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Classroom Bullies On The Internet

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the lord-of-the-flies dept.

peter303 writes "Oldtimers are familiar with sociopaths in usenet newsgroups and chat rooms. The NY Times has an article about grade school kids who bully on the Internet. These include message bombing and slanderous web pages. The web allows one to extend bad manners from real life."

10 of 599 comments (clear)

  1. Heh by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kids may want to watch that they don't piss off the wrong person on the internet.
    In Japan a girl slit the throat of another girl over insulting comments made over the internet.

    --
    Monstar L
  2. I've been Jacking for dough online for some time by Prince+Vegeta+SSJ4 · · Score: 2, Informative

    virtual Bullying has been going on for some time.

  3. I used to teach at Horace Mann by word+munger · · Score: 3, Informative

    Horace Mann, one of the schools used in the examples, is where I did my student teaching, many moons ago. It is one of the most prestigious private schools in the nation. This was pre-IM, pre-Web, and the students were just about as mean to each other in person as they were online.

    --
    ScienceSeeker.org
  4. Excellent by Le+Marteau · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think that's great. The sooner kids realize how f***ed up the American ethos is, and that the American mythos is in fact insane, the sooner they'll get to working on going beyond it. Instead of the little conformists becoming adult conformists, perhaps the brutality of their peers will cause them to begin to question societal norms, and begin to think for themselves.

    I was taunted brutally as a kid, and I consider it a blessing. I am a much better man because of it.

    --
    Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
    1. Re:Excellent by wwest4 · · Score: 4, Informative

      > perhaps the brutality of their peers will cause them to begin to question
      > societal norms, and begin to think for themselves.

      First, this phenomenon is not unique to the "American ethos" (talk about a moving conceptual target). Second, there must be a better way than trial by fire... because I would wager that for every person who emerges stronger from brutal abuse, there is at least one other who emerges completely screwed up, or worse, indoctrinated into the cycle of abuse, ready to bully someone else when the time comes (i.e. when they have smaller friends, siblings, kids, or a spouse).

      How about teaching our kids how not to bully, protecting them from others who do bully, and providing the opportunity for treatment of those who exhibit bullying behavior? This goes regardless of the medium - physical or verbal abuse can both be devastating to a vulnerable person.

  5. Obligatory link... by lawpoop · · Score: 2, Informative
    Link to cover story.

    Not karma whoring!

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
  6. Re:Child Pornography by mrzaph0d · · Score: 4, Informative

    ok, not that lazy...

    here

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    this is just a placeholder till i send back my real sig from the future.
  7. Re:Old story by BJH · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not necessarily dreck any more.
    There was a recent murder case in Japan where a 12-year-old girl was killed by her classmate (and supposedly friend), because she'd called the other girl "fat" on her weblog.

    If you're interested in the details, she made the girl sit on a chair (at school, no less) and cut her throat from behind using a craft knife, then waited until she died from blood loss before calling a teacher.

    The main problem that I see with weblog/email insults is that it's usually difficult to discuss it directly in a way that would be possible face-to-face, which means that people tend to stew over these things more than they would otherwise.

  8. Re:Real world should have consequences too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Actually if you bothered to read any news article about it you would find out two things.

    1) The alternate location they gave them is near a highway, far removed from the republican national convention, which they are aiming to protest.

    2) The organizers of said protest expect a lot of elderly citizens to turn out. I don't believe it would be good for their health (quite fatal infact) for them to stand on black asphault all day with the sun shining down in full force.

    Also, just because protestors from years past had to suffer inhumane treatment and conditions does not mean that dissidents of this generation should have to.

  9. Re:Real world should have consequences too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I agree the city should not *have* to provide such amenities as water and shade, although in the interest of health (heat stroke?) and friendly debate, it would be polite.

    However, the same article that spoke of damage to the grass pointed out at the beginning that the same Central Park had been the site of concerts with ~10 times the audience (also likely to be more damaging to the grass than a relatively peaceful protest). This is clearly a case of censorship.