News for the Week of June 24, 2007
This week in kid-tech news, fresh insights on cyberbullying — teens' biggest problem on the social Web — from the Pew Internet & American Life Project...
Some 8 million bully victims
About a third (32%) of US online teens, or some 8 million kids, have been cyberbullied — girls more than boys (38% vs. 26%) and older girls more than younger ones (41% aged 15-17 vs. 34% aged 12-14). That's according to a national survey the Pew Internet & American Life Project just released. Interestingly, despite all we hear about Internet-based harassment, the respondents told Pew they're more likely to be bullied offline than online. More than two-thirds (67%) of the 12-to-17-year-olds Pew/Internet surveyed said that, while 29% said bullying happens more online, and 3% online and offline equally (I probably would've been among the 3% saying it was both).
The study found that the online version of harassment, "depending on the circumstances," can fall anywhere on the annoyance spectrum from "relatively benign" to "truly threatening." Toward the more damaging end of this Richter scale are tactics like "receiving threatening messages, having private emails or text messages forwarded without [one's] consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without [one's] permission; or having rumors about them spread online." The most common tactic experienced among the four Pew asked its respondents about was "someone taking a private email, IM, or text message you sent them and forwarding it to someone else or posting it where others could see it," for example in a profile or blog.
Why do they bully?
Pew/Internet asked the teens why people bully online, and they gave four basic answers: that the Net is just another venue for a fact of adolescent life, the convenience and access technology provides, the anonymity of the Net that encourages bullying (psychologists call this "disinhibition"), and the intolerance that fuels bullying. In this digital age, study author Amanda Lenhart writes, "the impulses behind [bullying] are the same, but the effect is magnified." We're of course talking about sites with millions of members where the "publisher" loses control of the content the minute it's "published," which means the damage can be broader in scope and can last much longer (see social media researcher danah boyd's view on this in the bullets below).
Serious consequences: Kids need to know
In addition to the phone survey, Pew/Internet conducted focus groups with teens. Parents might want to note one of the anecdotes shared by a 15-year-old boy in one of the groups: "I played a prank on someone but it wasn't serious... I told them I was going to come take them from their house and kill them and throw them in the woods. It's the best prank because it's like 'oh my god, I'm calling the police' and I was like 'I'm just kidding, I was just messing with you.' She got so scared though." A 16-year-old New York boy was recently arrested and pleaded guilty for making a similar threat online concerning a teacher (see below).
In other news...
- 96% social networking. That's US teens and tweens participating in a social-networking site at least once a week, according to a study by teen market researcher Alloy Media & Marketing. "Youngsters are now spending nearly as much time online as they are watching television, and many multitask," Alloy found. "However, they're four times more likely to be concentrating on what they're doing online than on what's happening on the television."
- The term videogame addiction. The committee of the American Medical Association that proposed designating videogame addiction as a mental disorder like alcoholism "backed away from its position" even before debate on the subject began at the AMA's annual meeting, Reuters reports. Instead, the committee "recommended that the American Psychiatric Association consider the change when it revises its next diagnostic manual in 5 years." Reuters adds that later, during the debate, addiction experts "strongly opposed" such a designation. Listing "videogame addiction" as a mental disorder in the American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders would "ease the path for insurance coverage of video game addiction." Excessive use of videogames affects about 10% of players, according to Reuters.
- Videogame banned. Take Two Interactive, creators of the Grand Theft Auto series of videogames, is embroiled in controversy again. It has suspended the release of its latest product, Manhunt 2, "because of a rating controversy in the United States and a ban in Britain and Ireland," the Associated Press reports. The Entertainment Software Rating Board gave Manhunt 2 a preliminary rating of Adults Only, which can really put a damper on sales since stores like Wal-Mart won't even put AO games on their shelves, and Nintendo and Sony "said their policies bar any content rated for adults only on their systems." The game is about "the escape of an amnesiac scientist and a psychotic killer from an asylum and their subsequent killing spree," the AP adds. Meanwhile, Sony apologized to the Church of England for using one of its churches as a backdrop for one of its games, the Associated Press reports.
- Teen pleads guilty for video threats: This case might come in handy for parents looking for a way to get across that kids really can't say anything they want to on the social and media-sharing Web. A 16-year-old in New York who was accused of threatening his math teacher in an online video "pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of aggravated harassment," the Staten Island Advance reports. He was arrested in May for "asking in one of his YouTube.com video blogs that someone 'put a bullet' in the neck of his math teacher, who gave him a failing grade." The Staten Island district attorney's office said the boy would be sentenced in August to 15 days of community service and three years' probation.
- A mom sues RIAA. Tanya Andersen, former target of a recording industry lawsuit for copyright theft via file-sharing, is suing back for malicious prosecution, ArsTechnica.com reports. Her suit, filed last week in a US District Court in Oregon, "accuses the RIAA of a number of misdeeds, including invasion of privacy, libel and slander, and deceptive business practices." The RIAA's case against her was dismissed earlier this month. Here is a Wired blog post on the subject.
