Cyber Bullying

"The first thing is, I love you Mom and Dad, but you didn't understand why I had to commit suicide. There was so much going on, and I tried to cope with it, but I couldn't take it anymore" extract from the suicide note from Hamed Nastoh and used with the permission of his family Shaheen Shariff's thought-provoking book alerts all educators and policy-makers to the rise of cyber-bullying internationally, and the dangers of implementing reactive responses to control it. This electronic form of bullying is difficult to monitor or supervise, often because it occurs outside the physical school setting and outside school hours but as this ground-breaking book shows, home computers and personal mobile/cellular phones have provided children today with an arsenal of weapons for social cruelty'. As teachers demand the banning of websites such as YouTube, FaceBook and MySpace, schools and governments introduce stricter legislation and filtering systems. Students on the other hand, challenge school suspensions and expulsions as infringing their rights to free expression and privacy, insisting schools have no supervision rights in cyber-space. These emerging issues have created an urgent need for this powerful and practical book, which: is grounded in comprehensive scholarship addresses the policy-vacuum provides practical educational responses to cyber-bullying develops guidelines for educators and administrators regarding the extent of their obligations to prevent and reduce cyber-bullying highlights ways in which schools can network with parents, the justice system, technology providers and community organizations to provide support systems for victims (and perpetrators) of cyber-bullying Written by one of the few experts on the topic, Cyber-Bullying challenges reactionary school responses and encourages you to reconsider whether the culprits defined in this battle as kids and technologies, are instead victims of a society in which the adults model intolerance and discrimination. The author peels away the layers chapter by chapter, to help you re-conceptualize cyber-bullying to discover the educational potential of children and digital literacies.Shariff, Shaheen is the author of 'Cyber Bullying', published 2008 under ISBN 9780415424912 and ISBN 0415424917.