Cyberbullying
 

Is there already a thread about this?

I was reading some articles on cyberbullying (there are a few articles so I didn't link it). Of course there is a particular age demographic that is victimized by this.

And, despite the trash talking on GC, GC is not a cyberbullying site. However, if a GCer is (cyber)stalking you and looking for ways to bring your real life to GC and vice versa, the end of one of the MSN articles had resources for victims of cyberbullying:

1. Cyber Bullying Research Center
2. National Crime Prevention Council
3. Stop Cyber Bullying
4. Bully Stoppers
5. Adina's Deck

What say you, GCers, about cyber bullying?

It should be prosecuted just as harshly as bullying/harassment offline...I just know that at this point it's so difficult at times to locate the perpetrator that that's not feasible. Depending on the kind of bullying/stalking it can be worse than a playground bully since what's written on the internet stays there.

Yeah there was one story where the girl was cyberbullied on a social networking site and OF COURSE the perpetrators could not be identified and found.

I have heard of some pretty lame things happening on GLO message boards. It's crazy the vindictive and stupid things that people think of.

[ Probably in the minority on this one ]

I think offline bullying is serious, and cyberbullying/harrassment attached to "real life" (ex. FB, MS, GLO boards, etc) should be taken seriously.

If someone is a member of, say, GardeningForum.com, this person is free to close the browser and move on. When I see "bullying" claims on sites like that, I generally roll my eyes.

IMO when it involves real life information, that's crossing a line. If Suzy on GardeningForum.com starts posting addresses/phone numbers/employers/etc. of Betty, that's a problem. If Suzy is just being a total bitch, Betty can always find something else to do for a few hours.

People don't forget that attaching something negative to someone's name can effect their future job offers, for instance. If Suzy makes a facebook page saying Betty is an STD ridden lady of the night, every time Betty's name is searched, that's what people see. That's a big deal. Then again, if more websites were proactive in enforcing their Terms (which almost always ban harassment of this kind) in most cases there wouldn't be a need to do anything but report Suzy and have her removed from the site, as well as the comments.

This ^. Not that I think it's ok to "bully" on a messageboard either, but that's a different animal from actual harassment. Just exchanging bitchy comments isn't a cause for concern, just an annoyance.

^^^ Hence the "attached to real life" portion of my post.

The "OMG YOU AND YOUR MINIONS ARE HARRASSING ME BECAUSE YOU CALLED ME A BITCH" posts are bullshit, IMO. Posting someone's information or cyber-stalking him/her is not.

At the same time, I urge people who are mentally and emotionally impacted by the GC minions to use the ignore feature. I can't say what impacts people on a personal level. I would never tell people to stop coming to GC if they don't like some of the posters. I will say that GCers amuse themselves in various ways and GC is not that important as to let it have a potentially lasting mental and emotional impact on you.

/public service announcement

If you or anyone you know has a GC bully or is a GC bully, please contact the GC police at 1-800-FUK-OFFF. Thank you.

If what someone says on an internet messageboard (not including harassment) has an impact on a poster's real life, they probably are too sensitive for message boards, period.

See, the day that I'm trying to be understanding and accepting, you are being a hardass.

Yeah but I mean if I cry myself to sleep because someone is mean to me on the internet, lord help me in the "real world". At least here you just press the little red x in the top corner and it all goes away.

I know one thing, the internet thuggery is out of control (not sure if that's the same as cyberbullying). You know the ones that have so much to say via the internet but would never have the guts to say such things to anyone's face. The internet is giving many cowards a voice that otherwise wouldn't be heard (especially racists and bigots).:mad:

Some stuff on GC has gone over the limit. Most of us can think of several examples. The worst effects of cyberbullying don't seem to come about until the aggressee begins to retaliate strongly causing an escalation.

People are going to say shitty things on the internet. Don't say anything that'll get you in trouble if your anonymity is revealed and don't get offended when anonymous people on the internet say bad things about you. The rest'll work itself out.

I'm frankly surprised that we haven't seen a spat of libel/invasion of privacy/etc. lawsuits tied to cyberbullying in recent years.

One problem I see with cyber bullying in the legal sense, is who has jurisdiction over it? even if somebody knows who is bullying somebody, who does the punishing.

KSAViolet, I applaud your aunt & uncle. While the school punishment seems harsh, maybe that's what it took to send a message to the students. Too bad it was your cousin.

I'd just like to throw one more thing into the equation: cyberbullying someone who's 14-15 is a lot different than someone who's 24-25. But in all aspects, it does add a layer to the being bullied onion.

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...F/applause.gif

No need to repeat a bunch of stuff that's been said, but I agree with all those who said bringing real life to the Net and vice versa is crossing the line.

I'm kind of surprised that this thread hasn't Beetlejuiced in shadows of the past...

Claps for your aunt and uncle. It's always heartening to see parents who have their stuff together.

LOL.

I don't know if this counts as cyberbullying, but I think it might:

http://jezebel.com/5661968/horrible-...ed-on-facebook
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news...ors-in-trenton
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news...Offers-Apology

That sounds like all kinds of harassment.

I don't care if my neighbors are complete effing tools, I'm not going to harass a dying child. Jesus.

Dr. Phil the other day was about bullying and cyberbullying.

His guests included a couple whose daughter was decapitated in a car accident. Someone from the scene of the accident took a phone photo of her body and it ended up on a lot of websites. People even went so far as to make negative comments about this dead young lady. For instance, one man said he had sex with her corpse and another person said something about her being a whore.

Everyone has their own sense of humor, some of which can seem strange and unfunny to others but WTF is wrong with people?!

I saw that photo a month or so ago (thanks a lot, Google SafeSearch :mad:). I have an odd sense of humor, but that picture was brutal. I would never make light of it.

Yeah, welcome to GC where having an odd sense of humor can make at least 1 other person chuckle.

I didn't see that photo but I saw the photo of the wrecked car. I don't want to see her dead body. I agree with you that there's NOTHING funny about it. Those people who spread that photo can go to hell.

I agree. I just don't take this online bullying thing as seriously as bullying offline, in person. You don't have to read crap from someone on the Internet. People are just too fragile in some respects. But you're right. When the real life bullying somehow spills over into the Internet, that's different. Like people posting youtube videos of people in humiliating situations.

I admittedly felt malicious glee in hearing that 4chan published their address and did their typical harassment. I mentally slapped myself for it later, but damn those people are assholes.

IMHO, cyberbullying is different in one major respect. Some kid might be a real nut job, and get bullied at school. The bullies might even follow him on the school bus or follow him home.

But with cyberbullying, there's no escape. Go home, watch some tv, and boot up to do homework & see what's going on on the internet and wham! There it is again. The bullies that the kid knows have now influenced total strangers to jump in on him, and it's relentless. Sooner or later, the bullies get the cell phone number, and now that's ruined, too. It's not a matter of turning off the computer or screening the calls, because let's face it, even Wikipedia has bastardized articles that the kid might have to use to do his homework. I would imagine that this same kid has bad dreams, so there is literally no escaping the harrassment.

Bullies are cowards. They are so afraid that they will lose their own standings that they will heckle or join in just to stay on top. Some scapegoats survive this, some don't.

My gosh, there was a kid in my class when I was in high school who was thrown into the Goodwill box every day after school, and sometimes the bullies threw lit matches in after him. It made me sick to my stomach - enough so that I told my mom about it, and she had a friend call the bullies and tell them that she saw what happened, got their names, and would call the police if it ever happened again. It stopped after that, but what if it hadn't? Of all people, I had a good reason NOT to like the scapegoat, but someone had to stand up for this guy, and the bullies were more than I could handle.

He had a chance, because he could go home, do his homework and watch tv. His parents screened his phone calls, so no one was calling him, berating him all night. He got a good night's sleep so he could survive another day.

Had he lived in this day & age, I could totally understand him cracking under the pressure. Seriously.

I can see that, but I'm sure we all know that bullying doesn't stop at the end of the day. The kid may have a break tonight, but it goes right back into effect tomorrow.

The cyber-victim's escape could be not turning on the conmputer/visiting social media sites.

Maybe. But they also know that the entire world can see what's written about them. Whereas a kid that got harassed in high school could look forward to at least getting to start fresh in college before online harassment, now those facebook/myspace pages about them follow them around...and if their bullies are really resourceful and move on to internet sites that won't take harassment down if reported, it's there forever.

This idea of cyber-bullying is disturbing, to me. I don't mean the whole, "So-and-so hurt my feelings on GC, FB, or MS." I mean the, "Let's go on such-and-such website, which features particular schools, and make an entire thread about how so-and-so is such a whore and has STDs." That bothers me that people can just go to (that site) and do that.

Sure, people on here may not agree with one another but, no one (and I truly believe NO ONE) would start a thread about how als463 is a woman of the night or a bigot. I mean, people can do that on FB and MS, though. When people start posting your name, address, phone number, job info, etc. then it is a problem.

Also, WHAT THE HELL to that woman who said that horrible stuff about a 7 year-old? I bet that woman feels remorse. Maybe she feels remorse because she was getting death threats. That woman and her husband are the definition of pure trash. Just wow.

While I do agree that the cyber-victim could escape by not turning on the computer or visiting social media sites, we have to look at how that is victim-blaming. Sure, they could stop going on FB, MS or whatever but, why should they have to because someone else is acting like an a-hole. I'm not talking about going on a forum like GC. I'm talking about FB (which seems to be a major part of everyone's form of communication these days-like texting). Why should someone else suffer because they are being harassed? That's like saying a kid who gets bullied at school could just quit school, switch schools, or wait for college. Why should it have to be that way?

I do see what you were saying and I know that's not how you meant it.

Right it kindof reminds me of the "buyer's remorse" DA in Colorado that's running for office, but with a different crime.

Oh don't even get me started on him. The rapist even admitted on the phone to the victim that it was rape and he STILL doesn't think there's enough evidence.

Off Topic: If you have the video about this, that would be good to post. Being from PA (originally) and living in NY, I have no idea what you are talking about. Please share.

Now, back to the thread.

Well I heard the tape was inadmissible because the suspect didn't know he was being recorded or something.

Here you go:

http://jezebel.com/5661188/sensitive...buyers-remorse

http://jezebel.com/5662177/alleged-r...nate-candidate

Take it with a grain of salt, it's Jezebel - but the more mainstream news sources are always linked at the bottom of the posts.

Yea, I didn't mean that the "cyber-victim" had a complete escape. I just meant that could be his/her "break" for the day, similar to a "real life" victim's break (being at home).

Basically playing devil's advocate for a moment. I still think bullying that spills over into real life sucks.

Don't know if there's video but why would being from PA or living in NY keep you from knowing about something in CO?

Google Ken Buck and "buyer's remorse" you'll find pretty much everything.

Dunno, but you know, she really wanted it because she was drunk! Us women and our slutty ways or something stupid like that.

You stole my thread idea! :mad: :)

/back to the seriousness of this thread