Archive for the ‘Research’ Category
Sexting Still a Growing Issue Among Teens
Sexting, teens and cell phones
Sexting is sending sexually explicit pictures (of yourself or another) from your computer or cell phone, to another.
Teens are doing it all the time. A study done by the National Campaign to prevent teen and unwanted pregnancy shows that approximately 20% of teens send sexually explicit pictures. There are some experts who doubt that number. But after having asked my patients over the last month, I can say that most of my teens knew someone who had been “sexting.”
Legal ramifications have been the most newsworthy complication of sexting. Strictly speaking, sending nude pictures of underage teens is considered child pornography, even if it is sent by the teen. It is presumed that receivers and re-senders of these pictures also are culpable under current law. But, even so, many courts, schools and law officers are not sure what to do with complaints of sexting.
From a health perspective it can be bad. Depression, legal ramifications are just one of the few problems that come with sexting. There are the obvious sexual issues related with sexting. Are these teens left vulnerable to sexual predators? Does sexting make them more likely to engage in sexual activity? Are these teens already engaged in sexual behaviour? The data from the national campaign to prevent teens and unwanted pregnancy seems to indicate that sexting does make them more likely to engage in sexual behaviors.
So who is responsible for the complications of sexting: schools? parents? the law? the websites? For now, many of these questions remain answered because this is a new phenomenon.
Currently, schools and parents are blaming each other. No one quite is sure what to do. For sure, the schools and the parents need to work together in educating the teens.
An important message teens need to hear, from schools and parents, comes from the National Campaign to prevent teens and unwanted pregnancy:
1.) Nothing you send is anonymous
2.) Once you click send anyone can get it.
3.) It can be illegal.
To read full article, click here.
Rather than playing the blame game with whose “fault” it is that sexting is becoming more and more common among teens, schools and parents need to work with one another to make a change. Together they can teach their students appropriate behavior and help them understand why sexting is so dangerous.
School counselors can educate students about peer pressure, internet safety and other issues teens face daily. Schools can hold meetings and send pamphlets home containing information that parents can discuss personally with their teens.
SchoolTipline recognizes that positive changes cannot be made without everyone working together. Teens need to know they have someone to turn to–whether it is a school administrator, parent or peer.
Teens address cyberbullying and sexting this week
The following article comes from Tradingmarkets.com.
For the fifth consecutive year, Cox Communications has partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and John Walsh, host of America’s Most Wanted, to inform parents of the potential dangers of the Internet and provide ways they can protect their kids online.
Woodbridge High School student Nieman Jeffrey of Irvine is just one of 10 teens
chosen nationwide to attend the Summit and provide feedback on the dangers of cyberbullying and other risky and often risque behaviors such as sexting. A staff member at the Boys & Girls Club, Jeffrey is a mentor and friend to many; a position that often places him on the frontlines of the challenges of teenage dynamics.
“While working at the Boys & Girls Club, two girls created a website to make fun of a boy. The website was intended to damage the boy’s self-esteem, which resulted in his becoming deeply depressed and hurt by the situation.” Jeffrey said, “The staff members resolved the matter, but it was difficult, as the girls didn’t make the website at the Club. It required parents, staff and even the police working together to resolve the problem.
I feel that teens should be made more aware of the dangers of the Internet and cell phones, so they don’t have to make their own mistakes in order to learn. I believe that teens who have experienced cyberbullying or the consequences of sexting need to speak at assemblies and meetings in order for others to truly understand that these problems are real.”
SchoolTipline applauds all efforts to promote school safety and educate students about bullying. It’s important for everyone–students and parents–to understand the risks involved with technology so students can avoid detrimental activities.
Students can influence one another in ways school officials cannot. Bullying can be eliminated when everyone take a stand and report when inappropriate behavior is occurring.
SchoolTipline provides a unique service to students to anonymously inform school officials when bullying or other school crimes occur. This makes it possible for every student to take a stand.
Pediatricians Join Fight Against Bullying
The following article comes from the New York Times Health section.
In recent years, pediatricians and researchers in this country have been giving bullies and their victims the attention they have long deserved — and have long received in Europe. We’ve gotten past the “kids will be kids” notion that bullying is a normal part of childhood or the prelude to a successful life strategy. Research has described long-term risks — not just to victims, who may be more likely than their peers to experience depression and suicidal thoughts, but to the bullies themselves, who are less likely to finish school or hold down a job.
Next month, the American Academy of Pediatrics will publish the new version of an official policy statement on the pediatrician’s role in preventing youth violence. For the first time, it will have a section on bullying — including a recommendation that schools adopt a prevention model developed by Dan Olweus, a research professor of psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway, who first began studying the phenomenon of school bullying in Scandinavia in the 1970s. The programs, he said, “work at the school level and the classroom level and at the individual level; they combine preventive programs and directly addressing children who are involved or identified as bullies or victims or both.”
Dr. Robert Sege, chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Boston Medical Center and a lead author of the new policy statement, says the Olweus approach focuses attention on the largest group of children, the bystanders. “Olweus’s genius,” he said, “is that he manages to turn the school situation around so the other kids realize that the bully is someone who has a problem managing his or her behavior, and the victim is someone they can protect.”
Dr. Sege said, “activating the bystanders” means changing the culture of the school; through class discussions, parent meetings and consistent responses to every incident, the school must put out the message that bullying will not be tolerated.
“Zero-tolerance policies that school districts have are basically pushing the debt forward,” Dr. Sege said. “We need to be more sophisticated.”
Although a “Zero-tolerance” policy is beneficial, it needs to be coupled with a way for students to act.
SchoolTipline is already taking a more sophisticated approach to combat bullying. It activates bystanders and empowers victims by giving them an outlet to report bullying that occurs on and off school property. Schools need to be more proactive in eliminating bullying, and this is one way they can effectively do so.
SchoolTipline welcomes the American Academy of Pediatrics on board as we all work to eliminate bullying across the nation.
Student Focus Group Results
Researched and written by:
Betty Y. Ashbaker, Ph.D & Noemi E. Olsen, B.S. Graduate Research Assistant
Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education Brigham Young University
Maren K. McCombs - Teacher Candidate Department of English Education
Brigham Young University
Marvi A. Villamizar, B.S. - Department of Psychology Brigham Young University
This is a selection of a 9 page report.
Background:
Preventing school violence will not be successful until the responsibility for reporting is placed on the shoulders of the students who really know what is happening (Stone & Isaacs, 2002). Students are the eyes and ears of the school. They see the bullying that happens in the hallways and bathrooms where teachers are not supervising. In most cases, students have known ahead of time that acts of school violence were going to occur, and yet have not told any adults. Unnever and Cornell (2004) found that perceptions supporting bullying were pervasive across middle schools and the general student populations. For example, most students perceived that other students almost never tried to prevent bullying (40%), once in a while tried to prevent bullying (24%), or sometimes tried to report bullying (19%), with only a small proportion responding often or almost always trying to report bullying (15%). It is essential for schools and administrators to tap into the students’ knowledge of what happens in regards to bullying.
Results:
Participants were asked what would keep them from reporting an incident such as bullying. Seven (or nearly 33%) of participants reported that peer pressure would keep them from reporting, Five (24%) reported fear of facing the bully, three (nearly 14%) said they do not know to whom they must report, and two (10%) said they do not know where and how to report. An additional four (almost 19%) gave other responses including “just not wanting to report itnone of the above,” and “At our school the officer is rude and annoying so I don’t like to tell him anything.”
The vast majority of the students 20 (95%) said they would use SchoolTipline to report. Of that number four (20%) said “yes” but added no explanatory comment, another four said “yes” and explained, “because the website provides anonymity”, six said, “Yes, because the website works”, three (15%) said “Yes, because it will get the bully into trouble”, and three (15%) gave other responses. The one student who said he/she would not use the website gave no further reason for that response.
Download the full report below.
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