Directed at policy makers, legislators, educators, parents, the legal community, and anyone concerned about current public policy responses to sexting and cyberbullying, this book examines the lines between online joking and legal consequences. It offers an analysis of reactive versus preventive legal and educational responses to these issues using evidence-based research with digitally empowered kids. Shaheen Shariff highlights the influence of popular and 'rape' culture on the behavior of adolescents who establish sexual identities and social relationships through sexting. She argues that we need to move away from criminalizing children and toward engaging them in the policy development process, and she observes that important lessons can be learned from constitutional and human rights frameworks. She also draws attention to the value of children's literature in helping the legal community better understand children's moral development and in helping children clarify the lines between harmless jokes and harmful postings that could land them in jail.

This book looks in depth at the emerging issue of cyber-bullying. In this increasingly digital world cyber-bullying has emerged as an electronic form of bullying that is difficult to monitor or supervise because it often occurs outside the physical school setting and outside school hours on home computers and personal phones. These web-based and mobile technologies are providing young people with what has been described as: 'an arsenal of weapons for social cruelty'. These emerging issues have created an urgent need for a practical book grounded in comprehensive scholarship that addresses the policy-vacuum and provides practical educational responses to cyber-bullying.Written by one of the few experts on the topic, Cyber-Bullying develops guidelines for teachers, head teachers and administrators regarding the extent of their obligations to prevent and reduce cyber-bullying. The book also highlights ways in which schools can network with parents, police, technology providers and community organizations to provide support systems for victims (and perpetrators) of cyber-bullying.

This book looks in depth at the emerging issue of cyber-bullying. In this increasingly digital world cyber-bullying has emerged as an electronic form of bullying that is difficult to monitor or supervise because it often occurs outside the physical school setting and outside school hours on home computers and personal phones. These web-based and mobile technologies are providing young people with what has been described as: 'an arsenal of weapons for social cruelty'. These emerging issues have created an urgent need for a practical book grounded in comprehensive scholarship that addresses the policy-vacuum and provides practical educational responses to cyber-bullying. Written by one of the few experts on the topic, Cyber-Bullying develops guidelines for teachers, head teachers and administrators regarding the extent of their obligations to prevent and reduce cyber-bullying. The book also highlights ways in which schools can network with parents, police, technology providers and community organizations to provide support systems for victims (and perpetrators) of cyber-bullying.

Directed at policy makers, legislators, educators, parents, the legal community, and anyone concerned about current public policy responses to sexting and cyberbullying, this book examines the lines between online joking and legal consequences. It offers an analysis of reactive versus preventive legal and educational responses to these issues using evidence-based research with digitally empowered kids. Shaheen Shariff highlights the influence of popular and 'rape' culture on the behavior of adolescents who establish sexual identities and social relationships through sexting. She argues that we need to move away from criminalizing children and toward engaging them in the policy development process, and she observes that important lessons can be learned from constitutional and human rights frameworks. She also draws attention to the value of children's literature in helping the legal community better understand children's moral development and in helping children clarify the lines between harmless jokes and harmful postings that could land them in jail.