“Cyberbullying is a problem affecting almost half of all American teens”
Teens’ lives exist in a variety of places such as school hallways, part-time jobs, and friends’ houses. Now many teens also have lives on the Internet - And bullying has followed along…
Bullying involves a power play: trying to make someone else feel weak and helpless, while inflating your own value. Online bullying is particularly tempting, since anyone with access to a computer can play. Some reasons for the increase are:
1. The illusion of anonymity. Most kids (and adults) say or do things on a computer that they wouldn’t have the nerve to do in person.
2. The number of kids using the Internet makes it the preferred way to communicate. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that approximately 17 million kids aged 12 to 17 use the Internet. Teens have embraced IM—74 percent of teens IM, compared to only 44 percent of adults.
It’s easy to disguise your identity and pose as someone else. For example, anyone can get a Web based e-mail account with an ISP, make up a screen name and post comments with little consequence.
Adina’s Deck is a thirty minute film, website and curriculum to educate 9-15 year olds about Cyber Bullying: Harassment using technology.
Adina’s Deck was created, directed and produced by Debbie Heimowitz for her Master’s Thesis in the Learning, Design and Technology program in the school of Education at Stanford University. Jason Azicri developed, wrote and co-directed the pilot. Over fifty crew members and one hundred actors contributed to the pilot episode, which was completed in October, 2007.
Take a look: http://www.adinasdeck.com/
on February 8th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
This film is timely. Cyber bullying is a huge deal. All of the recent publicity surrounding the Megan Meier tragedy (13 year old who committed suicide after being bullied by who she thought was a teen boy, but actually turned out to be her adult neighbor and mother of a former friend) shows how extreme teens can react to what they red on line. Hopefully, Adina’s Deck will be able to relate to the teen audience affected most by this behavior. Parents and educators can learn from it too.