Seminar Takes On The ‘Dark, Lizard-Brain Coldness’ Of Cyberbullying

ACROSS AMERICA — Cyberbullying isn’t just bullying moved to the computer or phone screen.

Nicholas Carlisle, the founder of the anti-bullying program No Bully, used to think that.

No longer.

“Maybe in the early years, there was some truth in that,” he wrote in an email announcing a free online seminar next week on the differences between face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying. “After all, many students who are bullied during the school day are targeted online by the same students when they go online.

“The reality is that the two types of bullying are very different,” he said. “Online is a brave new world with its own norms, conventions and unique practices.”

Tuesday’s online seminar begins at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and is open to educators and others interested in developing bully-free schools. Power of Zero, which sponsors the No Bully program, is accepting reservations for the seminar.

In it, Carlisle will discuss the changing face of cyberbullying, as well as insights gained over 20 years of No Bully programs in schools.

Research by Thorn, a group founded by actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore around the issue of child trafficking, has shown that texting and sharing images non-consensually with others are now seen as normal behavior among adolescents. Another Europe-based study of 16- to 19-year-olds by the Institute for Connected Communities, found that about half of them had engaged in activity that could be considered criminal, including sharing images without the person’s permission, hate speech, hacking, fraud and money muling.

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Carlisle said what may most clearly differentiate cyberbullying from face-to-face bullying are evolving forms of aggression and terms to describe the new tools of combat: trolling, flaming, cyberstalking, doxing, outing, revenge porn, identity theft and sextortion.

“There’s a dark, lizard-brain coldness to these online behaviors that takes cyberbullying into a different league from what so many of us experienced when we were at school,” he said.

The No Bully seminar was announced a couple of days after the American Psychiatry Association issued its first-ever health advisory on social media use among youth.

Based on research showing anxiety, depression and loneliness increased during the pandemic, the advisory makes 10 recommendation aimed at parents, teachers, policymakers and members of the tech industry, who the ACA said “share responsibility to ensure adolescents’ well-being.”

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The recommendations are focused heavily on parents and stress the benefits of social media literacy training. Robert Keane, a psychologist at Walden Behavioral Care, an inpatient facility that helps teens with eating disorders, told NPR that parents are crying out for help.

“We’re in a crisis here and a family’s ability or a parent’s ability to manage this right now is very limited,” he said. “Families really need help.”