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Mobile harassment refers to the act of sending any type of text message, sex photo message, video message, or voicemail from a mobile phone that causes the receiver to feel harassed, threatened, tormented, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise victimized. It is recognized as a form of cyberbullying.
Mobile harassment has emerged as a worldwide trend due to the prevalence of mobile devices. . Recent studies indicate that harassment through mobile texting is particularly pervasive in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, while the United States experiences a higher prevalence of harassment through the Internet. [1]
In 2009, a survey in the United Kingdom revealed that approximately 14 percent of participants reported they had been victims of mobile harassment ranging from name calling, threatening text messages, or photos or videos intended to frighten or intimidate. [2] [ full citation needed ] Another study from Queensland, Australia, found that 93.7 percent of teenagers experienced mobile harassment of some kind. This study concluded that girls tend to experience and perpetrate more mobile bullying than boys. A 2021 study indicated that there is a 1.8 percent higher prevalence of girls claiming to be victims of cyberbullying. [3]
Interestingly, students who identify as transgender experience cyberbullying at a rate 11.7% higher than their peers. [4] While teenagers who identify as transgender are less likely to commit mobile harassment, non-heterosexual teenagers are more likely to be victims and be the offenders.
Cyberbullying offending peaks at around 13 years old, but the age of victims peaks at about 14 to 15 years old. [5] Researchers have also revealed that approximately one-third of adolescents have been subjected to harassment or cyberbullying. [6] However, the actual number of victims could be higher, as some may not recognize they have experienced mobile harassment, while others may choose not to acknowledge it due to feelings of humiliation. [7]
Cases of mobile harassment often transpire outside of school. However, situations where the perpetrators and victims are classmates can cause the harassment to spill over to the students' school environment. [6]
In the U.S., there isn't federal legislation that specifically addresses mobile harassment and cyber bullying. [8] However, numerous schools have policies and regulations to prevent mobile harassment. For instance, administrators in some schools prohibit students from taking pictures and sharing visual materials within the school premises. [9]
Certain schools have taken a step further by proposing complete bans on the use of mobile devices on school grounds. [10] Waldorf Schools for instance, adhere to a strict anti-technology philosophy aimed at eradicating cyberbullying on campus. This approach has gained traction among families in Silicon Valley and is now used in more than 1,000 institutions across 91 countries, including 136 schools in the U.S.
Private organizations are also increasingly adopting regulatory policies to prevent mobile harassment. For instance, Facebook adopted internal harassment and bullying policies. [11] The social media company, which is cited as one of the most commonly used networks to harass people, [12] also adopted measures that enable them to "remove content that appears to purposefully target private individuals with the intention of degrading or shaming them.” [13]
In November 2009, LG Mobile Phones launched an advertising campaign in the United States that used humor aimed to encourage teens to think before they text. The campaign, produced by DiGennaro Communications, featured James Lipton and carried the tagline "Before you text, give it a ponder." [14]
The television show Gossip Girl features numerous episodes centered around misinterpreted or questionable text messages.[ citation needed ]
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggressively dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception that an imbalance of physical or social power exists or is currently present. This perceived presence of physical or social imbalance is what distinguishes the behavior from being interpreted or perceived as bullying from instead being interpreted or perceived as conflict. Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, the goal of addressing or attempting to "fix" the imbalance of power, as well as repetition over a period of time.
Internet safety, also known as online safety, cyber safety and electronic safety (e-safety), refers to the policies, practices and processes that reduce the harms to people that are enabled by the (mis)use of information technology.
School bullying, like bullying outside the school context, refers to one or more perpetrators who have greater physical strength or more social power than their victim and who repeatedly act aggressively toward their victim. Bullying can be verbal or physical. Bullying, with its ongoing character, is distinct from one-off types of peer conflict. Different types of school bullying include ongoing physical, emotional, and/or verbal aggression. Cyberbullying and sexual bullying are also types of bullying. Bullying even exists in higher education. There are warning signs that suggest that a child is being bullied, a child is acting as a bully, or a child has witnessed bullying at school.
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, threats, vandalism, solicitation for sex, doxing, or blackmail. These unwanted behaviors are perpetrated online and cause intrusion into an individual's digital life as well as negatively impact a victim's mental and emotional well-being, as well as their sense of safety and security online.
The Think Before You Speak campaign is a television, radio, and magazine advertising campaign launched in 2008 and developed to raise awareness of the common use of derogatory vocabulary among youth towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people. It also aims to "raise awareness about the prevalence and consequences of anti-LGBTQ bias and behaviour in America's schools." As LGBTQ people have become more accepted in the mainstream culture, more studies have confirmed that they are one of the most targeted groups for harassment and bullying. An "analysis of 14 years of hate crime data" by the FBI found that gays and lesbians, or those perceived to be gay, "are far more likely to be victims of a violent hate crime than any other minority group in the United States". "As Americans become more accepting of LGBT people, the most extreme elements of the anti-gay movement are digging in their heels and continuing to defame gays and lesbians with falsehoods that grow more incendiary by the day," said Mark Potok, editor of the Intelligence Report. "The leaders of this movement may deny it, but it seems clear that their demonization of gays and lesbians plays a role in fomenting the violence, hatred and bullying we're seeing." Because of their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression, nearly half of LGBTQ students have been physically assaulted at school. The campaign takes positive steps to counteract hateful and anti-gay speech that LGBTQ students experience in their daily lives in hopes to de-escalate the cycle of hate speech/harassment/bullying/physical threats and violence.
Megan Taylor Meier was an American teenager who died by suicide by hanging herself three weeks before her 14th birthday. A year later, Meier's parents prompted an investigation into the matter and her suicide was attributed to cyberbullying through the social networking website MySpace. Lori Drew, the mother of a classmate of Meier, was found guilty of cyberbullying in the 2009 case United States v. Drew. However, her conviction was overturned by the judge.
Researchers study social media and suicide to find if a correlation exists between the two. Some research has shown that there may be a correlation.
Sexual bullying is a form of bullying or harassment in connection with a person's sex, body, sexual orientation or with sexual activity. It can be physical, verbal or emotional in nature, and occurs in various settings, including schools, workplaces, and online platforms. Sexual bullying can have serious and lasting effects on the mental and emotional well-being of victims.
Bullying and suicide are considered together when the cause of suicide is attributable to the victim having been bullied, either in person or via social media. Writers Neil Marr and Tim Field wrote about it in their 2001 book Bullycide: Death at Playtime.
Workplace harassment is the belittling or threatening behavior directed at an individual worker or a group of workers.
Cyberstalking and cyberbullying are relatively new phenomena, but that does not mean that crimes committed through the network are not punishable under legislation drafted for that purpose. Although there are often existing laws that prohibit stalking or harassment in a general sense, legislators sometimes believe that such laws are inadequate or do not go far enough, and thus bring forward new legislation to address this perceived shortcoming. In the United States, for example, nearly every state has laws that address cyberstalking, cyberbullying, or both.
Anti-bullying legislation is legislation enacted to help reduce and eliminate bullying. This legislation may be national or sub-national and is commonly aimed at ending bullying in schools or workplaces.
Cyberbullying is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers and adolescents, due to young people's increased use of social media. Related issues include online harassment and trolling. In 2015, according to cyberbullying statistics from the i–Safe Foundation, over half of adolescents and teens had been bullied online, and about the same number had engaged in cyberbullying. Both the bully and the victim are negatively affected, and the intensity, duration, and frequency of bullying are three aspects that increase the negative effects on both of them.
Destroying Avalon is a 2006 teen novel by Australian author Kate McCaffrey. The story follows fourteen-year-old Avalon as she moves from the country to an urban high school.
Bullying in higher education refers to the bullying of students as well as faculty and staff taking place at institutions of higher education such as colleges and universities. It is believed to be common although it has not received as much attention from researchers as bullying in some other contexts. This article focuses on bullying of students; see Bullying in academia regarding faculty and staff.
Anonymous social media is a subcategory of social media wherein the main social function is to share and interact around content and information anonymously on mobile and web-based platforms. Another key aspect of anonymous social media is that content or information posted is not connected with particular online identities or profiles.
People v. Marquan M., 2014 WL 2931482 was the first case in which a US court weighed the constitutionality of criminalizing cyberbullying. In People v. Marquan M., the New York Court of Appeals struck down an Albany County law that criminalized cyberbullying, declaring its restrictions overly broad and thus in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
Online child abuse is a unique form of child abuse also known as “Cyber Molestation” due to its virtual, distanced, and anonymous nature. Such abuse may not happen face-to-face, nor does it necessarily require physical contact. However, online abuse can result in negative face-to-face consequences in the form of statutory rape, forcible sexual assault, harassment, etc. In the United States, online child abuse is recognized as a form of child abuse by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Rebecca Ann Sedwick was a 12-year-old American student at Crystal Lake Middle School in Lakeland, Florida who died by suicide when she jumped off a concrete silo tower, just 1 month and 10 days before her thirteenth birthday. Investigation into her death led to a conclusion of in-person and cyberbullying contributing to the decision to take her own life. Sedwick's family later filed a lawsuit in relation to her death.
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