The evolution of iBullying

Back in January it was Corey Corey Corey.

Now it's iPhone iPhone iPhone.

On the tip of every tech-teen's tongue.

And it will take Cyberia into its next era.

The era of: The Smartphone.

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Voice, then text communication have been the core functions of mobiles since they rose to prominence in the late 90's.

But only in the last few years has other, more exciting functions been widely incorporated, such as cameras, video reordering and calling, Bluetooth transfer, picture transfer (MMS), and the internet.

Mobiles have already had their fair share of cyber-issues - text bullying - text addiction - fake sender id's, scams, the spreading of party details, the production and access of inappropriate content, and theft to name a few.

But their focus, in general, thus far, has still been on talking and texting.
And that's all about to change.

Smartphones have been around for years. But they haven’t really taken to kids yet - rather their prominence is in the business community.

And because the focus of mobiles so far hasn't been their extra features - such as internet - the negative effects of such things on mobiles hasn't been that big, pretty minimal.

But the focus of Smartphones is just the opposite - the internet, camera's and all the like - to make them as useful as possible.

The Nielsen Online Australian Internet + Technology report 2007 looked at the difference between features of mobiles, and the use of them. The biggest difference was to do with mobile internet. The report found that although about 66% of mobiles had internet functionality - only about 27% of people who had it, used it - so less than half who have it use it.

I think the 2 main reasons why the mobile internet hasn't been embraced by kids are; 1) It is very expensive to use and a lot of the time kids are worried because they're not sure what the cost will be and 2) The sheer effort of visiting, navigating and using the web on tiny little screens is so inconvenient kids just can't be bothered to.

And that wasn't making businesses money. So Apple came up with a cunning plan - to address these issues – creating a mobile with internet that people will love to use. So they firstly put in wireless internet - so when you have access to that, which in many places there is - the internet will be completely free - and make it much easier to use, to navigate, to type in addresses, have multiple pages sites, click on links, zoom in and out and all the like. Essentially, to make mobile internet use as convenient as pyshically possible.

And make it cheap. Very cheap.

Through Apple's own research, they found the main reason people didn't buy the original iPhone was that it cost just too much. I was expecting it to be near $1000 when it came out in Australia. So they cut it right down into a really competitive contention, around $250 for the smaller model - and with some phone plans - free at first.

Sounds very profitable - that's why we're soon going to see a flood of other, similar devices coming onto the Aussie market soon - such as the HTC Diamond, Nokia N96, Blackberry Bold, Samsung Omnia and the LG Secret.

Don't have any doubt - none of them will conquer the iPhone though. Apple just has that invinsible X-factor.

So say goodbye to mobiles. Welcome to the rise of the smartphone.

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So how does this associate with the main cyber-safety issues of: Bullying, Addiction, Privacy, Security and Inappropriate Content?

Firstly, the simple increase of time kids spend on the net - on social networking sites and MSN, that smartphones will result in, will obviously increase the internet-bullying that goes on.

And if there is wireless internet in a school - expect kids to be looking down under their desks all day - as instead of doing maths, they'll be on MySpace. And they won't have to worry about the cost - wireless internet is free of course.

It'll increase the amount of coordinated technological harassment taking place - groups of kids will sit around planning their cyber-attacks on social networking sites and MSN - more cyber-gangs, if you like.

Kids will film, and take photos of other kids secretly, or knowingly but without consent - manipulating them and doing whatever they want, embarrassing and humiliating them via visual means.

So it will increase and intensify internet-bullying quite a bit.

Then comes addiction.

Now it's easy for parents to take a physically grounded PC out of a kids room and put it in an open family area to help prevent internet addiction. It's a little harder for kids to smuggle laptops into their rooms and be on the internet wirelessly under their covers throughout the night - but it is happening.

And mobiles aren't as much of an issue - text addiction is just not as common.

But the pure portability of smartphones, not much bigger than credit cards - detached from all but kids hips pockets, will change this all. If you have wireless internet at home - or your neighbours have open networks, which many do - then kids will be able to go on the internet as much as they want throughout the night - possibly without their parents having a clue. Chatting on MSN - Social Networking in the dark hours – what could be better?

Addiction, and the time kids spend online, will get out of control. And it'll be extremely hard to stop.

Privacy shouldn't be inflicted upon that much.

Security will a bit - more bluetooth connections to hack, and a lot of valuable material to steal.

And it will be an inappropriate content nightmare.

Girls, and fewer boys, already take pictures of their nude bodies and send them to certain people on mobiles - and often, for many different reasons, they are forwarded on and spread around and around until everyone's seen them. They feel destroyed. This will happen much, much more.

And such a portable, and personal device will open up access to porn like never before - again with wireless internet behind closed bedroom doors at night - and with their hefty hard drives a whole load will be able to be saved to watch whenever they desire.

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So what can be done?

As always, educate - but no matter what the impact won't be able to be controlled as effectively as in the past. That’s because of the portability.

Parents will have to understand that giving kids these portable, multifunctional devices is giving them the ability to look up any material whenever they want, as long as they have wireless internet. So essentially parents would be saying I have my full trust in you, have this. And many kids are trustworthy - so as long as they are, and don't show risk factors, then that may well be ok.

But at home wireless networks, if parents are concerned about addiction, should be turned off at night time. But sometimes that won't work because neighbours will have them... which really leaves no option - other than to ban the devices at night.

Schools as they always do can filter the internet at the source (installing a filter on the devise itself will be most likely disabled my a kid in minutes) - but I expect a range of proxy applications to soon be made that will help void any filters at the source anyway.

To stop inside-class wagging schools could consider disabling access to wireless networks in certain classes, time's etc.

Clear cyber-safety policies backed up with effective education programs teaching clearly how to prevent/deal with any bullying should be implemented to ensure that is kept at a minimum.

This should also make kids vividly aware of the possible ramifications of sending inappropriate pics of oneself to others - and to stop porn being saved, spread ... well just like controlling neighbour network addiction ... will require someone much smarter than me to figure out how to fix.

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All strategies of dealing with the Internet based problems that could be dealt due to the physically grounded nature of computers in a house will now become redundant.

The PC will really be in the pocket.

Apple, a company thats image is nothing less than cutting edge, is in a perfect position to consider and help address these issues through funding research and education programs themselves - but this will really show, whether behind their slick face, Apple is just in it for the money.

So unless, again I say, we get the education and strategies to all the parties involved - the rise of the smartphones will conquer us all too soon.

Cyber-Bullying's Image Problem

Someone call Max Markson.

Last month I said, "the words ‘Cyber-Bullying’ have a humorous quality often exploited by teenagers, so use the words ‘Online Harassment’ instead."

And I just knew it was true - a lot of teenagers, especially older boys, tend to disregard online abuse when the term cyber-bullying is used. Bullying isn't funny. Cyber isn't funny. But when cyber is used in conjunction with something else, like bullying, for some, unexplainable reason, it is. It's not because kids think bullying people over the internet is funny - it's just something to do with the word. Maybe not 'funny' for some - but silly. It's not perceived like this because kids are bad - it's just a general thing to do with youth humor.

And this theory I think is proved today with some new research that has just come out of America - link. In a survey conducted by SAFE (Substance Abuse Free Environment) of 3,350 school students across multiple levels, 26.2 percent answered yes when asked if they had "received a threatening e-mail, text message or instant message". But when asked directly if they had "been a victim of cyber-bullying" only 10.9 responded yes.

Receiving threatening messages is, in essence, cyber-bullying, but less than half of those who had received threatening messages saw it that way. Why this strange and substantial difference?

It's because, put simply, Cyber-Bullying has a serious image problem amongst youth.

Also, because a lot of teenagers aren't sensitive, they tend to fob it off as, well, a non-problem. Usually the top of the social crop. And subsequently the collective school attitude follows.

But not all kids have a psyche of steel.


Using the term 'online harassment', or something else, instead of cyber-bullying, to contend the problem of cyber-bullying, would not help its reputation in terms of its severity as a problem, but it would remove any element of humor the word may project, which if anything, would help it be perceived seriously by kids. And it matters because if they don't take the concept seriously, because of a word, there is a lesser chance advice on the subject will achieve any traction in their minds.

So educators and the community must account for this in cyber-safety responses.


Words can make or brake something when it comes to kids. Cyber-Bullying, although well intended, just doesn't cut it.

What Classification?

Recently my friend Michael Carr-Gregg blogged - link - about the new movie coming out called 'The Happening' - link. Not because of its deplorable critical reception, but its possibly devastating psychological connotations. It is a film about suicide - 'The Happening' referring to a phenomenon where people shoot, stab and plunge their way off rooftops to violent deaths.

Many psychological studies have found media that contains suicide methods may promote a 'werther effect' - copycat suicides - especially in young people.

So the Australian Psychological Society is arguing that this film, instead of being designated an MA ratings, should get an R rating - to be seen in the cinemas by people psychologically more developed - perhaps decreasing the chance it could have negative ramifications.

And so it should. Any measures to decrease its exposure should be taken. I've said once and I'll say it again - the best society is one where freedom is granted to an extent where people can't harm other people or themselves. This may promote people harming themselves.

But there is a huge dilemma. A huge dilemma not with just this movie, but all movies, games, and music. This affects the entire classification system. And as always, it's due to the digital age we live in.

Parents can no longer rest assure that these classifications will keep there kids eyes from this worrying material. Because the entire classification system is being fundamentally undermined. Because increasingly kids, especially older teens, are illegally downloading music, games and movies for free - voiding any classification system in the world. No laws apply.

So no matter what this film is rated - it may not really matter. Because kids will simply download it. Too easy. In fact, thousands of people are sharing it on sites like this right now - link.

Where classifications, guidelines and ratings for the media used to have almost complete control over what kids could watch - a lot of that control has been lost. The control now lies with the kids. And the parents, too. But ultimately it's too hard to regulate with this ramphant cyber-world.

The reccomendation that this movie should recieve an R ratings is a good one - because it can only be good. It will raise awareness as well. But unfortunely it's not foolproof. And there is really nothing much that can be done about it. Just another detriment of Cyberia...