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UK Schools Will Fight Cyberbullying
Plutonite writes "The BBC is running a story on UK schools being told by the education minister to fight cyberbullying, by which they mean bullying with the aid of (network-based) technology. Schools have been told to confiscate mobile phones, and, more controversially, to investigate and get material removed from personal social-networking sites. Are schools supposed to be doing this as an extension of their duty to prevent physical bullying in school, or is this is yet another example of governmental intervention where it is not due? Should kids be brought up knowing that their life on the web is being documented and controlled by people other than their parents?"
...a bastion of enlightenment. Oh, wait, it isn't.
I was bullied extensively in the early part of my school life. My parents reported it to the teacher and when that didn't work, we went to the Headmaster at the school. The abuse did not stop.
So I changed schools - and I got yet more abuse. We went through the same procedures again and again and again and it was no use. The teachers didn't want to know.
I finally made it to High School and then I decided this time, it wasn't going to happen again. Some kid tried it on and I opted to belt him one in the nose. His nose was thoroughly broken and he was out of school for a week.
After that, I was set for the rest of school. Nobody really tried anything on after that. You see the athaphy that I ran in to in my earlier episodes worked to my advantage now. Precisely nothing was done to me and my schooling carried on as normal.
It seems that these days we attach an "e-" or a "cyber-" on to a pre-existing social problem and suddenly everyone treats the issue as urgent . The problem with such initiatives is there fail to realise that this is a human problem first and a technological problem a distant second.
The way to deal with bulling in schools is in my view is very simple. The punishment should be swift, harsh and feared. They should be charged with assault or harassment in a full criminal court and ordered to do a suitable amount of community service. Failure to comply should immediately mean jail-time which should be served in school holidays.
It's a pity that the type of people who bully are the sorts who have violence all around them at home. As such, the only thing they understand is violence. A short, sharp shock may be enough to put them back on the straight and narrow coupled with some kind of therapy. I do not believe such people are beyond help but if left to there own devices, they will become the criminals of tomorrow.
Simon
Yes, they should know it's being documented.. Because it is. Whether it be by schools, peers, google, marketers, Homeland Security, etc., it will be monitored, and it's best they know that.
I'm not going to tell UK people how to raise their children and they're not going to tell me how to raise mine. You can go ahead and prepare your kid for what your government is going to force onto them anyways. I personally am going to teach my kids to question everything. Question me, question the government and question any institutions. I'm going to teach them how to do it objectively and how to improve themselves as well as the said institution. And you know what? Maybe my kids will be able to reverse what my generation has let slip out of control. Maybe not. Depends on how you raise your kids. So the question I'm really interested in is how are you going to raise your kids so I know whether I have to prepare mine to be monitored their entire life or prepare them for something we all used to enjoy.
My work here is dung.
Kids should know that the Internet is not a playground with safety bumpers on every sharp corner. It is for adults, and there are people out there that will monitor everything they can, people will take advantage of every opportunity. The sad fact is that not enough adults know this yet, so teaching kids about it is a good start at the education that should come with the purchase of Internet services.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
When there's insults to be dished out, you will only insult each other using the approved insults!
And when there's abuse to be documented, who'll be documenting the abuse? Who'll be watching the watchers? Not you, Citizen!
When we point the camera at you, it's for your safety. When you point the camera at us, it's an offensive weapon.
Don't bully. Your government hates the competition.
No matter what the intentions behind this decree, I don't think anything will change. If J. Random Memorial School sends Facebook a message demanding that they remove a person's comment about a student of theirs, and it does not violate Facebook's TOS, then why would they do it? Most social networking sites aren't based in the UK; frankly, its unenforcible.
Also, even if social networking sites were affected, wouldn't the "cyberbullies" just find another medium, i.e. AIM/YIM/MSN/IRC/Insert your own acronym? Or independent blogging? There's really no way to enforce this reliably.
Yes, they should, because it's true. Why lie to the poor tykes?
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I was bullied almost from my first day of kindergarten clean through until my last day of high school. It ranged from simple verbal abuse, to threats, violence, theft and on more then one occasion I was at risk of sexual assault. The teachers were told of course (even the near sexual assault) but, nothing was done. Despite naming the offenders the teachers told me their "hands were tied" as they had not personally witnessed anything wrong. I can tell you there is precious little in this world as heartbreaking and infuriating as finding out just what someone can get away with simply because there was no documentation.
I welcome ANY measure that will allow victims to document their attacks and get worms like those what they deserve. Cyber-bullying is simply a new evolution to an old problem, maybe, just MAYBE if this facet of bullying is addressed then it may help draw light to how horribly badly "old fashioned" bullying has been handled.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
It's not that easy. You can't just log off.
They're filling your inbox with spam.
They're spamming your blog.
They're making up websites with your picture and filling it with false "confessions."
They're making up IM accounts and messaging your friends with the same "confessions."
There's a dozen more ways kids can be cruel online. It doesn't have to be directed at you while you're logged in to harm you.
My sister (at school then in the UK) had a bunch of kids create a Bebo account for her, post a bunch of comments about other people at her school and totally ruined her social life. Emails, phone calls and a vist to their office in Ca by a family member later Bebo had singularly REFUSED to do anything about the issue.
I myself was bullied extensively when I started in High School - and while perhaps I shrug off comments made by others perfectly willingly these days it was by no means the "toughening up" experience that most of the comments on here seem to view it as. It wasn't an experience I would wish on anyone and I certainly would rather it hadn't happened to me. Making comments along the lines of "its a normal part of growing up" are simply ignoring the issues rather than confronting them.
I have a problem with the modern vernacular using a single word, "bullying", to encompass everything from name calling to practical jokes to mild or even violent physical abuse. Doing so robs descriptions of the latter of the weight they deserve.
All 4 of your examples are illegal and carry both civil and criminal penalties. Why does that have anything to do with school?
Those carry penalties IN LAW. In practice, it takes an informed victim to exercise that legal protection. Does that sound like a middle-schooler to you? I don't expect every parent to understand that, but I think it's reasonable for teachers to be aware of the rules of the game and step in as defenders of kids they see getting attacked online.
What penalties they set is debatable, but the basic charge of the article: 'we're teaching kids that they're being supervised online' misses the point. They're teaching kids that online behavior has consequences, some of them unpleasant, just like the real world. Sounds like a useful lesson to me.
Schools have been told to confiscate mobile phones, and, more controversially, to investigate and get material removed from personal social-networking sites.
I've also heard there's this new fangled thing called paper that can be used to send nasty comments to people anonymously! Poo has also been known to be used in this manner, while sitting on a doorstep. So just remove paper, pens, hands, poo, and doors from the environment and our children can finally be safe!
As much as I applaud any attempt to improve the quality of a child's education, attacking the tools they use for bulling isn't going to do anything to the root causes of it. However, sending the kids to an island and having them fight to the death for our amusement....that could work.
Everything will be taken away from you.
My first point is simply that I am glad British school might be doing something about bullying. Although we can debate whether the solution is entirely legal or appropriate. But the problem is very real.
Now to cyberbullying...
My daughter was the very first victim of cyberbullying at her rather elite private school here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Yes a personal detail.) Pretty bad, although could have been worse. Her teachers cared and tried to take action against the students involved. The administration did squat and hung us out to dry. She handled it well, but over the course of that year (because her parents took it very seriously) she was ostracized, and quickly students and administrators alike got into a "blame the victim" pattern. Her grades plummeted. Often talked about killing herself, yadda yadda yadda. Friendships (such as between us and other parents) ended over this because they would not hold their children accountable. (In a new school now, thriving, grades shot up to A's and 100's. Go figure.)
Again - my point is simply "cyberbullying is also a serious and real problem that causes real observable damage".
Whether such policies are legal, enforceable, and so on - that is quite debatable. The website provider (a kind of Facebook for kids) actually took the site down when we complained (we think). Good for them. Violation of policy. The school took the "well, not our network/computers, therefore we can't do anything" line. (Photos of my child were clearly taken at school. Uh...) Technically might be correct. I don't know. My final point is, "Even if schools cannot legally police and enforce every last dang website or IM or whatever... *something* needs to be done by *someone*". The problem is bloody real and so is the damage this kind of filth.
I appreciate and sympathize with concerns about privacy and excessive government intrusion and all that. I really do. But what then shall we do? Unless we want to deny the seriousness of this problem?
Kids that are effected from *virtual* bullies should get a grip. Its NOT REAL.
Stop being a baby. Geesh.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Politicians are old. Tony Blair was considered to be a 'youthful' PM coming to power in his 40s. The technology that shapes our lives is young, and constantly evolving. I'm only 26, grew up nuts about computers, and already I feel as if I'm starting to slip behind the curve, its frightening to me so its probably terrifying to them.
The country is run by technically illiterate near-pensioners who are slapping e- and cyber- prefixes on everything in a fit of desperation. The result is idiotic initiatives such as this, which aside from being a waste of time and money, present an opportunity for the more savvy political players lurking in the shadows to invade peoples privacy and crush their civil liberties.
From a techie point of view, Gordon Brown might as well be Leonid Brezhnev. A relic of a past era making crappy decisions based on the principles of his own time, without regard for the reality of the present. Young people in the UK need to kick out the gerontocracy and start making informed technology policy.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?