Kraft Wang July I JCC 2009

International Journal of Cyber Criminology
Vol 3 Issue 2 July - December 2009

Copyright 2009 International Journal of Cyber Criminology (IJCC) ISSN: 0974 2891
July - December 2009, Vol 3 (2): 513535
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and
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Effectiveness of Cyber bullying Prevention

Strategies: A Study on Students Perspectives
Ellen M. Kraft1
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, USA
2
Jinchang Wang
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, USA

Abstract
This study examined teenagers perspectives on the effectiveness of a variety of cyber bullying
prevention strategies. The data was collected from a nation-wide online survey of middle school and
high school students. The 713 students who had completed responses to all of the 39 survey questions
were grouped into four categories according to their roles played in cyber bullying: pure-offender, purevictim, both-offender-and-victim, and neither-offender-nor-victim. Correlation between a students
role in cyber bullying and his or her perspective on the effectiveness of a prevention strategy is studied.
The five most effective cyber bullying prevention strategies for the students in each of the four
categories are analyzed. Teens in this study perceive the theme of taking away the offenders access to
technology as the most effective measure, regardless of their roles in cyber bullying. The findings of this
study could be useful for schools and communities in setting up policies and regulations to effectively
reduce cyber bullying.
Keywords: cyber bullying, cyber bullying prevention, preventing online harassment,
online bullying, Internet harassment, online harassment, in-school bullying, violence

online.
Introduction
st
Technology has led to a new form of bullying in the 21 century called cyber bullying
Belsey, 2006; Beran & Li, 2005; Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Shariff & Hoff, 2007). The
increase in the prevalence of cyber bullying in 2005 from 2000 (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2007)
and cases appearing in courts (Layshock v. Hermitage School District, 2006; Associated
Press, 2005) show that schools are not well equipped to deal with cyber bullying issues.
Most harmful incidents of cyber bullying occur off campus (Willard, 2008) making it
extremely difficult for public schools to discipline a student without crossing the line for
their free speech rights (Willard, 2007b). Developing cyber bullying prevention strategies
is a challenge for schools. The strategies that adults may perceive to be effective for
1 Assistant Professor of Business Studies, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Box 195 Jimmie Leeds
Road, Pomona, NJ, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
2 Professor of Business Studies, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Box 195 Jimmie Leeds Road,
Pomona, NJ, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
513
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Kraft & Wang - Effectiveness of Cyber bullying Prevention Strategies: A Study on Students Perspectives
stopping and preventing cyber bullying may not be the same as the strategies students
perceive to be effective.
Furthermore, within the peer group students bully as means of gaining and
maintaining power over a victim (Vaillancourt, Hymel, & McDougall, 2003). Students
are not necessarily classified as either bullies or victims. They can be classified as both
bullies and victims (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Victims of bullying may bully younger
children (Beran & Li, 2007; Willard, 2007b) or retaliate by bullying online (Beran & Li,
2007; Juvonen & Gross, 2008; Hinduja & Patchin, 2009; Shariff, 2008; Willard, 2007b).
Some students are not involved in bullying or cyber bullying (Beran & Li, 2007). For this
research, participants were grouped into four categories based on their role in cyber
bullying as a pure-offender, pure-victim, both-offender-and-victim, or neither-offendernor-victim.
In this research we surveyed 713 students to determine:
1. Which strategies are considered most effective from the students point of view, for
all as a whole and for each of the four categories of students? If we were to pick five
strategies to adopt based on the data, which would they be?
2. Are there statistically significant differences among the four categories of students in
their views on the effectiveness of each of the 14 cyber bullying prevention strategies? If
so, how do the four categories correlate to the views of effectiveness of the strategies?
The Growing Problem of Cyber bullying
Cyber bullying is a problem that exists worldwide among youth today (Kraft, 2006;
Shariff, 2008). As a result of this problem some teenagers harassed by cyber bullying are
suffering from depression, having their education compromised, and committing suicide
(Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Shariff, 2008). Patchin and Hinduja studied 1,500 adolescents
and found that 33% of the respondents were victims of cyber bullying (Patchin, 2006). In
a February 2007 survey of 832 teenagers the National Crime Prevention Council reported
that 43% of teens ages 13-17 had experienced cyber bullying (Moessner, 2007). The
demographic group with the highest percentage reporting they experienced cyber bullying
was 15 to 16 year old girls (Moessner, 2007). A University of New Hampshire study
showed an increase in the prevalence of cyber bullying in 2005 from 2000 (Ybarra &
Mitchell, 2007). Two-thirds of the teens surveyed in a May 2009 survey thought cyber
bullying was a serious problem (Thomas, 2009).
Relationship of Bullying and Cyber bullying
Cyber bullying and bullying are often interrelated (Beran & Li, 2007; Willard, 2007b.)
A student who is being bullied at school may be bullied online (Beran & Li, 2007;
Willard, 2007b). A study by Beran and Li (2007) showed that more than one-third of the
participants, ages 12-15, who were bullied online were also bullied in school (Beran & Li,
2007). According to research by Patchin & Hinduja (2009) and Juvonen & Gross (2008)
there is a significant relationship between bullying and retaliation online and at school
(Szoka &Thierer, 2009, p.5). A student who is being bullied at school may become an
online bully to retaliate against the bully at school (Beran & Li, 2007; Juvonen & Gross,
2008; Patchin & Hinduja, 2009; Shariff, 2008; Szoka &Thierer, 2009; Willard, 2007b).
Although bullying and cyber bullying can be interrelated cyber bullying can take place
as a separate phenomenon (Ybarra, Diener-West, & Leaf, 2007). Victims of cyber bullying
514
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are not always victims of bullying at school. A study by Ybarra, Diener-West, and Leaf,
(2007) found that 64% of youth who are bullied online are not being bullied at school.
Most harmful cyber bullying incidents occur away from campus because technology
use is often not supervised (Beran & Li, 2007; Shariff, 2007; Willard, 2008). Off-campus
cyber bullying incidents have been shown to have a negative impact on school climate
(Feinberg & Robey, 2008, Willard, 2007b), make it difficult for victims to function in
school (Feinberg & Robey, 2008), increase the risk for psychosocial problems for victims
(Ybarra & Mitchell, 2007) and place students safety at risk (Feinberg & Robey, 2008).
Online incidents that occur away from school can trigger in school behavior such as
school violence (Willard, 2008). Students may come to school angry as a result of conflicts
that occurred through online communication (Szoka &Thierer, 2009). A student may not
know what was said about him or her online until he or she hears about it the next day at
school (Feinberg & Robey, 2008). Being upset about a cyber bullying incident while in
school can interfere with a students ability to concentrate on learning while at school
(Beran & Li, 2007).
Schools are reluctant to discipline students for off campus cyber bullying incidents as
they fear being sued for violating a students First Amendment Free Speech rights (Tully,
2007; Willard, 2007b). A school can only discipline a student for off campus speech if the
speech materially disrupts (Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969) school activities or
substantially interferes with the rights of others (Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969).
Cyber bullying is considered to be more serious than traditional bullying as it is 24/7
and has an infinite audience (Beran & Li, 2005; Livingstone, 2006; Patchin & Hinduja,
2006; Shariff, 2008). Technology allows information to reach a large number of people in
a short period of time (Keith & Martin, 2005). The speed of technology can spread
rumors and humiliating pictures faster and to more people (Keith & Martin, 2005) than
word of mouth. Everyone receives the same message when technology is used instead of
word of mouth. The rumors can stay on the Internet indefinitely (Shariff, 2008).
Bullying Prevention Methods
The rise in school violence during the 1990s has prompted schools to take action
against bullying. The Secret Service and the Department of Education studied 37
incidents of targeted school violence (Vossekuil et al., 2002, p. 12) that occurred from
1974 to June 2000. Of particular concern is that almost three-quarters of the attackers felt
persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked or injured by others prior to the incident
(Vossekuil et al., 2002, p. 21). The attackers described being bullied in terms that
suggested that these experiences approached torment (Vossekuil, et al., 2002, p. 44). It
was determined that bullying was a factor that played some role in the perpetrators
decision to make the violent attack at school (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006).
Schools have developed programs to address the issues of school violence and bullying.
Successful bullying prevention programs focus on changing the school culture to a climate
that discourages bullying (Nansel, 2001 et al.; Olweus & Limber, 1999). The components
of the world class Olweus bullying prevention program were setting clear rules and
consequences (Olweus & Limber, 1999), incorporating social skills training into the
curriculum (Nansel et al., 2001; Olweus & Limber, 1999), parental involvement, and
intervention services for bullies and victims (Nansel et al., 2001; Olweus & Limber, 1999).
This program was successful in Norway, but not as successful in the United States (Smith,
Pepler, & Rigby, 2004). The results of the Olweus bullying prevention program have not
515
been replicated elsewhere (Smith, Schneider, Smith, & Ananiadou, 2004). It is speculated
that the success of the Olweus bullying prevention program may be due to the fact that it
was introduced into schools after there were highly publicized suicide cases that were
linked to bullying (Smith, J.D. et al., 2004).
Anti-Bullying programs have had modest success with the average reduction in
bullying incidents being about 15% (Smith, et al., 2004). Bystanders provide the audience
for bullying incidents. According to research by Hawkins, Pepler, and Craig (2001) when
a bystander intervenes in a bullying incident the bullying stops within 10 seconds 57% of
the time. The success of a bullying program can be determined by the bystanders decision
to intervene or encourage bullying.
Cyber bullying Prevention Methods in Schools
Cyber bullying most often occurs outside of school hours using home computers
(Shariff & Hoff, 2007). School officials are often reluctant to take action against students
making posts to websites while not in school (Franek, 2006). Temporary e-mail accounts
and pay as you go cell phones allow for bullies to remain anonymous (Patchin & Hinduja,
2006). The anonymity of the Internet and knowing that they are less likely to be punished
for acts taking place off school grounds makes cyber bullying attractive as kids think they
will not be held accountable for their actions (Shariff, 2008). First Amendment free speech
rights reinforce that consequences for cyber bullying may not be upheld in a court of law
(Layshock v. Hermitage School District, 2006; Associated Press, 2005) or possibly even
rewarded with a monetary settlement (Associated Press, 2005) if the school is found guilty
of violating a students First Amendment free speech rights for taking disciplinary action for
Internet postings (Associated Press, 2005). Given the vulnerability that school districts face
for lawsuits, administrators have found that cyber bullying issues have been resolved
informally by contacting the parents (Aftab, 2010b; Tully, 2007; Willard, 2007b).
Parental education can be the key to preventing cyber bullying (Aftab, 2010a; Tully,
2007; Willard, 2007a). In a study by Agatston, Kowalski, and Limber (2007) students
reported that they would be more likely to report a threatening incident of cyber bullying
to their parents than to an adult at school because they do not think the adults at school
could help them with the cyber bullying problem (Agatston, Kowalski, & Limber, 2007).
Parents who know what actions to take rather than overreacting (Aftab, 2010a) or
thinking cyber bullying is just a part of growing up (Aftab, 2010a) will be better equipped
to help their child cope with a cyber bullying incident. It is recommended that parents
contact the school (Aftab, 2010a; Ybarra et al., 2007) when their child tells them he or she
is being harassed online.
There is research evidence that ongoing communication about and supervision of
online activities can also prevent teens engaging in risk taking behaviors on the Internet
such as disclosing personal information, offline meetings, sharing photos, and exposure to
threatening messages (Berson, Berson, & Ferron, 2002). A study by Berson et al. (2002)
showed that when teachers, parents, or other caregivers have an ongoing dialogue about
cyber activities and monitor adolescent girls Internet use there is a decreased tendency to
engage in cyber activities that lead to potential harm (Berson et al., 2002, p. 51).
Adolescent girls who had ongoing discussions and monitoring by parents were less likely
to have filled out a form that discloses personal information, agreed to meet in person with
someone they met online, told personal information, or sent suggestive e-mail (Berson et
al., 2002). Having poorer parental monitoring and relationships with parents or other
516

caregivers is associated with increasing frequency of victimization online (Ybarra et al.,

2007)
Besides parental involvement, several cyber bullying prevention strategies have been
suggested in the literature. These strategies include incorporating cyber bullying
prevention into anti-bullying programs (Willard, 2007b), setting clear rules and
consequences (Aftab, 2010b; Williard, 2007b), raising awareness about cyber bullying
(Campbell, 2006), Internet filters (Agatston, 2007), increased supervision of students
(Berson et al., 2002; Campbell, 2006), acceptable user policies (Aftab, 2010b; Berson et
al., 2002; Williard, 2007b.), Internet safety programs (Bullypolice.org, 2010; Williard,
2007b), federal legislation to criminalize cyber bullying (Megan Meier Cyber bullying
Prevention Act, 2009), showing students how messages can be traced (Franek, 2006), and
anonymous technological reporting of incidents for preventing cyber bullying
(McCormick, 2005).
The Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act of 2008 specifies that schools
teach students about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other
individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyber bullying awareness
st
and response (Protecting Children in the 21 Century Act, 2008, Sect 2(a)(3)(b) (i) &
Sect 2(a)(3)(b) (ii)). Schools have used Internet safety education as strategy for reducing
risky online behavior to protect students from cyber bullying and other forms of cyber
harassment (Bullypolice.org, 2010; Williard, 2007b). Internet safety programs have been
effective in increasing students knowledge of Internet safety strategies (Chibnall, Wallace,
Leicht, & Lunghofer, 2006); however, there are no research findings that this prevention
strategy results in a decrease in participants engaging in risky Internet behaviors (Chibnall
et al., 2006; Crombie & Trinner, 2003).
In January, 2010, The National Computer Security Alliance surveyed teachers,
administrators, and technology coordinators about online safety and security education
attitudes and practices. Based on the results of the survey they concluded that Americas
young people arent receiving adequate instruction to use digital technology and navigate
cyberspace in a safe, secure, and responsible manner and are ill-prepared to address these
subjects (The National Computer Security Alliance, 2010).
Laws against Cyber bullying
Forty-three states in US currently have bullying prevention laws as of June 2010
(Bullypolice.org, 2010). There are at least 21 states that have legislation against cyber
bullying (Brookover, 2008; Bullypolice.org, 2010). These states are Arkansas, California,
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Washington (Brookover, 2008;
Bullypolice.org, 2010). Cyber bullying is defined in state anti-bullying prevention laws.
Oklahoma, for example, modified anti-bullying legislation by requiring schools to add
electronic communication to school bullying policies. Electronic communication is
defined as the communication of any written, verbal, or pictorial information by means
of an electronic device, including, but not limited to, a telephone, a cellular telephone or
other wireless communication device, or a computer (Oklahoma STAT. ANN. title 70,
24-100.4). State anti-bullying prevention laws require schools to develop policies against
bullying which can include incorporating cyber bullying into the anti-bullying policy,
have educational programs, and establish reporting procedures (Brookover, 2008). Some
517
states such as Colorado have comprehensive Internet safety education program

requirements.
Missouri has revised Statutes 160.261, 565.090, 565.225 so that cyber-harassment is
considered a Class D felony (Szoka &Thierer, 2009) instead of a misdemeanor. The law
prohibits using electronic or any other means of communication to knowingly frighten,
intimidate, or cause emotional distress to another person, making repeated unwanted
communication to another person or using unwanted or offensive communication that
puts [a] person in reasonable apprehension of offensive physical contact or harm
(Missouri Revised Statutes 160.261, 565.090, 565.225, 2008). The law also requires
schools to report harassment or stalking that occurs on school grounds to the police
(Brookover, 2008). Missouri does not have any state anti bullying legislation
(Bullypolice.org, 2010).
Cyber bullying Prevention Studies
Prior research by Harris Research for the National Crime Prevention Council
revealed that 47% of teenagers thought that cyber bullying happens because the
cyberbully doesn't perceive any tangible consequences (Moessner, 2007, p. 3) and 45%
thought it happens because the teen thinks he or she won't get caught (Moessner, 2007,
p. 3). That research also found that teens perceived the most effective strategies to be
blocking people online who bully, refusing to pass along cyber bullying messages and
online groups having moderators who block offensive messages as being the most
effective (Moessner, 2007, p. 4). Strategies that were perceived as less effective were all
schools should have rules against cyber bullying; schools should educate students in small
groups not to cyberbully, holding school assemblies to educate students not to cyberbully,
and teaching adults to help young people not to cyberbully, (Moessner, 2007, p. 4).
These strategies were all strategies in which adults tell them not to cyber bully. The
strategies students perceive as ineffective are those in which adults tell them not to cyber
bully. The strategies which they perceive as effective are those in which they themselves
can do something about the cyber bullying or someone else such as the moderator of the
website will stop the cyber bullying.
Cyber bullying prevention programs need to empower students to stop cyber bullying
themselves. In a study by Agatston, et al. (2007), students were able to suggest cyber
bullying prevention strategies that utilized technological features to block the bully or not
respond. However, the students were less aware of strategies such as trying to have the
offensive material removed or how to respond when they witness cyber bullying as a
bystander (Agatston et al., 2007).
Effective bullying prevention programs change the school culture (Nansel et al., 2001;
Olweus & Limber, 1999). Cyber bullying prevention programs need to have a similar
philosophy. Teens do not perceive being told not to cyberbully as changing the school
climate. They may find programs that teach them what to do if cyber bullied more
effective.
518

Method and Procedure

Determining Students Role in Cyber bullying
The definition of cyber bullying was given to the respondents of the survey, as
follows:
Cyber bullying refers to the activities of using technology to bully others. Examples of
cyber bullying adapted from (Willard, 2007b) were given in the survey to help students
identify online bullying, such as:
1. Sending mean or threatening e-mails, instant messages, or cell phone text
messages.
2. Tricking someone into telling personal information in an e-mail. The email with the personal information is forwarded to others.
3. Creating a profile of someone at an online social networking site such as
Myspace.com or Facebook.com without their permission.
4. Using someone elses IM screen name or e-mail account to bully others.
5. Making postings to a website saying mean things about teenager or teacher
online.
6. Creating or voting in online polls with hurtful questions such as Whos
th
the ugliest girl in 9 grade?
7. Posting embarrassing pictures of another person online.
8. Making harassing or threatening phone calls with a cell phone.
The 713 respondents are grouped into four categories, according to their responses to
the following two questions to identify their roles played in cyber bullying:
1. Have you bullied anyone online in the past year?
2. Have you been a victim of cyber bullying in the past year?
In this study the researchers classified offenders and victims of cyber bullying as
respondents who reported at least one incident of cyber bullying. We did not consider
reports of the severity and frequency of the incidents when classifying the respondents.
Beran and Li (2007) have found that most subjects reported being offenders or victims of
cyber bullying only once or twice despite providing respondents with a definition that
online harassment is repeated. In their research findings, Beran and Li (2007) stated that
students may not report cyber bullying activities or being a victim of cyber bullying
because they fear losing their technology privileges even though they are assured that their
data reported in the study is confidential (Beran & Li, 2007). We decided that even
though cyber bullying is conceptualized as a repeated phenomenon (Belsey, 2010; Patchin
& Hinduja, 2006; Shariff, 2008) that we would consider respondents who reported being
victims or offenders of cyber bullying at least once as victims or offenders due to students
inclination to underreport cyber bullying. The category pure-offender is composed of those
who bullied others at least once online, but were never bullied online by anyone. The
category pure-victim has the students who never bullied others online, but were bullied at
least once online. The category both-offender-and-victim contains those who bullied others
online and were also bullied online. The rest of the students are in the category neitheroffender-nor-victim, who never bullied others and were never bullied online.
Demographics of Four Categories
Table 1 shows the demographics of the respondents and four categories. A total of
713 students responses from 48 states were collected. Hawaii and Vermont were not
519
represented in the sample. States with larger populations had more students in the sample.
There were no more than 10% of the participants from any single state.
The study was controlled to have 50% of the respondents self reporting that they were
cyber bullies. Table 1 shows the demographics of the four categories in terms of gender,
race, type of school attended, age, and household income. The sample of 713 students was
representative in terms of race, household income, and gender of the 2000 census data.
The sample is broken down based on the respondents role of pure-victim, pure-offender,
both- offender-and-victim, and neither-offender-nor- victim based on self reports of being
a perpetrator or victim of cyber bullying.
Table 1
Demographics of the four categories and participants
Percent-in-category (number-in-category)
Category
Category Total
Gender
Male
Female
Race
White
African American
Asian
Hispanic-non-white
Biracial
Other
School
Elem. up to grade 8
Middle
Junior High
High
Other
Age
13
14
15
16
17
Other
Household Income
0-20k
20k-50k
neitherpurevictimvictim
nor100%(60)
offender
100%(303)
Total
number
Total %-in713-responses
100%
47.2%
52.8%
bothpureoffenderoffender
and-victim 100%(61)
100%(289)
51% (154)
49% (149)
37% (22)
63% (38)
43% (125)
57% (164)
57% (35)
43% (26)
713
336
377
75% (227)
9% (26)
7% (21)
5% (15)
4% (11)
1% (3)
75% (45)
3% (2)
3% (2)
8% (5)
7% (4)
3% (2)
78% (225)
7% (19)
4% (13)
6% (18)
4% (11)
1% (3)
66%
10%
7%
7%
8%
3%
(40)
(6)
(4)
(4)
(5)
(2)
537
53
40
42
31
10
75.2%
7.4%
6%
6%
4%
1%
5% (14)
22% (68)
14% (41)
58% (177)
1% (3)
2% (1)
25% (15)
12% (7)
62% (37)
0% (0)
6% (16)
18% (52)
14% (40)
62% (178)
1% (3)
5% (3)
21% (13)
16% (10)
54% (33)
3% (2)
34
198
98
426
8
5%
21%
14%
60%
1%
20% (60)
17% (51)
20% (62)
19% (58)
19% (58)
5% (14)
17% (10)
22% (13)
20% (12)
18% (11)
22% (13)
2% (1)
11% (32)
23% (67)
30% (87)
17% (49)
18% (53)
0% (1)
16% (10)
25% (15)
25% (15)
23% (14)
11% (7)
0% (0)
112
146
177
132
131
16
16%
20%
25%
19%
18%
2%
12% (37)
19% (58)
3% (2)
28% (17)
5% (15)
21% (62)
8% (5)
23% (14)
59
151
8%
21%
520

50k-75k
75k-100k
100k-150k
Over 150k
Dont know
17% (51)
11% (34)
8% (24)
3% (10)
29% (89)
13% (8)
15% (9)
5% (3)
0% ( 0)
35% (21)
22% (65)
12% (36)
9% (26)
5% (15)
24% (70)
16% 10)
5% (3)
7% (4)
3% (2)
38%(23)
134
82
57
28
203
19%
12%
8%
4%
28%
Females in our study were more likely to report being victims or both-offenders-andvictims of cyber bullying as shown in Table 1. Note that in the category of pure-victim,
37% are males and 63% are females and for both-offender-and-victim 43% are males and
57% are females.
Boys were more likely to be offenders and less likely to be victims. For the category
of pure-offenders, 57% are males and 43% are females. These results are consistent with a
study by Li (2007) that showed that boys were more likely to be cyber bullies only and
girls were more likely to be cyber victims only (Li, 2007).
Measure
This purpose of this study was to measure the perceived effectiveness of the 14
strategies presented in Table 2 by students who are offenders, victims, both offenders and
victims, and neither offenders nor victims of cyber bullying. The strategies are numbered
from one to fourteen in the first column of Table 2. The question number as it appeared
in the survey is listed in the second column of Table 2. The abbreviated strategy listed in
the third column of Table 2 provides a highlight of a strategy for the convenience of
reference later in this paper. The full strategy as presented to the participants is listed in the
fourth column of Table 2.
These strategies were selected from research in the literature, state regulations, and
programs in schools. Strategy 1, not allowing the offender to use the computer at home
or school; strategy 3, parent taking away computer and cell phone; and strategy 6, offender
not allowed to use social networking were based on the premise that teenagers did not
want to tell their parents that they had experienced cyber bullying because they feared that
they would have their computer privileges restricted (Juvonen & Gross, 2008) or taken
away (Beran & Li, 2007; Keith & Martin, 2005; Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Shariff, 2008).
Table 2
Summary of Cyber bullying Prevention Strategies
Strategy Question Highlight of strategy Strategy stated on questionnaire
Number
1
Q-11-a
No computer use in Cyber bullies would not be allowed
school and home for to use the computer at home and
offender
school. Any assignments for school
that required using the library would
have to be done at the library using
books.
2
Q-11-b
Sending offender to Sending cyber bullies to an
another school
alternative school away from their
regular school as punishment.
521
Q-11-c
Parent
taking
away
offenders computers and
cell phones
Offender paying victim
money
Parents would take away a cyber

bullys cell phone and computer.
Q-11-d
Q-11-e
One year delay to a 4year college for offender
Q-11-f
Q-11-g
Q-11-h
Q-11-i
No access to social
networking sites for
offender
Offender
attending
netiquette classes on
Saturdays
20 hours of community
service for offender
No
extracurricular
activities for offender
10
Q-11-j
Offender
doing
presentation about cyber
bullying
11
Q-25
12
Q-26
13
Q-28
14
Q-30
Telling students in class

what to do as a victim
Setting clear rules and
enforcing penalties on
offender
Having written policy on
zero toleration about
bullying
Ongoing cyber bullying Cyber bullying prevention programs,
prevention programs
which are not one-time assemblies,
instead are ongoing programs that
take place for the entire school year.
Students participate in activities to
help raise their awareness about
cyber bullying, and learn skills to
prevent cyber bullying.
Cyber bullies would have to get a

job and pay money to the person
they bullied online.
Repeat cyber bullies would not go
to 4 year colleges. They would have
to spend at least one year at a
community college before going to a
4 year college. It would not matter
how well they did in high school.
Cyber bullies would not be allowed
to use social networking sites such as
Myspace.com.
Cyber bullies would have to attend
netiquette classes on Saturdays for
several weeks.
Cyber bullies would have to do at
least 20 hours of community service.
Cyber bullies would not be allowed
to participate in after school activities
such as sports.
Cyber bullies would have to create a
presentation about the effects of
cyber bullying. They would have to
let others know why they should not
do what they did.
Telling teenagers in a class what to
do if bullied online.
Having clear rules for preventing
cyber bullying and enforcing
penalties on cyber bullies.
Written policies in school saying
online bullying will not be tolerated.
522

The second strategy, sending the offender to an alternative school, was taken from
Georgias state anti-bullying law that stated that the law provides for the assignment of
certain students to alternative schools to prevent bullying (Georgia HB 81, 1999, section
2(D) (2)).
Strategy 4, requiring the offender to find a job and pay the victim money from their
wages, reflects the idea that a parent could be held financially liable for damages as a result
of their teens behavior online (High, 2009; Tully, 2007; Williard, 2007a).
Strategy 5, repeat offenders would not be allowed to go to a four year college their
freshman year was based on the case in which Justin Layshock was denied admission to
Pennsylvania State University (Associated Press, 2007) as a result of posting a phony online
profile about his schools principal (Layshock v. Hermitage School District, 2006). It is
also based on the new rule on the Common Application used by 320 colleges and
universities, that has added a discipline question to screen applicants who have committed
a school violation leading to probation, suspension, removal, dismissal or expulsion
(Pappano, 2007).
Strategy 7, requiring the offender to attend netiquette classes on Saturday, follows
Thorbahns research result that Saturday school programs were effective in changing
student attitudes and helping them to understand the consequences of their behavior
(Thorbahn, 1995). The SMART (Saturday Morning Alternative Reach and Teach)
Program is a Saturday school program for students who have serious disciplinary violations
that can include cyber bullying. The SMART program is used by the School District of
Philadelphia and in the Chicago Public Schools (School District of Philadelphia, 2009;
Chicago Public Schools, 2008). Saturday morning classes and community service are
frequently used as a disciplinary measure in the SMART programs reflecting the ideas
proposed strategies 7 and 8 (Chicago Public Schools, 2008; Bannester, 2000).
Some schools punished students for cyber bullying by not allowing them to participate
in extracurricular activities and to go on field trips (Associated Press, 2005). Such a strategy
was addressed in strategy 9. Strategy 10 was from a case discussed in (Dickerson, 2005).
Strategies presented in questions 11, 12, 13, and 14 are strategies are commonly used in
schools for bullying/cyber bullying prevention (Willard, 2007 b).
Survey Design
A survey instrument was used to collect the data for the study. The survey was
approved by Richard Stockton College of New Jerseys IRB for Human Subjects
committee. The format of the survey was designed by the authors with Zoomerang.coms
online survey tool.
There were a total of 39 questions in the survey, of which two questions were used to
obtain and verify parental consent, ten demographic questions, four about students roles
as offenders and victims of cyber bullying, six about their roles as bystanders to cyber
bullying, nine about their views on prevention strategies, three about why teens choose
to or not to cyberbully, three about the cyber bullying problem and prevention measures
at their school, one about how the respondent would prefer to report cyber bullying, and
one about whose responsibility it was to prevent cyber bullying. Four of the 39 questions
were open-ended. The others were multiple-choice questions.
523
Survey Administration
A professional market research firm, Market Tools, Inc. was hired to recruit subjects
and collect the data online. Market Tools, Inc. is a leading full-service provider of market
research services. They are the parent company of www.zoomerang.com. This
organization deploys surveys created with the Zoomerang survey tool through the
Zoomerang website. The people who answer the surveys are part of the ZoomPanel that
consists of over two million people (Market Tools, Inc, & Zoomerang.com). The profile
of ZoomPanel members is based on United States census data to ensure accurate
population (Market Tools, Inc, & Zoomerang.com). The ZoomPanel is used by
multinational companies such as McDonalds, General Mills, KFC, Procter and Gamble
and Microsoft (ZoomPanel.com, 2010). We chose to use the Market Tools because they
use True Sample Technology to verify that participants are, unique, real, and engaged
(Conklin, 2009). True Sample is a unique Market Research technology that systematically
ensures data quality. To ensure that data was real, Market Tools verified that information
about gender, zip code, and household income matched with the data in extensive
databases with validated consumer demographics that are used by the financial services
industries for each member of the ZoomPanel. Market Tools used digital fingerprinting
technology to check that the respondents did not repeat surveys, and used TrueSample
technology to identify fraudulent responders and removed them from the sample
(Conklin, 2009). True Sample technology detects common markers of erroneous data that
include respondents repeating surveys, taking the survey too quickly and not reading the
questions, and fraudulent data.
The time to take the survey was about 20 minutes. The survey was administered
online from June 26, 2008 to July 8, 2008. Market Tools e-mailed the survey to the
members of the ZoomPanel panel that have identified in their demographic profile that
they have teenagers living in their home. The teenagers who live in homes with
ZoomPanel members completed the survey for our study. The investigators did not have
access to any personal identifiable information such as e-mail addresses.
Since it impossible to personally obtain informed consent in most online surveys
having implied consent from respondents is an accepted practice when using online survey
research (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Walther, 2002). Respondents obtain implied consent
by presenting participants with a consent letter before starting the survey (Patchin &
Hinduja, 2006). The consent letter tells what specific actions must be performed before
taking the survey (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006). Having the respondents click on an icon to
start the survey and then click a submit button to return the data back implies consent
(King, 1996).
For this study the researchers presented participants with a consent letter. A participant
under age 18 was asked to have his or her parents give them permission to participate in
the survey. To give consent the parent entered his or her initials in a text box below the
consent letter. This method is similar to the method Patchin and Hinduja (2006) used to
obtain parental permission in their online survey. After parental permission was obtained
the respondent clicked on an icon to start the survey. Because the survey is anonymous it
is impossible to verify if parental consent was obtained. As a check the researchers asked
the students in the first question if they had their parents permission to take the survey. If
the student responded no, the survey was terminated.
The Zoomerang survey tool has a quota feature that rejects respondents based on
responses after the desired sample size for a category is achieved. The limit of respondents
524

was set to 350 for cyber bullying offenders and 350 for non-offenders based on the
funding available for the study. Once the number of completed surveys reached the quota
for a group, the survey was closed to the filled group. There were 13 extra samples for
non-offenders.
The 713 samples of the survey were complete and valid based on our pre-set
qualifications such as ages and parents permissions, and within the quota. This data is from
a convenience sample in which participants decide to participate in the study. It is not
possible to generalize convenience samples to a larger population (Couper, 2000), but the
technique has been used for exploratory studies (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006) to obtain initial
data for further research (Berson et al., 2002). There is limited empirical research about
what methods students perceive to be effective to prevent cyber bullying. We believed
that using a convenience sample would provide data that could lead to further study using
more scientific methods.
Results and Discussion
This study compares the perspectives of pure-victims, both-offenders-and-victims,
pure- offenders, and neither-offenders-nor-victims, and explains correlations between a
students role in cyber bullying and his or her views of the effectiveness of various cyber
bullying prevention strategies. The results of the data analyses presented in this section are
organized into answers to the inquiries about cyber bullying prevention strategies that
school administrators, researchers, and legislators may be concerned about.
Students Roles in Cyber bullying vs. Their Views
Inquiry 1. Are there statistically significant differences among the four categories in their views on the
effectiveness of each of the 14 cyber bullying prevention strategies? If so, how do the four categories
correlate to the views of effectiveness of the strategies?
To answer this inquiry, one needs to investigate (1) whether the students in each of
the four categories have significantly different views on the effectiveness of the prevention
strategies, and (2) how they are correlated. For that purpose, the regression method was
selected to be used in the analysis. By using this method the researchers could tell the
significance of a correlation, as well as whether the correlation was positive or negative.
Considering possible colinearity existing among the 14 strategies, single regression, instead
of multiple regressions, was used. Each single regression model takes the effectiveness of
one strategy as the independent variable X, and the category of the respondent as the
dependent variable Y. There are five possible values for X, one through five, representing
very ineffective to very effective. There are four values for Y, 1 through 4, each
representing a category of a students role in cyber bullying. Since different ways of
numbering categories may have different results in regression, twenty four (permutation of
four) single regression models were run for every strategy. Each model is associated with a
way of category numbering. The results showed that the most significant differences
always occur when numbering the categories as 1 for pure-offender, 2 for both-offenderand-victim, 3 for neither- offender-nor-victim, and 4 for pure-victim.
Table 3 lists the eight strategies that students views of effectiveness are significantly
different among the four categories. The eight strategies are sorted according to their pvalues for statistical correlation with the smallest (most significant) on top. The table does
525
not include those strategies that are not significantly correlated with the categories such as
p > 0.056. The plus or minus sign in the parentheses after a p-value gives the correlation
direction telling whether the correlation between X and Y is positive or negative. For
example, 0.005(+) for strategy 3 means that the chance of making an error is 0.005 by
asserting that different categories of students would have different views of the
effectiveness of this strategy, and the correlation is positive.
In the regression models that derived the results in Table 3, the meanings of values of
dependent variable Y are 1 for pure-offender, 2 for both-offender-and-victim, 3 for
neither-offender-nor-victim, and 4 for pure-victim. Since independent variable Xs values
are 1 through 5 representing very ineffective through very effective, a positive correlation
between a strategy and four categories implies that students who have had experience
cyber bullying others (pure-offender and both-offender-and-victim) tend to rate a
prevention strategys effectiveness lower than those who have never bullied others. Also,
with positive correlations students who have been victims of cyber bullying tend to rate
the effectiveness of a particular strategy higher than the offenders. When there are positive
correlations pure-victims give a prevention strategy the highest ratings while pureoffenders give the same prevention strategy the lowest ratings. The reverse is true when
negative correlations exist. When there are negative correlations pure victims give a
strategy the lowest ratings while pure offenders give the same strategy the highest ratings.
A high rating for a strategy means that a student views that strategy as effective. Hence,
offenders view strategies with negative correlations as effective since negative correlations
mean that offenders gave that strategy a high rating.
Table 3
Eight Strategies those Four Categories of Participants Have Significant Different Views
Strateg
p-value (+ or
Description
y
relation)
9
No extracurricular activities for offender.
0.000000(+)
10
Offender doing presentation about cyber bullying.
0.000008(+)
7
Offender attending netiquette classes.
0.00008(+)
3
Taking away offenders computers and cell phones.
0.005(+)
1
No computer use in school and home for offender.
0.01068(+)
4
Offender paying victim money.
0.0202(+)
12
Setting clear rules and enforcing penalties on offender.
0.002235(-)
14
Ongoing cyber bullying prevention programs.
0.05562(-)
The results in Table 3 provide important references for school administrators and
educators who are setting up cyber bullying prevention strategies. The students view on
the effectiveness of a strategy is a determinant of its effectiveness in implementation.
However. students views typically differ on a strategy, depending on their roles in cyber
bullying. When deciding to use a strategy, one should not only consider the strategys
overall effectiveness, but also to whom it is most effective and to whom it is least effective.
For example, if a policy is to prevent cyber bullying by penalizing offenders, a negative
correlation would be better than a positive one, since such a policy is mainly for the
offenders and a negative correlation shows that the pure-offenders tend to view the
strategy as effective. On the other hand, if the goal is to prevent ordinary students from
cyber bullying others, a positive correlation would be better, since such a strategy is
526

mainly for non-offenders. In this case a positive correlation shows that the non-offenders
tend to view the strategy as effective.
The top three strategies listed in Table 3, strategy 9, no extracurricular activities for
offender; strategy 10, offender doing a presentation about cyber bullying; and strategy 7,
offender attending Netiquette classes on Saturday, are relatively mild prevention
strategies. The extremely low p-values show that students views are significantly different.
Considering the fact that the three strategies are all penalties to offenders or something
against the wills of offenders, the effectiveness of implementing these strategies would be
most dependent on offenders views. However, the correlation directions are all positive,
which suggests that offenders tend to view these strategies as ineffective compared to nonoffenders.
Offenders often have low school commitment (Patchin, 2006) and may not care if
they are not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities as they may not want to
participate in these activities in the first place. Hence, strategy 9, revoking the privilege to
participate in extracurricular activities would not be an effective strategy to deter offenders
from cyber bullying. Offenders may not perceive cyber bullying to be wrong and would
not be embarrassed to give a presentation about it making strategy 10 ineffective. They
may not believe that strategy 7, netiquette classes, are necessary and may perceive taking
the classes as being told what to do online (Moessner, 2007). Hence, they may view
strategy 7 as ineffective because it is a strategy in which adults at school tell them what to
do online.
There are two strategies in Table 3 with negative correlations. They are setting clear
rules and consequences and having ongoing cyber bullying prevention programs. The
negative correlation is interpreted as that offenders tend to view the strategies as being
more effective than victims. Students who have had experience cyber bullying others
tend to view clear rules and ongoing programs as being more effective than those
who have never cyber bullied others. Compared to strategies 7, 9, and 10 that have
positive correlations, strategies, 12 and 14, are general and not specific. It suggests that
although cyber bullying offenders may not view the three specific and mild strategies as
being effective, they would not consider any rule to be ineffective. Clear rules with
penalties enforced and ongoing cyber bullying prevention programs are in general viewed
as effective by the offenders. So, when a specific cyber bullying prevention strategy is
established, its effectiveness should be accessed carefully and individually.
Students views on effectiveness of the strategies other than the above eight were not
significantly different, and they are not shown in Table 3. Those six strategies are: strategy
2 (sending offender to another school), strategy 5 (one year delay to 4-year college for
offender), strategy 6 (no access to social networking sites for offender), strategy 8 (20 hours
of community service for offender), strategy 11 (telling in class what to do as a victim),
and strategy 13 (having written policy on zero toleration about bullying).
Top-Five Effective Prevention Strategies
Inquiry 2. Which strategies are considered most effective from the students point of view, for all as a
whole and for each of the four categories? If you were to pick five strategies to adopt based on the
data, which would they be?
527
Table 4
Average effectiveness of 14 strategies in the eyes of students
(1=very ineffective, through 5=very effective)
Strategy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
pureoffender
(n=61)
3.459
3.262
3.770
3.098
2.738
3.869
3.066
3.264
3.148
3.213
3.426
3.221
3.426
3.426
both-offender-andvictim(n=289)
3.858
2.962
4.066
3.495
2.696
4.080
3.547
3.844
3.367
3.592
3.522
3.920
3.474
3.540
purevictim
(n=60)
3.983
3.083
4.150
3.583
2.883
4.150
3.683
4.050
3.967
4.033
3.617
4.083
3.483
3.683
neitheroffender-norvictim (n=303)
3.937
3.281
4.132
3.617
2.846
4.089
3.848
3.997
3.812
3.845
3.637
4.109
3.495
3.657
Table 5
Strategies Ranked on Effectiveness with Four Categories
pureboth-offenderpureneitherEffective
offender
and-victim
victim
offender-nor(n=61)
(n=289)
(n=60)
victim(n=303)
Most
6
6
3
3
2nd most
3
3
6
12
3rd most
1
12
12
6
4th most
11
1
8
8
5th most
13
8
10
1
6th most
14
10
1
7
7th most
2
7
9
10
8th most
8
14
7
9
9th most
12
11
14
14
10th most 10
4
11
11
11th most 9
13
4
4
12th most 4
9
13
13
13th most 7
2
2
2
Least
5
5
5
5
Each of the fourteen cyber bullying preventing strategies had five choices in the survey
for the students to pick. Five numbers were assigned to the five choices with 1 for very
ineffective and 5 for very effective. Table 4 summarizes the statistics of the effectiveness of
528

14 strategies with respect to the four categories. For each strategy, Table 4 shows its
category mean in each category. A larger mean indicates a higher average rating of
effectiveness given by the students. To identify the strategies that are effective from the
perspective of students, the fourteen strategies are sorted in descending order of the means
within each of the four categories. Table 5 shows the results of the sorting, which tells for
each category which strategy is viewed as most effective and which strategy is viewed as
the least effective. From Table 5 it would be convenient to pick the top-five or top-three
most effective strategies viewed by students in a category.
Note the difference between category means in Table 4 and the correlations in Table
3. A strategy whose correlation with categories is statistically significant, as those shown in
Table 3, does not have to have a high mean as in Table 4. Moreover, a strategy that has a
low mean in Table 4 may show a significant correlation in Table 3. Of the eight strategies
in Table 4, three strategies, 1, 3, and 12, are among the top nine most effective strategies
from the perspectives of students in any of the four categories as in Table 5. Actually, a
ranking under a category in Table 5 is derived by comparing means of the fourteen
strategies within a category, while Table 3 is derived by comparing students views on a
strategy among categories.
For three categories, both-offender-and-victim, pure-victim, and neither-offendernor-victim, the top five most effective cyber bullying preventing strategies are as follows,
albeit their orders in categories are different.
(1) Strategy 6: No access to social networking sites for offender.
(2) Strategy 3: Parent taking away offenders computers and cell phones.
(3) Strategy 12: Setting clear rules and enforcing penalties on offender.
(4) Strategy 8: 20 hours of community service for offender.
(5) Strategy 1: No computer use in school and home for offender.
The top-five most effective strategies for category pure-offender are somewhat
different from the other categories:
(1) Strategy 6: No access to social networking sites for offender.
(2) Strategy 3: Parent taking away offenders computer and cell phone.
(3) Strategy 1: No computer use in school and home for offender.
(4) Strategy 11: Telling in class what to do as a victim.
(5) Strategy 13: Having written policy on zero toleration about cyber bullying.
If the top-three most effective strategies are selected, then two strategies will be picked
by every category. These strategies are strategy 3 (taking away offenders computers and
cell phones) and strategy 6 (no access to social networking sites for offender). Students, no
matter whether they are offenders or victims, believed that not allowing offenders to
access to social networking sites and parent taking away offenders computers and cell
phones are among the top-three strategies that could most effectively prevent cyber
bullying. That is a strong message for school administrators and parents.
The finding is consistent with research that teenagers use technology as a link to their
friends and social life (Keith & Martin, 2005). They fear losing their technology privileges
(Beran & Li, 2007; Keith & Martin, 2005; Patchin & Hinduja, 2006; Shariff, 2008).
Without the Internet and cell phone they feel disconnected from their peer group. No
student, regardless of whether they are a pure-offender, pure-victim, both-offender-andvictim, or neither-offender-nor-victim, would want to be isolated from their social
network online. In contrast with strategies 3 and 6, strategy 5, one year delay to 4-yearcollege for offenders, is rated as least effective consistently by all the four categories. This
529
is another strong message for school administrators when considering avoiding ineffective
cyber bullying prevention policies. The disciplinary question on the application for
colleges will most likely not be a deterrent for cyber bullying.
Strategy 11 (telling in class what to do as a victim) and strategy 14 (having written
policy on zero toleration about bullying) are in pure-offenders top five picks. However,
the two strategies are ranked very low in the other categories. It seems that pureoffenders tend to rate these two strategies as more effective than the students in the other
categories as strategy 11 does not penalize them. Note the six strategies that offenders
rated lower than any other categories. These strategies are strategy 4 (offender paying
victim money), strategy 7 (offender attending netiquette classes), strategy 8 (20 hours
community service for offender), strategy 10(offender doing presentation about cyber
bullying), and strategy 12 (setting clear rules and enforcing penalties on offender). For
those strategies that restrict technology access, pure-offenders tended to view strategy 1,
(No computer use in school and home for offender), strategy 3 (Taking away offenders
computers and cell phones), and strategy 6 (No access to social networking sites for
offender) as effective. Penalties that would consume an offenders time or money were
viewed to be ineffective. That is a message from the pure-offenders that they are deterred
by the penalties restricting their access to technology rather than consuming their time or
money.
Conclusion: Implications for Preventing Cyber bullying
First, the category of students that prevention strategies must deter is the offenders.
The data revealed that the specific strategy that offenders viewed as effective was the
penalty that restricted his or her Internet and technology use. In general, clear rules with
enforced penalties and ongoing prevention programs were perceived as effective by the
offenders. Secondly, teens perceived the theme of taking away the offenders access to
technology as an effective prevention measure, regardless of their roles in cyber bullying.
This finding makes sense as all teenagers, regardless of their roles in cyber bullying, are part
of a generation that engages in cyber immersion (Brown, Jackson, & Cassidy, 2006).
Cyber immersion means that the Internet serves as the primary way that they
communicate for relationships, commerce, and recreation (Brown et al., 2006). By taking
away access to Internet and technology teenagers would lose their primary means of
communication and feel isolated.
Teenagers view having their own cell phone and computer as prize possessions,
regardless of their roles in cyber bullying. They use these items everyday and would miss
them if they were taken away. Having these personal possessions taken away by their
parents, even for a short period of time, would cause them to lose their social status within
their peer group. So even though the argument could be made that if a teens cell phone
or computer were taken away they could use a friends technology or go to a public
library, losing the technological convenience and the stigma would indeed serve as a
punishment.
Parents, schools, and social networking sites all are important stakeholders in
preventing cyber bullying (Ybarra el al., 2007). Hence their cooperation is needed to for
that purpose. Policies need to be in place at school, and the school should involve parents
when a cyber bullying issue arises. Meanwhile, parents have a responsibility to establish
and enforce rules at home. Such a joint work is necessary for effectively resolving the
problem of cyber bullying.
530

Limitations of the study

A limitation of this anonymous online study is that the researchers do not really know
who the respondents are or if they are completely honest in their answers. This survey is a
convenience survey. It is possible that the responses are not representative of larger
population of teenagers or online teenagers, although the study does have value as it
provides insights into how teenagers view cyber bullying prevention strategies.
Furthermore, online demographic groups may not be the same as real world demographic
groups (Witte, Amoroso, & Howard, 2000) as people on the Internet are more educated
and have higher incomes (Berson et al, 2002). However, there is evidence that Web study
populations are more representative of the public than samples from more traditional lab
experiments (Berson et al., p. 56).
The market research firm, Market Tools, estimated that the margin of error was 5-6%
for the survey. This estimate was based on the profile of people that have 13-17 year olds
in their database, incidence of cyber bullying, total completes; total screenouts, total
partials, and accesses are used to calculate the margin of error rate. We estimated an
incidence rate of 25% based on studies in the literature (Kraft, 2006). By using True
Sample technologies Market Tools took technological measures to eliminate common
markers of fraudulent data. Common markers of fraudulent data are respondents who take
the same survey multiple times, people who do not exist, respondents who provide
answers to open ended questions such as dsflkjdagsfi, and respondents who do not read
survey questions (Conklin, 2009) True sample technology correlates survey-taking time
and response patterns to identify fraudulent behavior and remove the fraudulent data from
the sample (Conklin, 2009).
In this study the investigators differentiated pure-offenders, non-offenders, purevictims, and non-victims, according to whether they reported at least one incident of
cyber bullying or not. We did not take the severity and frequency of the incidents into
account. There is no universal precise definition of cyber bullying (Szoka &Thierer,
2009). Cyber bullying is conceptualized as being repeated incidents (Belsey, 2010;
Hinduja and Patchin, 2006; Shariff, 2008) of online bullying. However, Aftab notes that
Cyber bullying is usually not a one time communication, unless it involves a death threat
or a credible threat of serious bodily harm (Aftab, 2010c). Beran and Li (2007) found that
most participants in their study reported being victims or offenders of cyber bullying only
once or twice. Our definition of cyber bullying did not have the word repeated in it. We
needed 350 students to admit to cyber bullying someone. We also did not want to exclude
students who may have had one traumatic incident online such as receiving a death threat.
Since students tend to report cyber bullying once or twice, we decided to ask if the
respondent had been cyber bullied or bullied someone online at least once.
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International Journal of Cyber Criminology

Vol 3 Issue 2 July - December 2009

Effectiveness of Cyber bullying Prevention

Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, USA

online bullying, Internet harassment, online harassment, in-school bullying, violence

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

caregivers is associated with increasing frequency of victimization online (Ybarra et al.,

states such as Colorado have comprehensive Internet safety education program

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

Method and Procedure

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

Parents would take away a cyber

One year delay to a 4year college for offender

Telling students in class

Cyber bullies would have to get a

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

Limitations of the study

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

psychosocial adjustment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285(16), 20942100.

International Journal of Cyber Criminology

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