cyberbullying

Are you being cyberbullied at work?

Humans are sometimes little more than vermin with sophisticated vocal cords.

Meanness and venality flow from them like mucous on a wet, windy day.

And yet, when it comes to cyberbullying, the focus has always been on kids and teens, supposedly underdeveloped members of the species.

However, a team of English researchers thought they might check to see if adults at work partook of this behavior. And lo, did they find a new low.

For they discovered that a pained 80 percent claimed they had experienced some form of online meanness within the previous six months.

I am grateful to Discovery News … Read more

Facebook to reveal cyberbullies who harassed woman

Facebook will comply with an order from the U.K.'s High Court to reveal the identities of cyberbullies who targeted a woman with abusive comments.

Nicola Brookes appealed to the court after she was falsely labeled a pedophile and drug dealer by fellow Facebook members who set up a fake profile page of her on the site, according to the Guardian. The abuse allegedly started after Brookes posted a comment supporting a contestant on the British TV show "X Factor."

The order, which Facebook has not yet received since it must physically be delivered in the U.… Read more

What's behind the NY bills to ban anonymous online comments

In New York state, legislators in both chambers have proposed bills that would force Web sites to police the identities of anonymous commenters. 

Under the proposed Internet Protection Act (S06779), when anyone complains about an anonymous (or pseudonymous) comment, the Web site must make the commenter attach their "real name" to the comment or the anonymous comment would by law have to be removed. 

That's right: if someone doesn't like your comment the Web site will be legally bound to make you reveal your identity. The accused commenter will also be required to verify … Read more

Proposed NY ban on anonymous posts comes under fire

In an attempt to combat cyberbullying, some New York state legislators want people who post mean-spirited personal attacks online to be prepared to identify themselves.

A resulting bill, known as the Internet Protection Act (IPA), wouldn't stop with cyberbullying. If it became law, the legislation would also prevent people from posting anonymous criticism of local businesses or making "baseless political attacks," wrote James Conte, a member of New York's state assembly and one of the bill's sponsors.

"With more and more people relying on social media and the Internet to communicate and gather information,&… Read more

Rutgers student gets 30 days for spying on gay roommate with Webcam

A Rutgers University student was sentenced to 30 days in jail today for spying on his gay roommate's romantic encounter, an act that may have been related to the roommate's subsequent suicide.

Dharun Ravi, 20, set up the Webcam several times, urged others to watch and tweeted about watching his roommate, Tyler Clementi, "making out with a dude." The 18-year-old Clementi jumped to his death from a bridge a few days after learning about the spying.

Ravi, who faced up to 10 years in prison, was charged with 15 counts, including invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, … Read more

One-fifth of third-graders own cell phones

Cell phone owners are getting younger and younger. According to a new study, 83 percent of middle schoolers, 39 percent of fifth-graders, and 20 percent of third-graders have a mobile device.

Stephanie Englander of Bridgewater University conducted the study (PDF) for the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center. Her research consisted of interviews with 20,766 Massachusetts students, in third through twelfth grades, with the goal of seeing whether readily available technology plays a role in cyberbullying.

The study shows that not only do younger kids have cell phones but also more than 90 percent of children are online by third grade. … Read more

Did Opie & Anthony cross line in Tom Green Twitter controversy?

Can radio hosts be held accountable for the behavior of their listeners?

It started as a slowly percolating and largely private dispute over the ownership of the @TomGreen Twitter handle between two people named Tom Green--one a Toronto college professor who grabbed that account ID, and the other a celebrity comedian who was too late to get it. It exploded into a sewer-full of insulting, obscene, and even threatening tweets sent to the teacher.

And now the professor wants the radio hosts who may have inspired their listeners to send the offending tweets to take responsibility for what happened to … Read more

Mostly good news about kids online, study finds

A report from the University of New Hampshire's Crimes against Children Research Center shows a significant decrease in "unwanted online sexual solicitation" as well as "unwanted exposure to pornography" in recent years among children ages 10 to 17 years old. There was a small increase in online harassment.

Nine percent of respondents reported getting an unwanted sexual solicitation in 2010, compared with 13 percent in 2005 and 19 percent in 2000 -- a steady decrease. The percentage of youth who reported an unwanted exposure to pornography was 23 percent in 2010, down from 34 percent … Read more

Online bullying: Still way less common than in real life

A new study entitled Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Networks confirms much of what we already know about cyberbullying. Most kids aren't bullied and most kids don't bully either online or off.

In fact, the study--conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project for the Family Online Safety Institute and Cable in the Classroom--concluded that "[m]ost American teens who use social media say that in their experience, people their age are mostly kind to one another on social network sites." Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) of teens said that peers are mostly … Read more