The other day I blogged about an alleged abuse victim of Jerry Sandusky being victimized twice. First it was the sexual abuse he went through as a younger child and now as a senior in high school, the bullying because he was the first victim to speak up.
Now I just ran across an article about a new study that has come out on bullying. Things have apparently “leveled off” when it comes to online bullying. However, a new form of bullying is on the rise, through text messaging. This is yet another way to hide behind a device and engage in bad behavior.
In addition, “unwanted sexual solicitation” through text messages was found to be 1.9 times higher in the year 2008, compared to the year 2006. I can imagine that being it’s the year 2011; it has gone up even more.
It’s important however, to distinguish between harassment and bullying through text messaging. Harassment is behavior that occurs a few times. It can be irritating to deal with but the person being harassed doesn’t feel like a victim. They are more annoyed than anything.
Bullying however, happens on a more frequent basis. It is also considered bullying if one person has less power. This can be physically or emotionally. Violence or cruelty usually accompanies bullying as well.
With so many ways to engage in bullying, children are increasingly more likely to become a victim. Now we have to talk to our kids about bullying at school, online and through their phones. Oh, let me also add video game systems.
My youngest son experienced some of this at the end of his 6th grade year, through Xbox Live. A couple of boys from his school were calling him vulgar names. At first he tried ignoring it but then he eventually removed them from his friend list.
As a parent, I find it so frustrating how easily children can now become targets. This is why we must always keep communication lines open and frequently talk about these issues.
Related Articles:
Textual Harassment and Teen Dating Violence
Bullying Leads to Suicide Pact
Photo by ECI Photography in Flickr