The document describes 4 stories of cyberbullying incidents among teenagers. In the first story, Ian creates a fake social media profile to trick his friend Mike into a online romance as retaliation. The second story involves a group of girls who created an insulting rating group about their friend Nicole on social media. The third story is about a boy, Jesse, whose secret crush was revealed to others without his consent via an instant message sent by his friend during a sleepover. The fourth story describes how a girl, Jaleesa, shared an unflattering photo of her former friend Kim through text messages after they had a falling out.

1. CYBERBULLYING
READ THE FOUR STORIES AND ANSWER:
a. What is the problem?
b. What is a possible solution?
Ian made a plan to get back at Mike for telling some personal secrets about him. He created
a fictional profile on a social networking site so he could carry on a fake online romance
with Mike. The cyber romance went on for weeks. Mike was hooked by a person he thought
was a student at a neighboring high school, a friend of his friends. At that point, Ian told all
their friends about his trick on Mike. When asked why he did it Ian said, “To teach him a
lesson.”
A group of girls were fighting with one of their friends, Nicole. They created a “Rate
Nicole” group on a social networking site. They posted embarrassing photos of Nicole from
middle school and high school and invited their hundreds of “friends” to join the group to
look at the photos, and tell Nicole how she stacked up. Cruel and crude comments were
posted on the group’s message board. One message said that some girls were planning to
beat up Nicole. At school, Nicole got text messages on her cell phone saying, “Take a look
at what everyone thinks of you.”

2. Jesse has some friends at his home for a sleepover. The kids are getting a little bored.
Anthony says, “Let’s go online and see who else from school is online.” Anthony uses
Jesse’s password and types an instant message to a popular girl on Jesse’s buddy list: “I
really like Mai Yin.” Some boys laugh. Others are quiet. Jesse really does like Mai Yin, and
he told Anthony quietly the other day. But he didn’t expect Anthony to tell other kids. The
next day at school, Jesse finds out that everyone knows he likes Mai Yin.
Image from: http://inside224a.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/text_message.jpg Access:
September 01st 2009.
Jaleesa and Kim are friends at Jefferson Middle School. Kim tells Jaleesa that she doesn’t
want to hang out with her any more. Jaleesa is angry and upset. She uploads a photo of Kim
from her cell phone that was taken at a slumber party two weeks earlier. Jaleesa sends the
photo to everyone on her buddy list with a message attached: “Kim is such a ****.”
Texts adapted from: http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/cyberbullying/lessons/ Access:
September 01st 2009.
Images from:
Text 1 - http://www.prometheus.net.au/images/social_networking_sites.jpg
Text 2 - http://img110.imageshack.us/i/filtro1jj8.jpg/#q=message%20board%20orkut
Text 3 - http://drykinha.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/msn.jpg
Text 4 - http://inside224a.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/text_message.jpg
Access: September 01st 2009.