Do you now that Singapore has the second highest number of cyber-bullying cases after the US?
A survey has been done and published in the Strait Times.
What is Cyber-bullying?
It is referring to someone who repeatedly making fun of people online, threatening, intimidating, harassing, humiliating by using internet or mobile phones.
Some examples are posting up videos of a victim being group slapped on the web and stalking the same person by sending threatening emails or incessant messaging.
Examples of Cyber-bullying in Singapore
I will be listing down three cases of cyber-bullying that has happened in Singapore.
These three cases have been published in the newspapers.
The first case is about a relief teacher mocking poor essays written by his pupils in his blog.
The victims are primary 3 students. What happened is that, the teacher posted 4 passages from different compositions written by his pupils and he commented: "I have three terribly ridiculous compositions... a source of entertainment, I should say... I will type it out... no corrections or whatsoever... enjoy!". This form of cyber-bullying not only humiliates his pupils but also makes fun of their essays online.
If you are the parent and your son/daughter is one of his pupils what will you do? or rather what do you think that he should be doing as teacher when he is writing in his blog about his pupils?
Now, the second case is the teacher that becomes the victim. A humanities teacher was filmed by her student using camera-phone when having her lessons. The student then posted a 36-second clip on YouTube. After a few weeks, the student posted a new clip of the same teacher looking frustrated and raising her voice at the class for their poor behaviour. Then after another two videos with the same teacher were uploaded on Youtube. The videos attracted 864 views and were removed from the website after the school knows about it. This cyber-bullying case shows students disrespectful to teacher and videotapes her without her permission and then by making fun of her, they uploaded the videos on YouTube.
What do you think is the intention of this student posting up more and more of these videos in Youtube for others to see? Is it for fun or because the class is just too boring for them so they started filming and uploading in Youtube?
The third case is about a lady who uses a web forum and her pictures were being criticized.
She was called fat, with almost no chin and her picture from her online album was doctored to make her look like a ghost and the Chinese hermaphrodite Dong Fang Bu Bai, a famous character in Chinese movie history. A picture of a horse was also uploaded on the forum saying that she looked like one. Some members of the forum downloaded her photos and made mean remarks on her pictures. She then made a police report and the postings were soon removed immediately.
She said in the newspaper that she was very upset and angry. She cried and could not really sleep for a week. She don't personally know them, so she don't understand why they would do this.
The cyber-bullying case here involves intimidating, harassing, humiliating of people through social websites.
What will you do if your own pictures were being criticized by your friends or people you dont know? Will you call the police or just ignored the comment and delete it away?
Why do people Cyberbully?
Bullying has been around forever but cyber-bullying is different because it allows the bullies remain anonymous. It is much easier to bully in cyberspace than face to face and is much less risk of being caught.
The cases that i got from
1st case : http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20080218-50182.html
2nd case : http://digital.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20080312-54112.html
3rd case : http://digital.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20080312-54090.html
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Some interesting cases highlighted here. It's also interesting that you expanded the definition of cyber bullying by your second example.
ReplyDeleteYou took your articles mainly from asiaone.com. Are there other useful sites you could have linked to? Also, do incorporate the links more seamlessly into your posts, and not list them at the end.
Any suggestions on how the victims could have handled the situation?
ReplyDeleteDo incorporate links more seamlessly and include them with the cases, than at the bottom of the page.
ReplyDeleteGood example of Singapore cyber bullying.
ReplyDeleteIt reflects that in our education industry there unethical teachers around who fails to guide and protect.
If it was something that the victims did wrongly, I personally think is worth the post.
Its like a punishment so that they won't do it again next time.
Simple and easy to understand your definition of Cyber bullying.
Cheers
Don't bully without a reason!
Hi Jieshun, the first statement really hits the nail on its head! It indirectly points to a very cruel fact that with increased convenience in gaining access to technology, comes its disadvantages such as cyber bullying. Perhaps third-world/developing countries have cyber-bullying in its physical form(real bullying), that i'm not sure. However, the fact is that ease of access to technology had reared its ugly head, and it is here to stay, at least for quite a while.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the teacher's act of humiliating his students is very undesirable. He's just crossed a huge threshold. Actions such as his taints the sacredness of the teaching profession, and cruelly gnaws away at the thinning layer of trust parents have in teachers.
Especially at such a moment where students are the common victims of cyber bullying, teachers are often seen by victims as their saviours and solutions to their problems. If teachers succumb to the temptation of cyber bullying, it could jolly well mark the collapse of a society.
Hello Jack, with regards to your statement that punishment of an errant student should be worthy of being made as publicly available as putting it online, i beg to differ. Despite having policies such as public caning, its good intentions had been first conveyed to the student, with details about the reasons for punishment clearly defined and communicated. However, public shaming of a student via the internet could have skipped that step. In addition, texts could be wrongly interpreted due to the lack of tone and emotions as compared to verbal communications. Thus i feel that teachers should be extra cautious when making postings with regards to their pupils erronous behaviours. I might be wrong with my opinions. I look forward to your feedback. Thank you.
To newmediascapes
ReplyDeleteVictims shouldn't be afraid of cyber bullies, they should stand out and report them to either parents or police. Seek for help when needed, dont be a victim of cyber bullies.
Yes Jieshun! The victims should be courageous and stand up against the bullies. They should protect themselves and raise the alarm by going to the respective adults. Only by doing that can they stay away from the harms. However, one question still hangs: Who will give the victims that very needed cue to act immediately. Someone needs to tell them that it is ok to stand up for themselves and that being bullied, be it real-world or cyber bully, is not their fault. Therefore i suggest a widespread campaign to make known this fact to the unfortunate victims and would-be victims. Pamphlets/leaflets and information booklets should be made readily available.
ReplyDeleteYes Jensen, therefore i think school is the best place to spread these information regarding cyber-bullying. People should learn how to overcome cyber bullies and dont be a victim when they are still young, also teachers and parents should also tell them when they are still a child when using new media.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to raising awareness on how to overcome cyberbullies, I believe the best way or method is to use new media.
ReplyDeleteAdvertisements on popular sites(YouTube) or in software(Windows Live Messenger) click better with people who use them often. Those sites or software are also one of the means the cyberbullies utilise.
Jieshun, I think you're right. The school should be the best place to spread these beneficial information. In addition, parents should work closely with the school to form an effective barrier that can discourage bullies from carrying out their sinister deeds. I suggest that when the users are still too young, the parents should then be more vigilant when the former are using new media.
ReplyDeleteZeChuan's idea of using new media to overcome bullies is also a fantastic method too. It allows more users to come into contact with these advantageous information and allow them to re-access them at any time.
Syahir
ReplyDeleteAre there any organizations out there that helps in curbing cyber-bullying issues? If there is not, I definitely feel that one should be set up.
If I was the parent of the student whose compositions were posted on his blog for public entertainment, I would definitely sue him and ensure that the whole of Singapore knows his story. By humiliating a student like that, i feel it will only demoralize a student, not making him better. In addition, he will only develop hatred towards the subject. Furthermore, since he is an educator, he should be correcting the mistakes of his students no matter how terrible it is, not making it a subject of entertainment.
Chen Wei Xi
ReplyDeleteIn your second case where the student posted videos of the teacher on YouTube, I think the main purpose of her actions was to humiliate and bring about public hatred to the teacher, on top of entertainment to other students it could bring about.
I think that she did that due her anger andd hatred for the teacher. Maybe she had been humiliated or scolded by the teacher and she wants to seek revenge. I am sure there is a teacher we all hate when we were in secondary and primary schools.
However, I feel that her actions were wrong as no matter how evil our teacher is, she is still our teacher and we should respect him or her.
Personally, I don't think that the first case should really be classified under cyber bullying, because I don't think that the teacher revealed the names of the students, or where they are studying, no? Of course, this is just me stating my opinion.
ReplyDeleteHowever, uploading his students' compositions and ridculing them online is as good as cyber bullying, but not considered as cyber bullying.
-James
i feel that by bullying people using the cyberbullying method, is an act of cowards. you should voice out any objections or any unhappiness that you have rather than videoing that particular person secretly and humilate them online.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this can act as a warning for us to think twice before we do anything if not we will be the next big thing on youtube. As doing those "strange" act will get attention from people and get posted online.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Unwilling person saying that the 1st case should not be considered as cyber-bullying. Although I have received forwarded emails of students' essays being humiliated online and I find it quite entertaining, Jieshun's post has made me realised that such an act by the teacher is irresponsible and does not reflect the right ethics that a teacher should portray.
ReplyDeleteStudents on the other hand, should respect that what goes on inside the classroom, should only be between that of a teacher and the students. Although having video recordings sometimes helps to nab bullying teachers in class, using videos to purposely humiliate teachers are unacceptable. Technology has somehow intertwined so much into our daily lives that sometimes it brings more harm than good.
As for the 3rd case, necessary actions need to be taken to put an end to random bullying of others. Defaming someone online is just as real as defaming someone in real life. The authorities should set up a committee that deals with such cases so that those who are responsible of bullying others can be punished accordingly.
For case 1, this case of cyberbullying involves humiliating.
ReplyDeleteThe students as victims may be demoralise by the act of this teacher and the side effect may let them fear of writing again.
I didnt know that there were such cases that a teacher will humiliate his/her students essay online.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering doesnt these cyber bullies feel guilty or regretted for what they have done?
Wow, i did not know that Singapore has the second highest number of cyber-bullying cases. After reading the links, i really wonder what kind of thrills those people get when bullying the victims online?
ReplyDeleteLol. i actually think the compositions thing is kind of funny albeit rude. But, I believe the teacher did not do it with malicious intent. He/she probably probably posted it for laughs and did not think that it would create such a stir. Again, this shows that don't think just because you are on the net, you can say or do whatever you like as you can still be tracked down.
ReplyDeleteInteresting stories out there, alot are new to me like the 1 with teacher humiliating the students. I think the teacher will be having a hard time(guilty or rather shameful) since he's been exposed.
ReplyDeleteRidhuan
ReplyDeleteGood information on topic. Now that I know Singapore's on the top list of cyber-bullying cases. I'm not even aware of this. Citizens cyber-patrol on watch then. Let's not get too personal especially on the internet now. Let's protect our privacy. Think before we type. Think after we read those comments. Be positive. It's great if there's such network to track and hunt down this cyber-bullying activities.
Jack mentioned, "Don't bully without a reason!" It should be 'don't bully'!
ReplyDeleteHi sir, Your posts are always best.
ReplyDeleteplease join me.
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