5 Informational Books About Cyberbullying

5 Must-Read Cyberbullying Books

Cyberbullying Prevention and Response: Expert Perspectives
Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age
Cyberbullying: Causes, Consequences, and Coping Strategies
em>Cyberbullying: What Counselors Need to Know
Impacts of Cyberbullying, Building Social and Emotional Resilience in Schools

Bullying is a behavior older than the schoolyard, but the Internet has given rise to cyberbullying. This elaboration, like its parent medium, removes physical impediments to the traditional problem of peer violence and intimidation among children. However, in the decades since this trend emerged, experts have been compiling data and working to solve the novel issues it presents.

1. Cyberbullying Prevention and Response: Expert Perspectives

Many adults are at a loss as to how they can identify or mitigate the phenomenon of cyberbullying. Much of it takes place in the virtual realm, but its impacts and consequences on a growing number of young targets are no less real. This book represents the collective work of authors who have written in precise, intelligible ways about online bullying and examines issues that teachers, parents, and administrators must combat. The editors and principal authors co-direct the Cyberbullying Research Center and have crafted a handbook for adults seeking to prevent this elaboration of aggressive, verbally violent behavior.

2. Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age

Bullying isn't a new human behavior, notes Kowalski, but new media render it more virulent and difficult to combat than ever. Now, it is no longer confined to a physical location but is an omnipresent onus on children and adolescents because of technological advancements such as instant messaging and social media. This book represents a continuously updated appraisal on the ever-evolving phenomenon of virtual bullying, with practical information for parents and educators who must identify and assist victims of this vicious form of assault.

3. Cyberbullying: Causes, Consequences, and Coping Strategies

In their book, Cyberbullying: Causes, Consequences, and Coping Strategies, authors Palfrey and Weber assess a growing body of both quantitative and qualitative data about the phenomenon represented in urban areas among school-aged children and adolescents. Their inquiry of the interconnected nature of real and online spaces and how aggressive, verbally violent behaviors carried over from one to the other can produce risk-taking behavior or escalation in a physical context. They also evaluate the potential for victims to become perpetrators as a means of retaliation.

4. Cyberbullying: What Counselors Need to Know

School-aged children are more susceptible than ever to this form of bullying, which is not only ubiquitous in the digital age but also embraces some previously isolated suites of behaviors. Author Sheri Bauman explores the compounding impacts of intimidation, cyberstalking, sharing of inappropriate personal details, exploitative sexual advances, isolation, harassing, and verbally aggressive messaging and other phenomena with which children are faced in the modern school context. She also provides tools and strategies for any parent or school personnel seeking to address the behavior.

5. Impacts of Cyberbullying, Building Social and Emotional Resilience in Schools

In her book, Impacts of Cyberbullying, Building Social and Emotional Resilience in Schools, Charlene Chadwick explores the collective phenomenon of cyberbullying and the positive ways that developing strong senses of emotional self can arm children against its damaging impacts. The two most substantial empowering aspects of the virtual world for school bullies are the lack of responsibility for words or actions represented by online anonymity and the ubiquitous access to targets of assault. She notes that while almost anyone is susceptible to this form of violence, school-aged children who are already targets of physical or context-dependent bullying are more likely to be targeted by peers.

While there are a number of helpful and informative texts available about this form of peer aggression, these five books represent current analyses of the data and prosocial approaches to deal with the problem. Cyberbullying is more virulent and damaging than traditional peer cruelty, and it constitutes a growing threat to the safety of schoolchildren everywhere.