Let’s also not forget that alot of cyberbullying happens to children and teens, a group that places a high regard on what other people think, and some of them put down others in an misguided attempt to keep themselves from being “victims”. A well-placed rumor, whether on the net or in person could cause someone to be ostracized and isolated if not physically attacked.
This is the second time I have read about this, but I have no idea what it is. I realize that it would be a bad idea for anyone to link to it here, so please do not try to satisfy my curiosity by contacting me at tneal at partners dot org.
I’ve been a victim of cyber bullying, someone took a spite to me and told a pack of lies about me in a chatroom, I then was flamed “fuck off you bitch” being the most popular ‘comment’, was sent PMs telling me “I hate you, I’m never posting here again” and emails including one from someone telling me I needed to be locked up because I’m a danger to the public…
There is a message board dedicated to the hatred of me where people have posted all sorts of crap about my mental health.
It might not bother yous, but I’ve suffered several panic attacks as a result of the stress caused by the harassment
It’s not that hard. A friend with some but not much Photoshop experience replaced his head with someone else’s. It took all of about five minutes and while it looked faked, you really had to look to see that.
I wonder how many administrators would give any online image more than a cursory glance. That’s where the danger is, not in any particular skill level.
Robin
Bullying is not limited to physical assault. It never was. It is ANY form of intimidation or threat.
I’m not saying that cyberbullying doesn’t exist, but in the examples you use it wouldn’t be that hard to block out a bully.
On IMs like MSN Messenger, for example, the only people who can send you messages are the ones you’ve allowed on your list… no one is forced to be on systems where anyone is able to message them. And it doesn’t matter how often a bully changes their email if they don’t know yours.
The problem is that most kids DON’T have the sense to just avoid doing things that make them easy targets.
I am kind of curious, one person’s lying in a chat room inspired a “we hate Lobelia” message board? What sort of forum were you involved with that set this off?
Not accusing at all but I’m curious because the only time I’ve really heard about an “anti-fan” forum (with more than 1 member,lol) about a non-celebrity was with a former member here named I_Dig_Bad_Boys (a.k.a IDBB, a.k.a 80sHairMetalMaven). She had a habit of trolling Disney sites and earned her [url href=“http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=fixiechicken42&mode=full”>anti-fan site trolling breast feeding LJ communities.
Damn, screwed that up three ways from Sunday! I would have previewed but the board stalled out on me so I just hit “submit” on the third try.
“fixiechicken” anti-fan site(she called herself “dixiechicken” on the breastfeeding sites)
Elaine Benes: “Oh, we just teased her until she developed an eating disorder.”
Another aspect that makes verbal (be it in person, phone or internet) bullying so much worse than physical is that typically the power the person has is directly proportional to the social status within the audience that they have and you do not. In a way being physically bullied is being attacked by an idiot, and verbally is being attacked by his village. If you have the power to respond in words such that your response carries weight with your society, you are probably not being bullied to begin with. Yet, your only option is to either accept the rejection and ignore it or escalate the conflict into violence if you feel that you are capable of that.
The escalation into violence will probably happen with any person given a long enough period of harrassment, and then suddenly you’re the bad guy and the laws and rules meant to protect you are now protecting your tormentors. Most likely for most kids being bullied, the social system tormenting them is their only allowed social system outside of the home. Whatever recourse you seek, you still have to stay with these same people and interact with them until either you move or they move. This is not so in the adult world where if you use the legal system to defend yourself, you typically choose not to interact with the same people ever again if at all possible. Kids do not have that choice.
I was harrassed until end of 6th grade, at which point I had enough and made it very clear that any verbal attacks on my person will result in violent reactions, consequences be damned. Expressing an attitude of “I might get expelled, but your eye won’t grow back” did wonders to make my life a lot more peaceful. This was in Russia - when I moved to the US and it started all over again, but paranoia about various zero tolerance policies made me pretty much suck it up and pretend to ignore everything.
Doh! It’s spelled “harassment” isn’t it?
The problem is that even if you do block them, they’re still ripping their target behind their back. The reputation is still being trashed, the accusations are still being made, and opinions of that person are being influenced. In some cases, that might not be all that damaging, but if you picture a kid having to walk through the halls at school after everyone has read the trash, you can see where blocking would have no effect on easing the person’s pain.
A general chat one that I was the Admin of. One of the members started flaming ‘the only gay on the board’ (who has a major chip/shoulder interface) I told him off, and he started sending me these PMs that were miles long rambling on about how I’m an imbecile and people like him shouldn’t have to put up with people like me telling him what he could say to people blah blah blah. He sent me the same message 6 times, just rephrasing it slightly each time. I deactivated his account, he went into a chatroom that people on the board use and said something (no one will tell me what he said tho’) people came onto the board and started flaming me (“fuck you you bitch!” “who the fuck do you think you are?” etc) and PMing me (“I hate you, I’m never posting here again”) about 10 people said they were quitting, so I deleted their accounts, and all hell broke loose… more flaming, more nasty PMs, strings of emails each more abusive than the other.
Someone set up an ‘alternate’ board where they could speak freely without fear of incurring the wrath of Lobelia who’s clearly insane and wants locking up, so they set about saying whatever they wanted about me. One person said something and someone backed them up and it snowballed to the point where 100+ people are now on that board and having a jolly old time. It’s been ‘suggested’ to people who didn’t sign up there that if they don’t they’ll be ostracised, but should they decide to join then “all will be forgiven” < actual quote
I heard months later that ‘everyone’ hated the ‘only gay on the board’ and were glad someone had had a go at her. She was automatically banned from joining the ‘freedom of speech’ board.
adults eh? kuh :rolleyes:
The linked article does not say that; it claims Miss Gardner had pages dedicated to “Hating her,” and it also said she had epilepsy, but did not say the first was the result of the latter.
I saw a special on MSNBC about a month ago, which is where I first learned Ryan and Olivia’s names. The connection was made on that program.
Speaking as someone who had this inflicted on myself(is it a newbie thing?are we considered easy meat?)I totally agree.
Not being aware of all the ins and outs of the very individual ettiquette of S.D.M.B I did not at first respond to the somewhat puerile abuse heaped upon me by the “little Hitlers” very aggressively in case I was breaking yet another M.B. custom.
I suspect like most forms of bullying it had its origins in the self esteem(or lack of it to be more accurate)of the bullys .
That said heartfelt thanks to the many posters who genuinly put themselves out to help me .(I did post some pretty appalling stuff and no doubt will again 
)
For many people an allegation posted on the Net no matter how untrue,holds a much greater validity then hearing the same allegation from a kid in the playground.
Anything that leads to a child suffering depression or committing suicide can not be trivialised as being less harmful then physical bullying.
Anyone who genuinly perceives bullying ofany kind as “making a mountain out of a molehill” must have led a singulary sheltered life.
Either that or are guilty of bullying themselves ,some more then others ,which they attempt to brush under the carpet as “just a bit of fun that the victim shouldn’t have taken so seriously”.
In British state schools children are killed every year by other children as a result of Internet or other rumours.
Aren’t there supposed to be new [European] Laws about posting “defamatory” remarks about people online? I keep being told there are but can’t find any info.
And how
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned what is probably the most famous case of internet bullying, Star Wars Kid, which sent the kid into a mental institution.