Introduction to Online Meanness and Cruelty
Have students access the student chapter Online Meanness and Cruelty: Statistics or share it on a digital projector or digital whiteboard.
Ask students to guess each statistic, then have them flip “Turn” to see the correct number.
Ask students:
Which numbers were lower than they thought?
Why do they think people might think things like cyberbullying or sending sexts are more common than they really are?
- They might happen more often in movies or TV than in real life;
- You might hear about a small number of high-profile examples;
- Even if a small number of people are mean or cruel to others or share sexts, a larger number may witness these things. (You can point out that more than twice as many Canadian kids witnessed mean and cruel behaviour online than engaged in it.)
Which numbers were higher than they thought?
Why might people underestimate how many people who witnessed mean and cruel behaviour did something about it, or how many people are hurt by online prejudice?
- People might not want to share that online prejudice hurt them, even if they weren’t the targets.
- We might not know how many people who witnessed cyberbullying did something about it because many of the ways we can help aren’t visible in public online spaces.