A Free Educational Resource Created by Carnegie Mellon University to Empower You to Secure Your Part of Cyberspace

Group Cyberbullying

The combined efforts of several cyberbullies against a victim is a frightening situation.

Group cyberbullying is a group's effort to threaten, tease or embarrass someone else by collectively using mobile phones, the Internet or other technologies. A group of students will come together to target a victim online through popular social networking Web sites, blogs or other online meeting places, such as Yahoo Groups or Google Groups. The fleet speed and global distance at which electronic communication travels can cause a victim intense, serious hardship compounded by the number of bullies involved in the group.

Individual Cyberbullying vs. Group Cyberbullying

With individual cyberbullying:

  • A single individual is involved in bullying a victim.
  • The individual uses text messaging, instant messaging, blogs or social networking sites to communicate disgraceful things about a victim.
  • A single individual is easier to identify and track as compared to tracking the entire group of people involved in cyberbullying.
  • A single individual generally has limited outreach and imagination for bullying as compared to a group of students.

With group cyberbullying:

  • A group bullies a single individual or group of individuals through the Internet.
  • The entire group uses electronic communication to harass or publish about the victim.
  • Exposing each and every student involved in cyberbullying becomes more challenging due to the anonymity offered by the Internet.
  • The outreach of a group is far more than an individual. They can form several different groups on different social networking sites and use it for defaming the victim.

Individual, as well as group cyberbullying, aims at harassing, intimidating and defaming the victim. Victims of both types display similar behaviors, such as low self-esteem, lower grades, anxiety and decreased attentiveness. Cyberbullying of any kind is a serious issue and currently is being tackled all over the world.

Real-World Group Bullying vs Group Cyberbullying

New technologies give new dimensions for cyberbullying, increasing the scope and creativity of the bullying by individuals and groups.

With real-world group bullying

  • A group of students come together to tease or hurt someone they don't like or envy as a group or just to show power over the victim.
  • The scope of the publicity about the bullying event is limited. However, the impact is equally as bad as cyberbullying.
  • Bullying can consist of activities like teasing, hitting and causing physical harm to the victim.
  • Results include physical as well as emotional harm to the victim.

With group cyberbullying

  • A group of students form an online group on popular Web sites and start topics about the victim, writing disgraceful things.
  • If the online group is public, then anyone who visits the page can view the posts, resulting in a huge scope of publicity.
  • The bullying is online, so the victim is not physically harmed, but cyberbullying has influenced victims to commit suicide.
  • Mostly, it causes only emotional harm to the victim.

Methods of Group Cyberbullying

Instant Messenger and Chat Rooms: Instant messenging tools have the facility for group chats where people can invite other friends to join in. In a group cyberbullying situation, they invite the victim to join the group chat, and then when the victim enters the group, they can gang up to abuse or tease the victim.

Yahoo Groups/Google Groups: These groups are formed by students for a purpose, such as for sharing interesting emails or planning outings by forwarding email to the group. A group can misuse this tool to tease or spread rumors about a victim. Photos, text messages and other files can be sent as attachments to the entire group for bullying the victim.

Social Networking Sites: Social networking sites are extremely popular among school students and can become a powerful tool for group cyberbullying. Like Yahoo/Google Groups, social groups can be formed on these Web sites. If the group is public and open to anyone, then the posts on the group can be viewed by anyone. The bullying students form a group in the name of the victim and explicitly abuse the victim. The Web site's features for uploading photos, commenting on the photos, uploading videos and other such files are used for defaming the victim. The scope of this sort of bullying is global.

Blogs: After creating a blog, an author can invite other friends to contribute as authors. The group can then post content, including photos and videos to the blog, as a form of bullying. The cyberbullies can use social bookmarking to raise the visibility of the pages. Blog posts are also easily found by search engines, which would spread the bullying to a global level, for example, if someone did a Google search on the victim's name and the blog's pages were found.

Adverse Effects on the Victim

Cyberbullying can cause considerable emotional harm to a victim. A victim may feel hatred for a large number of people, a sense of loneliness, guilt, shame and embarrassment. The victim may feel a sense of helplessness to oppose the group of cyberbullies. In some cases, cyberbullying can lead to real-world bullying and situations of physical violence.

Recommendations

Bullying is a crime, both in the real world and over the Internet, with real consequences and punishment. Do not participate in such an activity. Do not encourage others who are bullying. Report cyberbullying activities to a teacher, principal, parent or other trusted adults.

If you are invited into a group cyberbullying situation, do not join. Even if do not contribute to the bullying, your association with group cyberbullying can get you in great trouble. It is best to stay away.

If you are a victim:

  • Talk to someone you trust about it, like a friend, a teacher or an older relative.
  • Save any bullying emails, text messages or images you receive.
  • Do not reply to bullying or threatening text messages or emails. It could make matters worse and lets the bully know you are receiving the messages.
  • Make a note of the time and date that messages or images were sent, along with any details you have about the sender.
  • Mobile phone companies and Internet service providers can trace bullies, so don't be afraid of reporting incidents to them.
  • Use technology tools, such as blocking instant messages from certain people or email filters to send messages from specific users directly to trash.
  • Change your online user ID or nickname.
  • Only give your mobile phone number to friends. Talk to your service provider to have your mobile phone number changed if cyberbullying becomes intense.
  • When threats are frightening, such as those of a physical or sexual nature, contact the police.

Discussion Questions

Cyberbullying is a heinous crime and can even result in the loss of innocent life. It is necessary now to curb this crime by educating the public, and students in particular, about the consequences of committing such a crime. Here are some thought-provoking questions that can be discussed within a classroom:

  1. A close friend invites you to join a Google Group called "Hate Chloe," which targets a girl you know at school. You realize the group aims to bully the girl, but you feel a sense of loyalty to your close friend. How should you respond to your friend? What kinds of actions can be taken to stop the group from causing harm?
  2. You are on a social networking site when you see an unflattering photo of yourself posted on a classmate's profile. Several users have added comments to the photo that are rude and insulting. You are tempted to add your own comment to the photo in your own defense. What should you do?
  3. Using an alias, users can surf the Internet and post content while remaining anonymous. What effect do you think this sense of anonymity has on bullies and the victims involved in cyberbullying? How will cyberbullies who surf anonymously be connected eventually to the crimes they commit?

References

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