Wednesday, 25 July 2007

Cyber bullying

The head mistress of Avoch school near Inverness has called for so-called social networking sites like MySpace, Bebo and YouTube to be closed down. She claims that they are used for cyber bullying by pupils at her and other schools. This does not just affect pupils, but also teachers and other adults. The regional paper describes an image of a teacher, who is shown without his head, with the caption "you're dead".

Bullying is a pernicious problem that is not likely to go away. Whether closing such websites will solve the problem is very debatable, and I do not see it happening. What should be put in place is some stringent monitoring, a complaints system - one of the redeeming features of AOL is that pretty effective feedback and complaints procedure.

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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous25 July 2007 at 15:27

    I agree.....shutting them down isn't going to help. Just like if you go private with a journal....there's always a leak and it continues. Sad.
    Lisa

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  2. Anonymous25 July 2007 at 15:34

    I can understand her closing down the access of her students and staff to such sites.  Sad that someone depicted the one teacher in such a manner.   The sites themselves are not likely to close down, and they'd just get replaced by others.  Some of the stuff is even useful and informative, or entertaining in a positive manner.  

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  3. Anonymous25 July 2007 at 15:53

    I have heard about the bullying on myspace. i just heard about Bebo a couple of months back, i did not realise Youtube was a site for kids let alone bullying,,,,,, I will be watching my son very closely because i know him and his friends  watch the videos now and again. Thank you for the info.
    hugs
    katie

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  4. Anonymous25 July 2007 at 17:01

    Closing down the sites won't help but as you say stringent monitoring and effective complaints dept will help.

    Parents should take some responsibilty over internet usage, also internet cafes, my local one does'nt allow under 18's

    Bullying in all forms is unacceptable.

    Yasmin

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  5. Anonymous26 July 2007 at 00:25

    I agree with you whole heartedly! They need some way to monitor what is being shown and said. Then again you get into the civil liberties argument...In any end you can't just allow something to run amok. (Hugs) Indigo

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  6. Anonymous27 July 2007 at 03:57

    I agree with you on this subject. It's so sad that people will bully either in person or on the computer.

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