Cyberbullying Awareness
October is Cyberbullying awareness month. The Warren County Sheriff’s Office would like to educate the community on how to identify and stop behavior that either clearly indicates cyberbullying or could potentially lead to cyberbullying.
Information:
The term Cyberbullying denotes the use of the internet to harass, intimidate, stalk, or cause harm to another person. Usually this is referred the use of social media and more recently online gaming and has also been extended to text messaging and email, due to the use of internet provided messenger apps such as Facebook messenger and WhatsApp.
Up to the mid 2000’s there were no specific laws against cyberbullying, which was changed after more occurrences arose where individuals were harmed, either psychologically or financially. Some the psychological effects have resulted in tragic events, such as shootings and suicide to name a few.
The National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice’s 2017 survey indicated that of students between the ages of 12–18, 15 percent experienced cyberbullying during the school year. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a study through their Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System that about 15.7 percent of students were bullied online in 2019. [1]
Parents should monitor behavior of their children, as this type of bullying is hard to notice. Check your children’s phones and computers for browsing history to ensure that neither they get bullied nor potentially bully another child. Know your child’s usernames and password, monitor their apps, and educate your children of the Do’s and Don’ts of online behavior. Cyberbullying may also be experienced by a stranger through online forums and/or online multiplayer games.
What to do:
Cyberbullying is a crime and listed in the Code of Virginia as “any aggressive and unwanted behavior that is intended to harm, intimidate, or humiliate the victim; involves a real or perceived power imbalance between the aggressor or aggressors and victim; and is repeated over time or causes severe emotional trauma. ‘Bullying’ includes cyber bullying. ‘Bullying’ does not include ordinary teasing, horseplay, argument, or peer conflict.” (Code of Virginia § 22.1–276.01). In addition, the seriousness of bullying is recognized by Code of Virginia § 22.1–279.6 (B) to include rules against bullying in their codes of student conduct as well as hazing and profane or obscene language or conduct in schools. [2]
If you or anyone you know is being bullied online, you can call the Warren County Sheriff’s Office at (540) 635‑4128 or the Crime tip line at (540) 636‑5946 to report the incident. For more information on this topic, please go to www.stopbullying.gov or www.consumernotice.org.
[1] https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it