Yesterday in class we spent a few minutes talking about the young man who jumped off the GWB when his roommate tried to out him. We also made some mention of whether or not social media is a hindrance or helpful for a bullying.
Today I came upon an article about two young girls ages 11 and 12 and how they were charged.
In class it was mentioned that social media gives an anonimity to the child who is doing the bullying. But as we can see it also allows these kids to get caught and to try and teach others a lesson.
Children and young adults do believe that something about the Internet makes them anonymous, while the ordeal that this little girl had to go through was defiantly traumatizing it may stop others from doing so because of the shame these girls have now brought upon themselves.
i think it’s very important to note here how easily those under the age of 13 have been able to access facebook. so apparently facebook kicks of thousands of underage users a day, but the fact that middle schoolers are on it, and doing this is a bit ridiculous. Clearly children are not using these sites as they are intended, but rather for things that can ruin/change lives.
It doesnt seem that facebook allowed these girls to be caught, its was someone in the home that saw this happening, that is if i understood it right. however, i do think facebook could facilitate an investigation in tracking down IP addresses and times that the post or logins occurred.
the terms of use on facebook are pretty clear about what kind of content is allowed to be posted, and most children, i guess don’t exactly think about it, and these girls definitely did not. this social networking site has allowed them to bully someone, and because they obviously did not think it through, it got them in trouble as well.
Cyber bullying is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed on a wider level and more effectively. Better yet, those under the age of 13 need to be kept off these sites as to no longer allow this kind of stuff to happen.
My second cousin is 12 years old and she has a Facebook account. She has over 200 hundred “friends”, mostly her age. She is always on line and puts up things that really irritate me. Her language, how she writes is not appropriate and the pictures of herself are even worse. Every single time when I read her comments I think that why somebody, especially her parents who are also among her friends, tells her what she is doing is wrong.
When 12-13 years old girls bully other girls who is responsible for that? Normally, I would think that if a kid is adult enough to be on Facebook and bully others, that kid is adult enough to take the responsibility over that action. However, I don’t think it is that simple. Parents do have responsibility for their children, thus their children’s actions. If a young girl bullies somebody in school, well, parents are partially responsible for that. A 12-13 years old girl should know by that age that bullying is not acceptable. Parents job is to teach their children what is right and what is wrong. Parents job is to monitor their children if they are on the internet at that young age.