Cyber-Bullying

The topic of cyber bullying was all over Morning Ireland this morning. I presume Prime Time are doing a special on it. I only heard bits so I am not sure.

I later came across the story of a Missouri woman who is prosecuted for activities which led to the suicide of a 13 year old neighbour.

Link to CNN
Link to LA Times

The proliferation of mobile phones with cameras and recording capabilities has greatly increased the risks and dangers of this type of bullying. Publication of a humiliating video has a good chance of causing serious permanent damage to a child's whole life. Digital cameras and camera phones should be banned from all schools and other areas where children gather unless the authorities or parents authorize it. Should this be written into our law?

I've had experience of it directly in class and with teenagers outside of class - here and in Spain. I took one Spanish fellas mobile phone away from him as he was acting the mickey in class with it and I was reprimanded by my boss for doing that - it was Enrique's phone and his parents gave it to him and it was his property and I had no right I was told . When there isn't a rule in some schools then it would be hard to get it into law.

Kids using phones to video teachers as well - how can this be allowed? Kids using phones to video and record adults outside the school too? It's not just rude it has potential legal implications, must have. For a start it is just downright rude and society needs to go on that first before anything heavier. I was at a student's house the other day and chatting to his parents and he started to record us ... I let him know about it though his parents seemed very casual about it; I wonder do teenagers get away without being disciplined too much in our society... or at least are not regularly shown where the boundaries of good manners are...

The Missouri case - 'fictional 'boy' on networking site wooed teenager then dumped her'
Cyber-bully link to suicide

Plenty of schools do ban phones during school hours. The schools I know are flexible about letting students use the office school for messages to parents etc. so there isn't an issue.

Teenagers need firm, reasonable boundaries.

There are some specific things which, if implemented, can sharply reduce this form of bullying.

School

*block access to social-networking sites such as Bebo, MySpace, facebook and Orkut,
*monitor internet searches by students.
*ensure there is a teacher supervising internet access.
*mobiles should at least be on silent during classes and used only at break times.

Home

*the computer should be in a frequently-used room, like the sitting room/kitchen. This means that parents can monitor their children's access.
*if parents are worried, they should ask their children if anything's wrong and be able to check on their child's internet usage.
*parents should explain the dangers of using the web and the damage caused to people by cyber-bullying to children.

Ard Taoiseach, blocking access to Bebo etc. in school is not an answer in my view rather education on those topics as well as promoting other areas like programming and blogging. There is a whole etiquette that kids have to learn about the internet - report on Prime Time now...

There is a whole etiquette around this technology that we are ignoring to teach and foster. You DO NOT record a private conversation without a person's consent. Recording a public address without consent ok but a private conversation between me and you should not be recorded without consent. Similarly with recording someone by video, same thing. If you don't have a person's consent then you should be subject to law like a copyright law or something.

Auditor #9 wrote:Ard Taoiseach, blocking access to Bebo etc. in school is not an answer in my view rather education on those topics as well as promoting other areas like programming and blogging. There is a whole etiquette that kids have to learn about the internet - report on Prime Time now...

I accept that there needs to be education, but I think that a blockage of these websites can help create a more productive environment in classes for students.

This internet think won't catch on anyway.

However, there is much you can do to try and prevent cyber-bullying, much like there is a lot you can do to prevent actual bullying but it's going to happen one way or another because children are crafty and evil little buggers when they want to be and will find a way.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to leave rude messages on AT's bebo page.

cookiemonster wrote:

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to leave rude messages on AT's bebo page.

Do that, and I'll, like totally smack ye a' the nxt Social!

OMG LOL U SUX!

cookiemonster wrote:OMG LOL U SUX!

WHAEVA, TOOL!

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:OMG LOL U SUX!

WHAEVA, TOOL!

MNGR!

cookiemonster wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cookiemonster wrote:OMG LOL U SUX!

WHAEVA, TOOL!

MNGR!

GNGR!

I've run out of TXT speak now.

It took myself and my mother a good quarter of an hour to figure out what "TTYS" was the other evening.

(Talk To You Soon, by the way)

cookiemonster wrote:I've run out of TXT speak now.

It took myself and my mother a good quarter of an hour to figure out what "TTYS" was the other evening.

(Talk To You Soon, by the way)

OMG! FFS CM! u r a total n00b, d0 you 3ven kn0w wh@t 1337 1s?

It's 1337 $p34k, lozer!

cookiemonster wrote:It's 1337 $p34k, lozer!

G00d, uderwoize 1'd b33n c0mpl3tl3y marlet for y@! lol

the internet is evil so says rte

Maybe we should implement laws which protect people from being recorded or photographed even if they are in a public place. Stiff civil sanctions could ensure this. Exemptions could be put in place for registered publications and tv stations with editorial control or responsibility. Obviously this would impact on freedom of speech but that could perhaps be provided for in the law, i.e. no penalty if part of news reporting or political or no embarrassment caused with strict liability and assumption of embarrassment if the victim is a minor. There could also be a delayed element to any financial penalty so that the perpetrator would have to pay a portion of the damages themselves, perhaps by age 22, even though they committed the act while a minor. financial penalties for schools could also work as the schools would make sure to make it a condition of enrolment that the parents would pay the money back. Immediate expulsion should also be explicitly permitted.

cookiemonster wrote:It's 1337 $p34k, lozer!

No idea. It's not in my #defines.

yeah but the thing is you cant' prevent these things as they happen, neither can the principals, only punish afterwards,too late then, i wanted to know if the program asked how long it took for those particular videos to be removed, they didn't mention it so maybe the took them down quickly, but im sure you could find fights that have been up there for ages.

Well, with no effective penalty there is no prevention. Children will try stuff all the time but if they are going to be expelled then that will change things.

Also, I think changing roms and toilet facilities need to be rethought. Perhaps there should only be single person bathrooms for use by students with no communal washing/changing areas. If people have to get changed for PE then perhaps they should have to use towels or sarongs to cover themselves the same way they do on the beach. That way teachers could more effectively patrol what is going on in those areas.

I think teachers generally supervise buildings anyway and for that reason I think that children involved in fights in school buildings have been let down by teachers. Certainly, when I was in secondary school, areas which were not in use were locked so they cold not be accessed by students without supervision. Classrooms were not even opened until 10 minutes before class in the morning. Changing rooms were not accessible at lunch time or after hours. Any fights had to take place outdoors and this meant they were easily avoided by those who had no interest in them.