Why do teens bully online?
In our focus groups, we asked teens about online experiences they had with bullying and harassment. In some cases what we heard was that adolescent cruelty had simply moved from the school yard, the locker room, the bathroom wall and the phone onto the internet. The simplicity of being able to replicate and quickly transmit digital content makes bullying quite easy. “Just copy and paste whatever somebody says,” a middle school girl explains as she describes online bullying tactics. “You have to watch what you say…” counsels another middle school girl. “If that person’s at their house and if you say something about them and you don’t know they’re there or if you think that person’s your friend and you trust them and you’re like, ‘Oh, well, she’s really being annoying,’ she could copy and paste and send it to [anyone]…” Another middle school girl describes how the manipulation of digital materials can be used to hurt someone. “Like I was in a fight with a girl and she printed out our con
