Slashdot Mirror
Online Bullying Counselling on Increase, Says Childline (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader shares a BBC report:The number of children and young people needing counseling about online bullying has increased by 88 percent over five years, according to a helpline. The NSPCC's Childline service said it counselled more than 4,500 children in the past year compared to about 2,400 in 2011-12. The total number suffering online abuse is thought to be far higher. Some children as young as seven told Childline how they were tormented, abused and scared to go to school. The charity said online trolls caused misery and humiliation for thousands of children. Childline's president Dame Esther Rantzen said the figures should be a wake-up call.
"Bullying can wreck young people's lives, especially now that the bullies don't stop at the school gates," she said. Cyber-bullying can follow them home until it becomes a persecution they cannot escape.
An important psychological study may be to determine why younger generation doesn't just "walk away" from the online bullying when there isn't a physical intimidation keeping them from it. I remember my daughter freaking out because she participated in this absolutely weird "ask.fm" where you anonymously ask and answer questions about a person. My first response to seeing what was being said was rage, but then I said to her...just don't go there. Don't ask anonymous questions about yourself...don't answer questions about other people. No one has power over you if you just ignore it. And luckily that was enough and it was no longer a problem. But years go by and kids seem just so attached to their social personas that they can't just walk way. I get into an argument on facebook or whatever and I'll just close it if I get too worked up. And voila I stop thinking about it. But kids don't seem to have that capability and it makes me wonder why not.
It depends on how far the "bullying" goes. Actual threats are not protected speech. Also, putting a stop to bullying does not have to involve law enforcement. If I heard from another parent that my kid was humiliating or insulting another kid online, I would put a stop to it, regardless of whether it is illegal.
But mostly kids need to learn about the "off" button.
You have the right to bear arms. But not the right to shoot people, just because you have a gun.
The same thing with free speech. Bullying isn't protected by free speech, as it is a form of attack
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I don't think you remember what it was like, internally, to be a kid, or maybe you never experienced being bullied as a kid? Back before the Internet, dealing with bullies only required a little courage, since most bullies are cowards to start with, and standing up to them usually has them back down. Even if they beat you, you stood up to them and that gains the respect of other kids. 'A coward dies a thousand deaths' is the saying, as I remember. In some cases bullies will even respect you if you stand up to them, ending the problem. Since the advent of the Internet, however, courage has more or less become nullified. Online bullies ('trolls') can use anonymizing tactics to multiply their attacks on someone, limited only by the amount of time they want to spend arranging to harass someone, and the target can't really do anything of substance about it. Even staying off the Internet doesn't help because they'll continue to be attacked in absentia, and since it's the Internet, those attacks persist long after they've been posted. This is not as simple a problem to solve as it used to be, when a punch in the nose usually ended the problem once and for all.
Back before the Internet, dealing with bullies only required a little courage
Nonsense. Victims do not "deserve" to be bullied because they are cowards. "Courage" has little to do with it. Bullies pick on kids that are smaller, younger and weaker. "Standing up to them" may work in the movies, but it almost never works that way in real life, where a punch to a bully often means more torment that ever.
Oddly enough, back in Junior High, the hot trick was finding a larger kid that wouldn't fight you, and harass them. One of those kids was me. My parents had taught me that it took a bigger man to walk away from a fight.
In the end, however, I got to be a "bigger man" several times each day.
And the school was no help. Upon reportingg this to the administrators, all I got was a threat of suspension even after noting that I was being hit. So I knew I was in that by myself. So I decided one day that this ends here.
A nice fall afternoon, and with some extra time at lunch we were allowed outside for 20 minutes.
Here comes some asshole bully and his friends...
Fred: "Hey Olsoc! Bill here say you told him I was a fuckin sissy!"
Me: "Nope"
Bill: "You calling me a liar Olsoc?"
Me: You're a fucking liar Bill! What are you going to do about it?"
Bill was a little surprised, but he had to be tough. So he took a swing and connected. That was the only thing he connected. After a flurry of rage fueled punches, he was on the ground.
Me: "Who's next?"
They all walked away, muttering, and I was surrounded by applause. Fortunately, the shop teacher was there, and he took me aside and told me that I wasn't supposed to solve problems with violence, and "Good job, man! Now get to class." Never got turned in, and Mr bully had a hellava shiner all that week. In one of those weird Junior High things, we became friends.
But the bullying stopped right there and never returned.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
If violence doesn't solve your problem, you just aren't using enough of it.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
If you don't think people use violence outside of junior high school, then you probably don't get out much.