Cyber-Bullying Gets Out of Control
Out of control is the only way to describe a recent case of cyber-bullying hitting the national news wires. Eleven year-old Jessie Slaughter (her screen name, not her real name) was recently hospitalized in a mental health facility after her case of cyber-bullying got out of control. Jessie had posted an explicit and profanity laden response to suggestions about her sexual history. Shortly after the video was posted she began receiving nasty e-mails, pranks, posts and even death threats.
Her father then added fuel to the already burgeoning fire when he posted a tirade on YouTube threaten those who were engaged in the battle against his daughter, offering them up to the authorities. The video also shows a sobbing Jessie in the foreground. This new post took the cyber-bullying to a whole new level bordering on the verge of cyber-stalking.
Recently when their story was featured on ABC’s Good Morning America experts offered up just a few of the actions we can take to prevent these incidents from happening to our children in the future. Parent need to learn how to respond properly to these kinds of acts, and teach their kids what to do if something like this is happening to them.
Children require a few basic rules in dealing with Cyber-bullies. Firstly, they need to stop what they are doing, and not respond to threatening e-mails or posts. By blocking the person or message it will stop any more nasty threats from coming from that person or e-mail address. They also need to tell a trusted adult what is happening.
One suggestion experts have for adults who are helping a child deal with cyber-bullies is to suggest the child put down the mouse and walk away from the computer. This few minutes of doing something else will help them regain balance and perspective. Remember, to look at the situation and recognize the options.
This is not the time to respond in anger.
If the situation that happened with Jessie had happened in a schoolyard, and not on the internet it likely would not have blown up like it did. By posting these videos to the internet the victim lost her privacy, (the video had more than a million hits), while the bullies were able to remain anonymous.
A few simple ways to prevent these kind of incidents from happen with your children include: setting up a net nanny on your computer to be able to monitor your child’s internet activities. Also, be sure to supervise your children when they are on the internet and if you can not monitor them consistently, be sure to check their internet history. Lastly, be sure to report threatening posts to the internet site where they are posted as well as to law enforcement.
Tags: bullying stories, cyberbully, online bullying, types of bullying
August 3rd, 2010 at 1:55 am
As Judy Wright points out, cyberbullying can get out of control quickly. Parents and teens need to know how to deal with it as both victims and bullies. Many teen cyberbullies don’t set out to bully – they just don’t think ahead before sending their message.
After 23 years as a juvenile court judge, it is my view that tweens and teens learn from the experiences of their peers. Consequently, “Teen Cyberbullying Investigated” was published in January, 2010. Endorsed by Dr. Phil on April 8, 2010 ["Bullied to Death" show], TCI presents real cases of teens in trouble over their online and cell phone activities. Civil and criminal consequences have been imposed for offensive emails, blogs, text and IM messages, Facebook entries and more. The bottom line is to “Think B4 U Click.”
Take a look at “Teen Cyberbullying Investigated” on http://www.freespirit.com [publisher] or on my teen-law website http://www.askthejudge.info. This is a free, interactive site for and about teens and the laws that affect them. Join the discussion.
Regards, -Judge Tom.
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