Group items tagged

Blog post about how Facebook and MySpace handle cyber bullying. Should both sites "unmask" bullies and what would the possible implications be?  At present neither site is required to identify users who bully others or post offensive material unless requested by a subpoena.

Another case of cyber bullying that led to the suicide of a teenager, Allem Halkic, who was sent threatening texts and Internet communication by former friend, Shane Phillip Gerada. Gerada received an 18-month community-based order after pleading guilty to stalking Allem. Another move towards the governance of threatening behaviour via the Internet.

This article discusses the repercussions and impacts of threatening text messages that resulted in a teen suicide. Although the bully expressed remorse, the tragedy clearly marks how words are simply devastating, even if they seem trivial to others. Prosecution and Cyber bullying laws should examine the severity of the crime, and provide adequate justice.

An article about cyber bullying via Facebook groups. Notes that it doesn't just happen between peers, but adults can be the victim too, citing an example of a Facebook group created by students to bully a teacher. The article outlines the procedure that it taken to deal with this kind of bullying and the applicable laws on place to curb it.

There is a call for specific cyber bullying laws to be introduced on Australia.  A recent case that led to the suicide of a 17 year old boy led to the sentencing of a man to a community service order. The Government has agreed that more needs to be done to empower and protect victims.

The Federal Government introduces anti-harassment laws for online harrasment. It points out, interestingly, that whilst a 16 year old has protection under current laws 15 year olds don't. It will be interesting to see how this works in practice.

In an attempt by the government to modernise the 25-year-old Sex Descrimination Act, new laws have been made to protect teenagers from cyber-bullying acts such as sexting and online harrassment. It also protects breastfeeding women and gives men the same protection as women in the workplace when it comes to family responsibilities.

A California appeals court allows students to be trialled for hate crimes for posting threatening comments on a fellow student's blog after it was ruled these comments were not protected free speech. Interesting development that narrowss the gap between traditonal schoolyard bullying and cyber bullying.

Statistics now show that 15% of teachers have experienced cyber bullying themselves, and half know another teacher who has. Cyber bullying of teachers has included Facebook hate groups, Videos of the teachers in the classroom being posted to Youtube, or hate sites. Shows that this isn't just an issue between peers.

This article discusses how 42 states in the United States now have some sort anti-bullying laws. Despite these laws, and EULA agreements of social networking sites being in places, victims of cyberbullying do not often come forward for fear of not being taken seriously. One of the suggestions for combating cyberbullying is the real life "comeback", although it is warned that this may backfire, which needs to be scripted and rehearsed. Though there are no studies that indicate this is an effective method to combat cyberbullying, this should be exercise with caution. Cyberbullying appears to be one of those case-by-case situations, as the victims reactions - type of person they are - how they handle the situation - whom they come forward to tell to seek help, may be the biggest factors in how an ordeal of this nature should be considered. Sadly it appears that cyberbullies - like in the offline world - like to try and collect followers in the online world, and perhaps one of the better practices is to inform people that they should not be participating in the act of cyberbullying another, and hopefully reducing the motivation to continue.

This article discusses how in the state of Ohio lawmakers are looking to have schools discipline cyberbullies. Cyberbully victims have a higher chance of being depressed, and according to this article they are approximately 8 times more likely to bring weapons to school. Though the bill will help a lot of schools monitor children's conduct online, there were no clear outlines as to the means of how to schools will be able to discipline bullies. A lot of information and rules and regulations will have to be in place to inform parents of how the school will extend their boundaries beyond a physical realm, and into the online world. Though there is much work to be done on the specifics of cyberbullyin, setting school boundaries regarding cyberbullying is a good step towards, thwarting possible cases of cyberbullies, as school jurisdiction may no longer necessarily be within bounds of a school yard.

This article show how companies like Google, Facebook, are facing judgments from the public that blame them for the latest cases of Cyber-bulling. They defend themselves arguing that the number of users has grow fast and is impossible to control all the contents. However social networks are using auto regulating mechanism like reporting abuse. The preoccupation raises in how the main idea of free expression that internet provides could be destroyed by the "freedom abuse".

 Is it OK to rely on members to moderate and monitor  content or should companies be responsible for the content that their users post?  

This webpage discusses the differences between cyber-bullying and harassment and cyberstalking. The main difference between a cybebully and cyber-harassment is age. Though this depends on jurisdiction, and the definition by law in that region. The article continues to discuss the types, sources, and nature of threats through cyberbullying. If the perpatrator is traceable, the best advice given is to report to the service provider about violation of terms of service, and contacting local authorities.

Looks at the recent proposed amendments by the federal government to the 25-year-old Sex Discrimination Act which aim to give greater legal protection to victims under 16 of online sexual harassment and cyber-bullying. Critics say the proposed changes are "too little to late."

My blog post outlining the highly-publicised suicide of a student after being subjected to "schoolyard" and cyber-bullying.