{"id":176,"date":"2026-03-26T18:28:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/chapter\/introduction-to-online-meanness-and-cruelty\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:46:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:46:33","slug":"introduction-to-online-meanness-and-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/chapter\/introduction-to-online-meanness-and-cruelty\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to Online Meanness and Cruelty","rendered":"Introduction to Online Meanness and Cruelty"},"content":{"raw":"Have students access the student chapter <a href=\"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudentwrdsb\/chapter\/online-meanness-and-cruelty-statistics\/\">Online Meanness and Cruelty: Statistics<\/a> or share it on a digital projector or digital whiteboard.\r\n\r\nAsk students to guess each statistic, then have them flip \"Turn\" to see the correct number.\r\n\r\nAsk students:\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--examples\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Which numbers were <strong>lower <\/strong>than they thought?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\nWhy do they think people might think things like cyberbullying or sending sexts are <strong>more common<\/strong> than they really are?\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>They might happen more often in movies or TV than in real life;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>You might hear about a small number of high-profile examples;<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Even if a small number of people are mean or cruel to others or share sexts, a larger number may <strong>witness <\/strong>these things. (You can point out that more than twice as many Canadian kids witnessed mean and cruel behaviour online than engaged in it.)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Which numbers were <strong>higher <\/strong>than they thought?<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\nWhy might people <strong>underestimate <\/strong>how many people who witnessed mean and cruel behaviour did something about it, or how many people are hurt by online prejudice?\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>People might not want to share that online prejudice hurt them, even if they weren't the targets.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>We might not know how many people who witnessed cyberbullying did something about it because many of the ways we can help <strong>aren't visible <\/strong>in public online spaces.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","rendered":"<p>Have students access the student chapter <a href=\"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudentwrdsb\/chapter\/online-meanness-and-cruelty-statistics\/\">Online Meanness and Cruelty: Statistics<\/a> or share it on a digital projector or digital whiteboard.<\/p>\n<p>Ask students to guess each statistic, then have them flip &#8220;Turn&#8221; to see the correct number.<\/p>\n<p>Ask students:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--examples\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Which numbers were <strong>lower <\/strong>than they thought?<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>Why do they think people might think things like cyberbullying or sending sexts are <strong>more common<\/strong> than they really are?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They might happen more often in movies or TV than in real life;<\/li>\n<li>You might hear about a small number of high-profile examples;<\/li>\n<li>Even if a small number of people are mean or cruel to others or share sexts, a larger number may <strong>witness <\/strong>these things. (You can point out that more than twice as many Canadian kids witnessed mean and cruel behaviour online than engaged in it.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--exercises\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<p class=\"textbox__title\">Which numbers were <strong>higher <\/strong>than they thought?<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>Why might people <strong>underestimate <\/strong>how many people who witnessed mean and cruel behaviour did something about it, or how many people are hurt by online prejudice?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People might not want to share that online prejudice hurt them, even if they weren&#8217;t the targets.<\/li>\n<li>We might not know how many people who witnessed cyberbullying did something about it because many of the ways we can help <strong>aren&#8217;t visible <\/strong>in public online spaces.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-176","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":175,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/176\/revisions\/486"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/175"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/176\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=176"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/explore-teacher-wrdsb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}