Session 2: Cyberbullying
3rd Global Conference
Thursday 3rd November – Saturday 5th November 2011
Prague, Czech Republic
Bullying in the Cyber Era – A Legal Framework for Educators
Isabel Moodley and Riana Mienie
University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa
In South Africa, the conduct of learners is regulated by certain provisions in the South African Schools Act1 which authorises the school governing body to “adopt a code of conduct for learners. The rationale of this code is to maintain and create a disciplined school environment, committed to the improvement and preservation of quality education.2 Bullying opposes this rationale and is becoming an increasing problem for schools all over the world.
South African legislation and the codes of conduct of most schools can only protect a learner from physical acts of bullying. But what happens in situations where a learner uses personal technology (computers and cellular phones) to bully other learners; so-called cyber-bullying? Like bullying, cyber-bullying affects the health, psychology and well-being of the learners involved which resultantly has “dire consequences for a child’s academic, relational, emotional and behavioural development”.
In this article, we discuss a number of issues relating to cyber-bullying in the context of South African schools; examine the legislation in place to deal with bullying and its ability to manage instances of cyber-bullying adequately. We look at the responsibilities of parents, schools and learners to manage acts of cyber-bullying and their legal accountability for such acts. Finally, drawing from the examples of the USA and Canada we provide the reader with various recommendations on how South Africa could possibly construct its own framework for the successful management of cyber-bullying in schools.
Download Draft Conference Paper (pdf)
Cyberbullying…Some Reflections: from Childhood to Adulthood
Luísa Soares
Campus Universitário da Penteada, University of Madeira, Portugal
Depression and anxiety are two mental illness associated with cyber surfers. We are clearly in XXI century where new technologies dominate and also novel psychological illnesses. Cyberbullying is a behavior associated more to young people and has become increasingly more frequent and worrying. Neverthless, recent studies have shown how technology is being extremely useful in the work of psychologists. It´s exactly this polarity technological/cybernautic vs stimulation of positive aspects of new technologies that is drown into discussion in this work. Cyberbullying is a highly interactive behavior with a growing concern within Portuguese schools. Children or adolescents make up rumors and present them online, where the school population has access and comment on these rumors. Their goal is to diminish the image aggressively, but without the use of physical aggression. This is an example of a poor use of the social networks, which curiously occurs in younger and has started to be seen in adults as well. On the psychological level, it is a devastating aggression to a child, who’s still immature, as well as a teenager who is not yet in his full development. Psychologists are still very few and need to exist in greater number in schools, companies, hospitals to help reduce the damage of this new psychological phenomena. Otherwise, these new generations will arrive into universities and adopt similar behavior. We will have adults in a society within different work contexts adopting this type of highly aggressive behavior. This is not the future we want for our society.
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