage them to help stop and prevent cyber bullying?

Q6: Is there anything educators can do to prevent cyber bullying from occurring? 

There is much that educators can do to prevent cyber bullying.  Here are eight recommendations from our book, Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age.

1. Incorporate cyber-bullying prevention messages into comprehensive bullying prevention programs. Many schools have begun implementing comprehensive bullying prevention programs as a result of research indicating that bullying prevention takes a “whole-school approach.” 
2. Assess cyber-bullying behavior among students. Surveying students about bullying behavior provides useful information regarding “hot spots,” school climate, and the nature and extent of bullying at a particular school. Students also can be surveyed about cyber-bullying behavior that has occurred through anonymous questionnaires that identify prevalence, age, and gender trends. More detailed information can be determined by holding informal discussion groups with students.
3. Provide staff training. Many adults are still new to the social technologies that youths are using to communicate with one another. All educators can benefit from a general staff training on cyber bullying, with a more in-depth training regarding intervention for key faculty, such as administrators, media specialists, and school counselors.
4. Develop clear rules and policies about cyber bullying. These policies can be incorporated into any existing bullying policies, “acceptable use of technology” policies, or through a separate policy specific to cyber bullying. Information about the policy needs to be shared with staff, parents, and students.
5. Encourage reporting of cyber bullying. Schools typically have forms or methods in place for reporting traditional bullying. Students should be encouraged to report cyber bullying as well. Some schools are using reporting forms that are posted online that students may download and complete in the privacy of their homes.
6. Devote class time to learning about cyber bullying. The topic of cyber bullying should be included during class discussions on bullying and peer relationships. Class discussions can focus on topics such as: the definition of cyber bullying, school rules and policies regarding cyber bullying, online etiquette and safety, one’s online reputation, how to best respond to cyber bullying, and the role of bystanders who witness cyber-bullying behavior.
7. Recognize and allow students to assume the role of “expert.”  Youths are often more knowledgeable about the digital world than adults and can be empowered to use their skills as helpful role models for teaching digital citizenship to other youths.
8. Build strong parent-school partnerships. Currently many parents feel at a loss in addressing cyber bullying due to the digital divide that often exists between adults and children. The school can assist in bridging this digital divide by hosting parent information nights, sending printed tips and other literature home, and providing a contact person at the school who can assist parents who are concerned about cyber bullying.

Q7: At what point does a bad attitude or aggressive personality online become real bullying?

Cyber bullying shares three general characteristics with more traditional forms of bullying: aggression, repetition, and an imbalance of power. “Power” and “repetition” may be manifested a bit differently online than in traditional bullying, however. For example, a student willing to abuse technology can easily wield great power over his or her target just by having the ability to reach a large audience, and often by hiding his or her identity.  Mean cyber messages are easily repeated by forwarding them to multiple individuals and posting to Web sites for hundreds of classmates to view.

Although plenty of teens, and adults, can display bad attitudes or aggressive behavior online, not all of this behavior is bullying.

Q8: To whom should teachers report suspected cyber bullying, and under what circumstances?  What sort of documentation should teachers keep, if any?

Any cyber bullying that involves a threat of physical harm, pornography, or extortion should be reported to law enforcement authorities immediately. School policies can identify the process for how and who should report other types of cyber bullying. Generally, we recommend that known or suspected cyber bullying be reported to administrators, members of a school’s bullying prevention coordinating committee (if one exists), and teachers or counselors who interact with the involved students. As I mentioned before, it is important for school personnel to be on the watch for traditional bullying that may co-occur with cyber bullying. Parents of the involved students also should be notified, in keeping with the school’s policy for doing so.

Q9: What are the important legal issues surrounding cyber bullying? 

The primary legal questions surrounding cyber bullying are:

(1) May school personnel be held liable for failing to address cyber bullying?
(2) Under what circumstances can school personnel address cyber bullying without fear of violating students’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression?
(3) Under what circumstances can school personnel monitor or search student Internet records without fear of violating students’ constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures? Several authors have addressed these issues at some length.  (e.g., our book Cyber Bullying: Bullying in the Digital Age and Nancy Willard’s book Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats).

Q10: Who is most likely to be a cyber bully? 

There is no single profile of a child who cyber bullies. There is a fairly sizable overlap between children who are involved in “traditional” forms of bullying and cyber bullying. For example, in a recent research study, we found that of those middle and high school students who had not been involved in traditional bullying; only about 9 percent had been cyber bullied, and 5 percent had cyber bullied someone else. On the other hand, of those students who had bullied in traditional ways, 20 percent also had cyber bullied (and 19 percent had been cyber bullied). A study published in Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice by Hinduja and Patchin (2006) found that adolescents who had bullied offline were more than five times as likely to bully online as those who did not bully offline. Any child can cyber bully. So, teachers and parents should be very vigilant and make sure that children know that cyber bullying is wrong and will not be tolerated.

Q11: Who is most likely to be a victim of cyber bullying?   
There is also no uniform profile of a child who is cyber bullied.  Some research suggests that girls are somewhat more likely to be cyber bullied than boys. In the previously mentioned study, more than one-third of traditional “bully/victims” also had been cyber bullied, and almost one-quarter of children who were identified as “victims” of traditional bullying also had been cyber bullied.

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