Topic : 01/08 Cyber Bullies

Christine:

I feel very sad after reading your story. I have to ask the question, if every child killed themselves because someone said something mean and nasty to them, don't you think society would be in a very bad situation?  Have we become so sensitive that we let others drive us to suicide? I feel bad for the next generation if this is the case because the world is not always a friendly place.

Al

Most people don't even know what "an American" is anymore. Our World is changing VERY fast and Sandy's myopic view of what is an American no longer applies. And it has nothing to do with Americans? Canadians? not being able to take a joke? LMFAO! Open your eyes kiddo. It was totally inappropriate. That was NO JOKE.

Our immigration policies have encouraged people from many places to come to our? land. Let us at least show a modicum of courtesy for crying out loud.

A previous post brought up the fact that many items on the Internet do not originate in the USA, thus any legislation would be moot.  I don't think the solution is in laws or government monitoring.  Parents need to monitor online activities of their children.  This should be done on a daily basis.  How?  Home computers should be located in a place in the house so that parents can see at any time what their child is doing on the Internet.  This means no Internet access in their rooms.  Parental controls are available that would deny access to certain sites.  I realize these controls do nothing to control incoming mail, so there needs to be a program written that basically would create "rules" about what would be allowed to come into a individual's cyber mailbox.  The "rules" feature in Outlook, sad to say, isn't good enough.  I have numerous rules in place that don't work.  Additionally, spammers and pfishing expeditions manage to circumvent many of these rules by changing an "i" to a "1" or an "l", changing a "c" to "(", or whatever.  Surely, there is someone out there in "cyberland" smart enough to outsmart these creeps.  I, for one, am sick and tired of all the junk e-mail I get each day; it's in the hundreds. 

"Back in the day," we had "Slam Books," which basically served the same purpose as the postings about Meghan that led to her death.  As parents, it is extremely  important that we instill self-esteem in our children so that they understand that, regardless of what others may think and/or say about them, they are perfect in God's eyes and in ours.  Lack of self-esteem is a serious thing.  Obviously, this young woman's was being destroyed by people outside of her family.  How unfortunate.

The people responsible should be held accountable.  If not through laws, at least through civil proceedings.  I know her mother said she didn't want any money.  I certainly can understand that.  But perhaps she should re-think that position, sue the people responsible and use the money in a positive way in her daughter's memory.

I have yet to hear anything positive about MySpace.  This is a website that parents should make unavailable to their children.  Give them a site more constructive.  Wikipedia comes to mind.  Or any of the college libraries that have made themselves available in the Internet.

 Thank you.

I am glad that Dr. Phil did a show on cyber bullies. Cyber bullying is becoming very popular and where I do not think that bullying will ever end, People need to be accountable for the things they say. Especially when you are threatening to kill someone and their family! This should not be tolerated by anyone.

And for the woman who helped her daughter bully a teenage girl, that woman needs some serious help. No adult should be treating a child that way. I can not believe the lack of emotion that woman had over the fact that what she and her daughter did ended the life of a 13 year old girl! IF the table had been reveresed and her daughter had been the one to commit suicide over this, she would be all over the family that did this to her.

My heart goes out to the paretns of the young girl who ended her life!

There are parents that beat and abuse their own children. Megan's mom failed her daughter.