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A
note about bullying-related websites: There are a large number of bullying-related
websites (e.g., a google search for
the term 'bullying' in website titles
gets about 700 sites), with the number
growing rapidly as media coverage
of bullying grows and public awareness
increases. However, there are only
a small number which are useful and
(most important) accurate (based on
the science or "evidence-based').
An example of a site not being useful
or evidence-based would be a site
which promotes the message that bullied
children are primarily responsible
for ending the bullying (e.g., by
getting stronger in some way, or by
ignoring the bullying). Thus, there
are a relatively small number of sites
listed below as recommended. We have
not yet visited many of the bullying-related
sites and more will be added as we
find ones we can recommend. If you have a site you have found useful and would like it reviewed for addition here, please contact Stuart Green at njbullying@yahoo.com or call (908) 522-2581. Coalition organization participants are encouraged to identify recommended sites, and provide a short review.
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Update 7/12:
There are increasingly a range of excellent websites, and we encourage you to visit. Among the best are:
http://www.education.com/topic/school-bullying-teasing/
which has advisement by, among others,
Susan Swearer, PhD, one of the country's most important researchers and
advocates.
Stan Davis' website - www.stopbullyingnow.com.
And the government's website, www.stopbullying.gov, which has
the guidance of Sue Limber, PhD, another of the country's key advocates.
http://brnet.unl.edu
www.education.com/bullying
The two sites above are both associated with the work of Susan Swearer, PhD, a school psychologist whose base is University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She is one of the folks most associated with the view of bullying as an 'ecological' phenomenon, or a problem arising primarily from the social environment (e.g., of schools). That is, from our point of view, she has a useful, accurate view of what bullying is and how to address it. The two websites listed provide a good range of information on the problem. Recommended!
www.bullyinginfo.gov is the new (2011) site at which the federal DOE collects all of its bullying-related information. An alternate address (which may have additional info) is www.stopbullying.gov.
www.ed.gov is the site of the U.S. Department of Education. Entering the term "bullying" in the search field results in numerous pages of good quality information about bullying. A lot of it is duplicated by information on the national campaign site (www.stopbullyingnow.org) but still a good introductory site.
www.cyberbullying.us
Sameer Hinduja (Florida Atlantic University) and Justin Patchin (U of Wisconsin) are two of the steadiest researchers and advocates on cyberbullying issues in the U.S. Although Nancy Willard is an oft-mentioned (e.g., here) force on the issue, and provides very useful guidance, researchers such as Hinduja and Patchin provide the important evidence-based underpinning for refining what we know about cyberbullying and (therefore) guiding useful interventions. For several years, through their website (above), they are also helping the community understand the issue. Recommended!
www.fightcrime.org
"Fight Crime: Invest in Kids" is a national, non-profit organization of chiefs of police and other violence experts and survivors, headquartered in Washington, DC with offices in several states (no NJ office as of yet, but there's one in NY).
They do an
excellent job of analysis and reporting on bullying; their reports are
among the most reliable summaries of what's known and recommended. The
website has a number of useful resources (e.g., a tips sheet for
families about cyberbullying), which you can access from the home page
by typing "bullying" in the home page search field.
www.secondstep.org
This is one of the websites of the Committee for Children, an international organization focused on violence prevention, advocacy and enhanced services for children. The material is thoughtful, research-based and generally reliable. The site is easy to navigate and packed with useful information. Bullying is only one of the issues addressed, but everything on the site is bullying-related and supportive. Recommended.
www.stophazing.org
This
site is a useful 'one-stop shop' for hazing-related
material. Hazing is very much in the
news these days, but what isn't recognized
enough (ever mentioned in stories about
hazing I have seen) is that hazing is
bullying (negative acts by peers, imbalance
of power). (See the Resources page
and new handouts for more information.)
There are a number of passionate and knowledgeable
national experts and advocates for anti-hazing
efforts, first of whom is a journalist,
Hank Nuwer. He has written several very
informative books about hazing and is featured
on a national website. One of the two handouts
on our Resources page ('myths') is their
material. The site is recommended.
antibullying.net
Run
by the University of Edinburgh Department
of Education. This site is a model
in terms of content and design.
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stopbullyingnow.com
| This
is the website of Stan Davis, one of the
earliest Olweus-oriented anti-bullying advocates
in the U.S. Aside from various useful content,
the site also describes his wonderful new
book, Schools Where
Everyone Belongs,
which you can order by clicking on the
picture of the book.
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www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov
Website
of the new HRSA (federal government) anti-bullying
campaign
Take A Stand, Lend A Hand, Stop Bullying
Now. The
government website has excellent content
for adults, although its primary orientation
is to children. In particular, the site
has 45 pages (!) of easily downloadable,
free content, which allows for handouts
for almost every use. The key factor in
the site's quality is that Susan Limber,
a major U.S. Olweus associate, is the government's
key consultant. (Another government consultant
is NJ's own
Leisa-Anne
Smith, Esq., of the NJ
State Bar Foundation., a Coalition member
and key support.)
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medlineplus.gov/bullying
Medline (National Library of Medicine's)
has recently added/upgraded its information
about bullying. The compiled materials
are generally useful, well-referenced
and with good perspective on the issue.
The lead article from CDC ('what is bullying')
is a solid, concise review and there are
lots of good materials for public and
professionals (the site is a 'gateway'
to other sites and materials as well).
As usual, we have to read the material
before we recommend it: Although most
of what's on and linked to the site is
good, there are some materials which omit
important data or misrepresent the issue.
E.g., one of the first links to a Kids
health
paper talks about children who bully having
'similar problems to children who are
bullied', including low self-esteem and
family problems - not accurate. On the
other hand, the same site has a well done
paper on bullying and obesity. Overall,
the site is a good starting point and
useful resource, and reflects the continuing
and growing public focus on bullying.
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www.bullying.co.uk
This
site is British and worth looking at because it represents an extremely
substantial, serious, ongoing, national,
non-profit effort to tackle childhood bullying
(in England, in this case). The material
presented is voluminous, as are the services
(a response to every email, for example,
which now numbers in the thousands),
and -most of all - the gathering and presentation
to visitors of large amounts of bullying-related
information.
Be prepared: the site is dizzying. But you'll
find much that is useful and you'll quickly
see how bullying appears overseas (the
impression from visiting the site, for
one thing, is that suicide is apparently
more common and/or more identified as related
to bullying, there, than in the U.S. We
should note that data from studies of this
issue is sparse, and such comparisons difficult
to make.)
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www.bullypolice.org
This
site (and the organization in various states
related to it) was created by the mother
of a teenage boy who committed suicide after
being bullied. The material is somewhat
uneven and largely oriented to legal issues,
but it represents a great deal of hard and
useful work. This includes an excellent
compilation and tracking of those states
in which there are bullying-related laws,
a good critical review of those laws (and
a 'rating' system for the quality of the
laws) and - most useful of all - the full
text of the law in each state which has
passed one. Take some of it (e.g., book
recommendations, speaker recommendations,
some other material) with caution (although
one of the recommended speakers is a known
quality - Michael Greene, an NJ Coalition
member), but overall a good resource for
what it does.
www.bullying.org is the website of a Canadian initiative started and maintained by Bill Belsey, a teacher. He has a set of websites (bullying.org, cyberbullying.org, bullyingawarenessweek.org, bullyingcourse.com). Notably, his sites seem free of content promoting 'strengthening' of targets as a primary solution for bullying, and his passion and sense of bullying as a community issue is strong and appreciated. He has a lot of great ideas, has obtained great support and organizational partners, and is evidently doing great work. I find the websites hard to navigate, there's a lot of material on the site submitted by others, of variable quality, there's a lot of self-promotional 'clutter' and the newest site (bullycourse) charges for its services. But there is a lot of information on the sites, of good quality. Worth visiting.
Cyberbullying websites:
www.i-safe.org
www.mindoh.com
www.cyberbully.org
This type of computer-based bullying, involving instant messages, cell phone text messaging, and email, among other methods, is apparently growing rapidly. We have no adequate studies yet, as far as I know, but many experts (including the Coalition's Dr. Michael Greene) believe the prevalence is indeed increasing quickly. Cyberbullying may have some unique features, as compared to other forms of bullying: a large population of anonymous bullies and bystanders, all of whom can easily focus on one target, the ability to bully with anonymity, a greater capacity to hide the bullying from adult observation, the ability to rapidly shift focus from one target to another, the ability to use creative methods (e.g., creating short videos) to bully, among other qualities. The three sites above offer reasonable guidelines and information for both children and adults. However, it should be remembered that we do not yet have adequate study of the phenomenon - the information presented is mainly extended from existing expertise on internet safety in general. We should expect that systematic approaches to bullying by schools will also address cyberbullying, but we do not have that information yet. Meanwhile, these sites are a useful start.
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