Cyber-Bullying: How Cell Phone and Computer Forensics Help (Part 1)
Sally feels humiliated at lunch after tripping over an unfortunately placed backpack belonging to another student named Jenny. The more students in the lunchroom laugh at Sally, the more her humiliation turns into anger. She harbors that anger until the end of the school day and then goes home. Once in her room, she sits down in front of a computer and begins her retaliatory “payback.”
Sally sets up an anonymous Yahoo email account and sends Jenny an email that starts as something like:
“Dear Jenny: We watched you eat lunch today and you’re really disgusting…”
While writing the email, Sally grows more and more upset as she thinks back to the classmates laughing at her in the lunchroom and sends an extended email to Jenny that is full of derogatory comments. The next day, Sally goes to school and tells one of her friends about the clever “payback” email. They both think it was funny and decide they’re not done. That weekend, the two of them go to work building a new MySpace site devoted to torturing Jenny.
They call the new MySpace profile “Jenny is a worthless #&$%!” and pretty soon, a half-dozen of their classmates are joining in on the fun — all anonymously, of course.
“Jenny’s a fat, ugly…[many harsh expletives]. Even her friends don’t like her. Somebody should tell her just how much we hate her and the world would be a better place without her.”
When Jenny finds out about the MySpace site, she is shocked. She had no idea somebody – anybody — hated her.
Jenny tells herself to just ignore it and hopes that it will go away, but down deep, she’s devastated. She doesn’t say anything about it to her parents or her friends. It’s too embarrassing. Every day, she sinks a little lower until, finally, her parents ask her if something’s wrong! They begin to worry about the changes in her behavior…
It’s called cyber-bullying! It’s becoming more common than ever and can be found in middle schools, high schools, colleges and even work places across the country. It’s spreading like a virus, which is why school districts all over the country are starting to – and those which haven’t, need to — institute programs and policies to deal with it.
Thousands, if not millions, of children across the country have been affected to the point where they have dropped out of school, required treatment for depression or even killed themselves as a result of this new and, unfortunately, very effective form of psychological assault.
According to a two-year-old study by the National Council on Crime Prevention, 43 percent of teens surveyed have been victims of cyber-bullying. A full three out of four children (yes, 75%!) have visited a Web site bashing another child and some 81 percent of teens say their peers engage in this sort of thing because “they think it’s funny.”
Studies like this have become quite common. Here are some stats:
- When teens were asked why they think others cyberbully, 81 percent said that cyberbullies think it’s funny.
- Of 350 college students surveyed in Virginia and Illinois, she said, about 60 percent said they had experienced cyber-bullying.
- Forty-four percent of the boys say that they’ve seen sexual images of girls in their school, and about 15 percent of them are disseminating those images when they break up with the girls.
- Nichols said that 42 percent of children with access to the Internet report seeing online inappropriate, abusive or untrue information regarding someone they know, but only 10 percent ever tell a parent.
- According to a recent study, 20 percent of 13- to 19-year-olds have electronically posted or sent naked or semi-naked photos of themselves.
- Bullying is widespread, with nearly one-third of all students are involved in an incident each year, experts say. The effect on victims can be severe, ranging from academic failure and physical injuries to depression and even suicide. As for bullies, 60 percent of them have a criminal conviction by age 24, national statistics show.
The most famous involved a girl named Megan Meier, a Missouri girl who killed herself after being told, “The world would be a better place without you,” by a boy Megan fell in love with named Josh Evans.
It turned out though, that Josh Evans never existed. Josh was invented by a woman named Lori Drew, the mother of a former friend of Megan’s. Drew reportedly created Josh to gain Megan’s trust and affection with the ultimate goal of crushing her emotionally. Clearly, Lori Drew got what she wanted.
Schools can only do so much, it’s really up to parents to know whether their children are involved in cyber-bullying. Statistics show only one child in 10 tells an adult when they are being targeted. That means 90 percent of our children are either suffering in silence or trying to deal with the harassment themselves.
As parents, we know that growing up is full of obstacles and is challenging enough with out having to also deal with cyber jerks! Parents are trying to keep track of what their children are being exposed to, but it is very difficult as peers can attack 24/7. Unfortunately there is no manual for managing technology for your children, just as there is no manual for perfect parenting.
Talk to your child and find out if they, or someone they know, have ever been involved in cyber-bullying. Together, discuss cyber-bullying and give your children a better way of handling these difficulties, rather than leaving them to rely on coping through text messages, emails, IMs or social networks. Simply letting them know you are aware of cyber-bullying is the first step to keeping an open line of communication if there is an incident.
If you need help getting started, please feel free to give New Jersey Legal a call. We are called on frequently to analyze and download information from hand held devices, like cell phones, iPhones, and BlackBerry phones, as well as computers in order to help parents and/or counselors begin the process of dealing with issues like cyber-bullying. We can be reached by phone at (856) 910-0202 or by email at info@njlc.net.
We’re working with parents and counselors to help them make educated and informed decisions in handling cases of cyber-bullying. Check back soon for part two to see how we’re doing that.
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