Emily Bazelon, author of a new book on cyberbullying, Sticks and Stones, discussed how the Internet and social media have intensified bullying for today’s always-connected kids on NPR's Fresh Air today.
“It really can make bullying feel like it’s 24/7,” Bazelon
told Fresh Air host Terry Gross.
Unlike in the pre-Internet, pre-texting past, today “when you come home, if
you’re a victim of bullying, you’re likely to see this kind of continue on a social
media site or via texting,” she said. Indeed, a generation ago, kids were able to get a break from bullying when they left school for the day. Today they can experience it alone in their bedrooms at night.
"It's really hard for kids not to look when they think there's some mean thing being spread around about them," Bazelon said. Another difference for bullying victims today? Since the offending words are written down online, the harrassment can feel more visible, and permanent. "The bullying can take place in front of quite a large audience," she says.
"It's really hard for kids not to look when they think there's some mean thing being spread around about them," Bazelon said. Another difference for bullying victims today? Since the offending words are written down online, the harrassment can feel more visible, and permanent. "The bullying can take place in front of quite a large audience," she says.
Bazelon, a senior editor at Slate and also the Truman Capote fellow at Yale Law School,
discussed her new book at length with Gross. (You can hear the full interview here). A main topic was how parents can navigate — and help their children navigate — the ever-changing world of digital media kids are growing up in today.
"Technology use is such a struggle for parents right now," she said. "It's so different than when we were growing up" — without social media, for example. "These sites are encouraging kids to share widely and habitually. That's good for their business models. The more brand loyalty they can build among kids and teenagers, and the more they can habituate all of us to just sharing, the more money they make. So we need to make sure to help kids think about whether they really want to be putting intimate details, intimate photographs about their lives online."
Bazelon also told the story of spending a day at Facebook — which has 20 million American teen users — to learn about a program Facebook is currently working on to help young people deal with bullying on its site.
"Facebook has a lot of influence over kids who are mean," she said. "They know from their own data that when they tell kids that they've posted something inappropriate [and] they ask them to take it down, those kids don't re-offend." The problem, though, Bazelon said, is that Facebook has been reluctant thus far to use its influence for too much good because "it doesn't want to be seen as uncool."
You can read an excerpt from Sticks and Stones on NPR’s website here. For more information on cyberbullying, visit the Cyberbullying Research Center.
"Technology use is such a struggle for parents right now," she said. "It's so different than when we were growing up" — without social media, for example. "These sites are encouraging kids to share widely and habitually. That's good for their business models. The more brand loyalty they can build among kids and teenagers, and the more they can habituate all of us to just sharing, the more money they make. So we need to make sure to help kids think about whether they really want to be putting intimate details, intimate photographs about their lives online."
Bazelon also told the story of spending a day at Facebook — which has 20 million American teen users — to learn about a program Facebook is currently working on to help young people deal with bullying on its site.
"Facebook has a lot of influence over kids who are mean," she said. "They know from their own data that when they tell kids that they've posted something inappropriate [and] they ask them to take it down, those kids don't re-offend." The problem, though, Bazelon said, is that Facebook has been reluctant thus far to use its influence for too much good because "it doesn't want to be seen as uncool."
You can read an excerpt from Sticks and Stones on NPR’s website here. For more information on cyberbullying, visit the Cyberbullying Research Center.
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