Stop Cyberbullying

Well I hate to bring the mood down or anything but I just read some blog posts which didn't suprise me particularly but shocked me none-the-less. There is a danger, I believe, of this new community driven web being ruined by a small yet powerful minority. For want of a better term, I will call them bullies.

Kathy Sierra has been through a dreadful ordeal recently, I won't go into details (here is more on the matter - it's not pleasant reading, I won't lie). There have also been reports of children getting bullyed online via sites like bebo and myspace. One such story in the uk can be found here, again it isn't pleasant.

Now, I don't post this up to bring you down. I just think that more should be done to stop it. This is just a shout out: go to stopcyberbullying.ning.com and get involved, post something up on your blog to discourage bullying (but more importantly to encourage decent behaviour), and finally if you do have kids and they go on the net just keep an eye on them - read the comments on their MySpace page, check any forums they go on. I understand that kids need freedom and independence but their safety and well being is far more important.

Sorry to go on but I hate bullies, cyber or otherwise, and we as part of the web community need to start taking it seriously.

Pete.

hmmmm, I think this is really stupid to be honest. I mean come on, if someone is emailing me being a jerk...I am just going to delete their message and won't think about it again. Even they keep doing...I will ban their email address from contacting me. People are so stupid. I get stupid myspace comments all the time...SPAM...and I just delete it and move on, half the time I don't even read it.

That's you though, if you were young or more sensitive and the comments were threatening or abusive it may be a different story. How would you react if your child or girlfriend say was being subjected to this behaviour.

I wouldn't stand for it in real life, I'm certainly not going to stand for it on the 'net. Call it a matter of principle.

Pete.

I guess, but most people delete SPAM when they get it...lol, But I kinda see your point, but think it is a little far fetched...of corse who am I to judge, I never read my SPAM...lol

As for kids...none thank goodness. So I can't say what I would do...besides train them to hit the delete button when they get SPAM...adn laugh at it and move on.

I agree on the spam side of stuff, but I personally don't take abuse that well. I don't get upset at all, the opposite. I don't care what you've said it's the fact you ever though you get away with saying it is my problem (not you personally, Jacob) and then I go green and jump really high like in that film.

I was taking more about personalised stuff as well, where they target someone specifically. And it happens far too regularly so it isn't far fetched at all - so I'll have to disagree with you on that one.

Pete.

hahaha...I guess we are just going to agree to disagree...lol If someone won't leave me alone I ban them from contacting me. If I don't want to talk with someone...again I ban them. But I understand how that might get old after a while...that is probably why I hated high school so much...lol

So did you just ban people from talking to you in the corridor? In my high school if someone kept bugging you, you hit them. If they came back then you didn't hit them hard enough. Primitive but effective.

And I was just going on about bullying. Hmmm....interesting....

Pete.

hahaha...yeah pretty much the same at my high school. It was a horrible school there was so many fights...lol, In fact my class was so bad they made 5 different maths teachers quit...lol

One of the lads in my class got expelled for drug dealing. Amazing, he seemed really nice as well. I wonder where it all went wrong.

So funny.

Pete.

I heard second hand that a kid at one of the middle schools here in town was getting bullied a lot. Some kids we're throwing rocks at him and taping it. The mother found the videos on YouTube. That made me sick to my stomach when I heard that. Makes me want to go out and find the little bastards that are destroying that kid's youth.

Something I was raised with and I have never forgotten.

Sticks and Stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you.

Remember, there are people who use their brains to think and there are those who just use them to hold their ears apart. Which group do cyberbullies belong to?

I couldn't agree with you more.