Bridgewater State study involves 21,000 students
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Elizabeth Englander is director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University.
BRIDGEWATER —
By third grade, 90 percent of children are online – increasing the risk of cyberbullying as early as elementary school, a new study has found.
The study, which involved nearly 21,000 students statewide, also found that nearly all middle school students had texting and Internet access capabilities on their cell phones.
This easy access makes it more difficult for parents to supervise what children do with the devices, its author said.
“Parents are giving them fully enabled mobile computers that often have no oversight,” said Elizabeth Englander, director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University. “We haven’t really made enough of an effort to teach children how to use it.”
The study found:
By third grade, 20 percent of children have their own cell phone.
General incidences of cyberbullying, or using the Internet or cell phones to send or post text or images intended to hurt someone, spike in the middle school years.
More than half of middle and high school students reported having been bullied, the study found.
And parents may not even know about it.
The frequency of reporting bullying to parents decreases as children get older, the study found.
In middle and high school, students were most likely to tell friends and parents. In elementary school, children were most likely to tell parents and teachers.
The study highlights the need to educate children who are using technology now more than ever, said Patricia A. Riley, chairwoman of the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School Committee.
“It’s obviously a war that we haven’t won yet, and it’s going to go on for a while,” Riley said.
Sherri Hayes of Brockton said her son, a sixth-grader, has a cell phone that allows him to text, but it does not have Internet access.
“It’s too young,” said Hayes, 38, a married mother of two. “Third grade is real young to have Internet access on their phones. That’s hard to monitor.”
Jane Martin, a School Committee member in Easton and a mother of four ranging in age from 10 to 17, said her older children have cell phones but her fourth-grader does not.
“It’s knowing the individual child and setting up appropriate parameters,” Martin, 49, said. “It’s important for parents to know their kids.”
In a 19-second video obtained by The Enterprise last month, three students appear to restrain and attack another boy in a bathroom at the Williams Intermediate School in Bridgewater. The three alleged attackers in the video were suspended from school.
Technology has helped children bully their targets from a distance – but the harmful results still exist, Englander said.
“Targeting somebody electronically is often preferable for kids, because they don’t have to see the person’s face,” she said. “It’s easier to be cruel when they don’t have to see somebody’s face.”
And most of the bullying that’s going on is not going to leave a visible bruise, Englander said.
The in-school bullying is typically psychological, and can result after children laugh or taunt their peers, she said.
“That can be just as effective as hitting, except it has the advantage of not breaking any rule,” she said.
In elementary school, name calling was the most common type of bullying reported, the study found. The second most common type of bullying for boys was hitting; for girls, exclusion was the second most common type.
The most common location for bullying in elementary school was the playground, the study found. In middle and high school, the most common sites were the classroom, hallways and online.
Maria Papadopoulos may be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com.
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“It’s great for the community. They’re trying to change the tone and I want to support it as much as I can,” he said.
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/archive/x1757339015/Study-By-third-grade-90-percent-of-children-are-online-increasing-the-risk-of-cyberbullying#ixzz1PtuttbIQ
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