Blog Assignment #6 Bullying on Internet

Do you know which websites your children are writing on or looking at right now?

4 of 20 children in your class are being bullied on Internet. This according to a survey among children between 12 and 13 years old, made by Robert Slonje. Almost no-one of them tells their parents or their teacher that they are bullied. Does it make you feel confusing and wondering why you haven’t heard about it before? You are not alone, this is a new phenomenon that have extended in the younger generations.

Today, Internet is more and more useful, common, virtually and almost everyone has Internet at home. Internet has both great advantages and some disadvantages, and one of the disadvantages is bullying on Internet. But what is bullying on Internet? First of all I will introduce this article to explain what bullying on Internet is and when our children become bullied on Internet or are bullying someone else.

Bullying on Internet is when someone is writing bad things to you through an Internet website, through e-mail or short messages from a mobile phone to another, according the sources (http://kollakallan.skolverket.se). It is more common for girls than boys, to be bullied over the Internet, because girls uses online chatting more than boys and maybe that is one of the reasons to why girls become bullied more often than boys. But who is responsible that all the information, published on Internet, will be good information and not insulting to anyone? Is it the teacher that will be responsible for that, the website’s owner, or is it the parents responsibility?

According to Metta Fjelkner, chairwoman in the Teachers National Association, she says that bullying, and especially bullying on Internet is not only the teachers’ responsibility. She also says that the problem can not be isolated to school, because it is happening all the time of the day and outside the teachers’ control. It has to be a concern for all the adults and for the whole society. I think that the parents have all the responsibility outside school, and during the school-day the teacher are responsible. Even though I think that the teacher has the responsibility during school-time, I don’t think that it’s easy to survey all pupils all the time. I don’t think that the parents know what their children are doing all the time when they are on the Internet.

Two of the most important things that young girls can’t be without are their mobile phones and Internet. According to Robert Slonje, he says that many young girls don’t want to tell any adult about that they are been bullied by other girls, because they think that the adults will take away their mobile phone and Internet, to protect them. The girls think that they need to have proof to show the adults that they are being bullied, otherwise their parents won’t take it seriously. Hansi Carlson, IT-strategist on Sweden Community and country council, he says that it’s easier with bullying on Internet because you can track all the things someone is writing there. On many websites they save all the information you are writing and only you can delete it. He also agrees with me that it’s the parents’ responsibility to know what their children are doing when they are at home or outside school. Apparently young girls are not aware about that many things on the Internet easily can be traced.

He has a good opinion about the computer and Internet using at home, and that is to put the computer in the middle of a room where everyone can see it and to have a discussion whit their children about using Internet. He also says that it’s the schools responsibility to make the adults and parents aware of the possible problem.

I think the most important thing we can do, as teachers or as parents, is to inform, talk and discuss the Internet, human value and bullying, both in the real world and on the Internet. We must know that we can’t monitor our children all the time, it is a matter of freedom and responsibility. With this I don’t say that we shall not watch what the children are doing on the Internet. On the contrary, we have to be informed what is out there, and what we might expect. But we must know our limitations. With discussion and information, that is the only way to deal with this problem. The first thing we have to do is to see the problem, and I hope I have shown you that there is a problem today, and I hope that you take your responsibility so that no children will have to be the victim of bullies.