By Phillip Pierce
With tools like text messaging, mass e-mail and Myspace.com, bullies have moved to cyberspace and are taking the familiar confrontation in the school cafeteria to a whole new level.
Three BYU professors were part of an observational study on cyberbullying that will appear in a segment on ABC''s 'PrimeTime' with Diane Sawyer Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006, at 9 p.m. on KTVX Channel 4 in Utah.
With cyberbullying, the damage of a rumor is no longer contained to a victim''s class or school, but is rapidly sent through various electronic mediums to a much larger audience, said David Nelson, a professor from the BYU School of Family Life.
'You can move your child to a new school down the road but the rumor might already be there too,' Nelson said.
In the observational study, conducted by ABC, teams of teenage girls used tools like cell phones, cameras, instant messaging and social networking sites like MySpace.com to win the favor of a separate group of subjects designated as the popular group.
At the end of each of the three days the popular group, consisting in part of older college age males, would select their favorite team.
'The teams spent the first day establishing role-playing identities, building their MySpace.com pages, and selling themselves to the popular group,' said Clyde Robinson, a professor from BYU''s School of Family Life. 'By the second day the tactics got nastier ... by the third day it was absolute chaos.'
The teams went so far as to use spy software to access other teams'' web pages in order to alter them to their advantage.
The college-age males in the popular group were surprised to realize they were not as technologically savvy as these younger teenage girls, Robinson said.
'From what we can see, cyberbullying makes traditional bullying much more efficient and damaging,' said Nelson. 'When communicating with someone they can not see it is easier to do and say nastier things.'
Because everything is so instant, people who are offended by a cyberbully respond quickly and emotionally without rationally evaluating the situation, said Robinson.
'The study illustrated to me that it is impossible for parents to monitor everything their child is doing in cyberspace,' said Craig Hart, another professor from BYU''s School of Family Life who helped monitor the study. 'Parents must be proactive and teach children good values that will make them less likely to participate in these activities.'
All three professors are concerned with the anonymity that cyberspace offers bullies, along with the lack of consequence.
'If you have anonymity you have a lot of power; you can cause a lot of damage,' Robinson said.