CDC Recognizes Cyberbullying

The Center for Disease Control released a report, Electronic Media and Youth Violence, on September 8th. According to the emailed press release, "Electronic aggression is an emerging public health issue," and therefore should be acknowledged by educators, caregivers, and researchers.

I find it interesting that the feds feel the need to rename cyberbullying "electronic aggression." Isn't one term enough? Is it possible that people might confuse the two and think they are really separate things? I hope not. As an academic, I am often annoyed by the jargon that separates different camps. The last thing we need is to begin divisive investigations on this topic, based on a public health vs. a psychological/educational approach.

And, not surprisingly, the brief mentions nothing about how many times this sort of aggression has sexual themes. In fact, while searching the brief, I found no mention of "boyfriend/girlfriend," "sex" (except for one parenthetical comment about how what they were referring to was NOT sexual), or "stalking." While I am happy to see that the CDC is addressing this issue directly, there's still a long way to go before adults see that the sexual nature of so many of these instances of electronic aggression cannot be ignored.