Conference Report (Short Version)

Coping with School Bullying and Violence Using the Internet

International Online Conference for Providers of Web Resources on School Bullying and Violence, May 4 - June 3, 2005

Conference site with further information
Detailed version of this report (pdf, in English)
Short version of this report in French / in German / in Spanish/ in Romanian
Conference Blog - Section related to this Conference

In this short report of the online conference ‘Coping with School Bullying and Violence Using the Internet’, you find a short description of the course of the online conference and its background. Then, the main results are briefly presented and shortly discussed in the final conclusion. More detailed information can be found in the full report.

About the Online Conference

The online conference ‘Coping with School Bullying and Violence Using the Internet’ was the first of five online conferences of the VISIONARIES-NET project.

The audience of the conference were representatives of web sites. You find a list of all the participants and moderators with information on their background at conference.bullying-in-school.info/index.php .

The general objective of all five online conferences is to bring together experts on SBV via Internet and thus network people form all over the world, who wouldn’t have a chance to get together in real life.

The specific objective of the conference ‘Coping with School Bullying and Violence Using the Internet’ was to bring together web site representatives and discuss with them on matters like: How can the Internet help tackling SBV? What are the capabilities, benefits, challenges and limits of the medium Internet? Which cross-cultural similarities and differences of national Internet resources are there?

That way, the participants were given the chance to: meet others who also offer web resources on school bullying and violence; find out more about approaches and ideas from other parts of the world; learn and profit from others who deal with the same problems and challenges; network with experts from other countries and cultures.

Concept and Methodology of the Conference

The conference consisted of an asynchronous forum to which only the invited participants had access. The forum was open 24 hours a day for four weeks. That way, it was made possible for the participants from all over the world to take part in the discussion whenever they found the time.

As the participants are considered the real experts, they were involved in the process of selecting the topics. The moderators offered them a short questionnaire with questions related to the four topics of the week. Those answers were then analysed and served as starting points for the conference’s discussions in different threads. There, the participants reflected once again about the answers they and their colleagues had given to the initial questions and used those answers as a base for further discussions. This multilevel process is very similar to the so-called Delphi approach, which is used to explore new fields of research with help of a group of experts.

There was one major topic for every week, each consisting of 3-4 subtopics that were discussed in several threads. The topics were not – as intentionally planned – closed exactly at the end of the week, but left open somewhat longer in order not to interrupt interesting discussions.

The outcomes of the discussions were summarized at regular intervals and presented to the participants in the conference forum. They were informed about the opening and closing process via a daily newsletter. In an off-topic section, the experts could discuss other important issues which were related to the topic of ‘Coping with School Bullying and Violence using the Internet’ but didn’t fit in any of the main threads.

The conference’s main outcomes in brief

Topic 1: Coping with School Bullying and Violence - the Role of the Internet

Delphi questioning

• There are several benefits the Internet offers for dealing with SBV compared to other media or personal encounters. For instance it provides easy access and availability of information at low costs, it offers an almost unlimited amount of outlasting information, it is a good way to disseminate information, it ensures anonymity and it facilitates communication.
• There are several limits and disadvantages of the Internet when dealing with SBV: information quality can not be ensured, it has the potential to greatly increase the consequences of bullying, anonymity increases the risks for some groups, it is contra productive if it is the only way of help and support.Persons/groups who do profit from Internet resources on SBV are e.g.: persons who share similar problems, groups who profit from a good socioeconomic situation, groups who are familiar with the Internet, teaching staff, victims and their parents.
• Persons/groups who do not profit from Internet resources on SBV are e.g.: Groups with socioeconomic problems who don’t have access to the Internet, groups that already have found other solutions.

Internet and SBV: The situation in different countries

• School bullying is not on the public agenda in all countries that were represented in the online conference.
• The “supply” with websites on SBV differs considerably from country to country. This depends on several factors such as the degree of development and the Internet infrastructure of a country or the size of a country.
• Most countries lack for a network of web sites on SBV.

General versus specific sites on SBV: what do users need?

• Several participants opted for having one common model of web site with basic information about bullying and its prevention. Especially the idea of having one International site on SBV was favoured by the participants.
• In spite of numerous advantages of an overall, International web site the discussions also revealed the necessity of having rather specific web sites that focus on specific target groups, cultures or single schools.

What makes a good web site on SBV?

• The factors that make a good web site on SBV resemble very much the factors that make any website effective.
• A number of ideas and suggestions related to quality criteria were collected e.g. related to the start site, the site’s navigation, its target group orientation, its administration, the credibility of a site, the sections that can be part of a web site on SBV and interactive elements of such a site.

How can users profit from the benefits of the Internet?

• Several ideas related to the question how web sites on SBV can be promoted so that people in need find the information they are searching for: e.g. producing pamphlets and posters, producing online banners and distributing them, press releases and contacts with media, optimising strategies that lead to a good ranking in search engines, building links with large, commercial organisations and much more.
• The second main question discussed in this thread focused on the question what providers can do to ensure that users can judge if information is good and reliable: e.g. selecting only information from credible sources or aligning the own web site with credible sources.

Topic 2: Information Sites on SBV

Delphi questioning

• There are different types of information on SBV that are offered in the Internet such as e.g. Concepts of programs, tips and advice, documents and materials, news, links, polls etc.
• There are several problems, limits and dangers of the Internet as a medium that provides information on SBV: e.g. Information quality, misinformation, information flood, dominance of information, qualification of online counsellors, lack of advice on country specific problems and lack of target group oriented information.
• Strategies that might minimize these problems, limits or dangers are e.g. portals, online communities and networks, directing users to experts or self-help groups.

Target group orientation of web sites

• There is a need of having different web sites for different target groups - such as pupils, teachers or parents – as these groups differ in terms of their problems, their ways of coping with the problem of school bullying and violence (SBV) or the vocabulary or the tools that fit to a specific group.
• Many web sites seem not be anaware of who their users are. So, in consequence, the providers of such web sites are acting blind.
• Appropriate methods of finding out who the users are are e.g. questions on the start site, automatic response forms, surveys, guest books, or online focus groups.

The quality of information on SBV in the Internet

• While in other fields of research like e.g. on health information in the Internet there is a broad discussion about poor information quality in the Internet there is no comparable discussion in the field of school bullying and violence.
• While wrong and misleading information on SBV were not regarded as a central problem it was outlined that often information is repetitive, bland, "middle of the road", non-engaging, and that it often does not provide the hope kids are looking for.
• Often information on SBV gets copied from big English sites what might lead to problems as certain information needed must be country-specific.
• An appropriate strategy for ensuring a high quality of web sites on SBV is an International certification group that specify criteria for good site and that issues quality labels.

Topic 3: Communication and Self Help Sites on SBV

Forums on school bullying and violence

• Factors that could be responsible for the fact that a forum doesn’t work are e.g.: The forum is not popular enough, bad moderation, the forum is poorly structured, the information and contacts provided are not helpful for the users or the users don’t trust the forum.
• The following factors that help making a forum work were suggested: merging several smaller forums to one big forum, avoiding the usage of the term “victim”, offering target oriented closed conferences for small groups, establishing peer support systems to help victims.
• The safety of a forum can never be guaranteed 100%. Nevertheless, the following strategies were suggested for increasing safety among the users: moderation of the forum, password protected closed forums, protected forums in which members have to pay a small fee for access, completion of an online questionnaire or application before receiving a user name and password, personal email exchange with moderator as a precondition for getting access to the forum and personal chats between the victim and the moderator, or an experienced member of the forum.

Cyberbullying

• Cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon that is heavily discussed in many Western countries. - like e.g. New Zealand, Australia, Canada or the United States - while in others - like e.g. Portugal or Germany - it does not seem to be in the focus of public attention to the same extent.
• Reasons that might explain this difference between the countries represented in our conference are e.g. that people are not aware of cyberbullying yet, that there is no term for cyberbullying in the national language or that the media haven’t put it on the public agenda yet