Cyberbullying and Teen Suicide

Both National Cyber Security Awareness Month and National Bullying Prevention Month were themes for October. These themes continue to draw attention to a growing problem leveraged by the use of the Internet and social networking sites. Cyberbullying is the sending or posting of harmful or cruel text or images using the Internet or other digital communication devices such as email; instant messaging (IM); text messages or digital images sent on mobile phones; social networking sites, webpages, blogs, or virtual worlds; chat rooms or discussion groups; and interactive game sites.

Cyberbullying can be conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making the victim a perpetual target. The harassment can be anonymous, and a single message posted online or sent to a mobile phone can spread to a wide audience. Hurtful or embarrassing messages or images can remain online indefinitely to damage the person's social life and friendships, and possibly their reputation.

More than half of American teens worry about safety on the Internet and know someone their age who has been targeted by hurtful electronic communications. Nearly a third of teens have been targets themselves.

Those recent survey results, released by the Chicago youth-market research firm TRU, hint at the scale of the problems being addressed more vigorously in the wake of the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi and other cases of cyberbullying.

When it comes to safety online, young people's main "knowledge gap" relates to "setting ground rules of what's acceptable behavior ... and how that technology may be used against them ... where they could be blackmailed or cyber-bullied," says Richard Harrison, lead mentor for the Safe and Secure Online program, which enlists online security experts to volunteer in schools.

BookCart learning activities provide a one-stop solution for teachers and students to research any topic/issue. Teachers can copy this ProQuest model, "Cyberbullying and Teen Suicide" and edit it quickly to add additional resources, student directions, print resources, an optional quiz, and essential questions for critical thinking for students to address.

Type this information in the DESCRIPTION box of BookCart Editor to help your students to use the BookCart resources more effectively.

• Logon to the eLibrary TEACHER EDITION.
• Click the BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top right of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab.
• Type "Cyberbullying and Teen Suicide" in the Search box.
• Click the COPY icon in the ACTIONS column to the right of this title.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

This BookCart already includes all of the information that a student needs to complete the assignment. But teachers can edit any of this information to tailor it for their students.

• Click the new BookCart Title; it will have the prefix "COPY OF."
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your first and last name in the AUTHOR boxes.
• Type your email address in the EMAIL box, or your initials as the required filler.
• Option: edit the samples of ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Option: edit the STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the Description box.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click MY LOCAL CARTS tab to see your edited Cart, ready for your students to use.

You may also want to download our complete listing—the ProQuest Carts collection.

The list is organized by curriculum area and the titles are in alphabetical order. Each Cart title is hyperlinked to the ProQuest collection, so that clicking it, while in the Teacher Edition, will give you a shortcut so you can copy it to your local collection.

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words (or a PowerPoint presentation of at least seven slides) that cites at least three resources. Student should use the Essential Page on Cyberbullying listed in the pathfinder below. Students should address at least three of the following essential questions for critical thinking in their reports (you can substitute others):

• How can cyberbullying lead to suicide?
  
  
• Which students are most likely to suffer from cyberbullying and why?
  
  
• What are some successful strategies for coping with cyberbullying?
  
  
• What should schools do to help students prevent and cope with bullying?

Type "Cyberbullying" in the Search box, one of thousands of editorially created Essential Pages (PDF listing).

Your students can use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

Teachers may be interested in a ProQuest flexible rubrics model for evaluating inquiry-based learning activities.

Educators may also wish to employ the Quizinator Web tool (free, but registration required) for creating a variety of printed resources, including short assessments.