Digital Citizens - (Page 13) GETTY In cyberspace, no one can see you cry L E P K O W S K A Cyberbullying wrecks lives – and schools have a responsibility to fight it D O R O T H Y T oday’s teenagers don’t go online, they live online. Whether they are completing homework, playing games or chatting with friends on social networking sites, an internet-linked computer, phone or some other handheld device is constantly within their reach. The distinction between the physically tangible and what may be floating in cyberspace has become blurred – so much so, in fact, that children’s online and offline lives are now inextricably bound together. The proliferation of internet-linked gadgetry poses huge challenges for schools. Although many teachers have accepted technology such as mobile phones into the classroom as a valuable learning tool, the dangers are obvious. Cyberbullying is now the fastest-growing and most common form of abuse among schoolchildren, and “sexting” (sending images involving sexual acts to another person) has been found in a recent report by the NSPCC to be far more prevalent than anyone might have imagined. “There was a time when the IT teachers in school assumed responsibility for e-safety, but it has now become a matter for all teachers,” says Richard Piggin, deputy chief executive of the charity BeatBullying. “Schools need to be on the ball with this. Just as we educate children about safety on the streets in their everyday environment, so we now need to teach them about being safe online. Young people no longer make a distinction between the two because, in their eyes, there isn’t one.” What the internet and technology do is remove the obstacles to pernicious behaviour. “A child may not bully in real life for fear of being discovered, but put them behind a screen and a username and they can become someone else entirely,” Piggin says. “Technology does not cause cyberbullying, but it facilitates it. The bully doesn’t see the victim, so can’t see the effects their actions are having. The first thing the victim must do is confide in someone if something is happening Schools must remember it’s not the technology that is the problem. This is all about behaviour 29 June 2012 Digital Citizens 13 Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Citizens Digital Citizens Contents Be virtually nice Get skilled Suffer the children Private matters Mind games Digital Citizens http://europe.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/huron_goingglobal http://europe.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/digitalcitizens http://europe.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/monash_june2012 http://europe.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/fe_awards2011 http://europe.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/trinitycollegedublin http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/firstappointments2a http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/firstappointments2b http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/offpiste http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/eureka http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/Canon http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/tescymrudrmtest http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/tessdrmtest http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/tesdrmtest http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/tsl/thedrmtest http://www.nxtbookMEDIA.com
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