Topic : 01/08 Cyber Bullies

I am 68 y.o. I have always told my children the best offense can be silence in terms of bullying.  The object of bullying is to get you to respond. It take 2 to make a fight.

I have been in chat rooms that teens and early twenty somethings log into senior chat rooms and say absolutely filthy things.  I can just see the fools who do this idiotic stuff laughing hysterically if I or other get upset.  We either ignore the person or log off.  The internet does not rule my life. Before this technology started, wether it be a letter or phone call, I'd ignore it unless it was threatening harm.  If it was a threat, I'd call the police.

These people get off on your being hurt and responding.  Perhaps this poor child would still have been alive, had she told her mom what the guy was saying and she could have responded "I'm,            mom,

and now you are dealing with me. Now fool what do you have to say.  If more slurs came back, I'd log off and delete all messages and block incoming messages from that person.

Unfortunately, kids do not alwasy tell their parents what is going on so the parent can respond.

to combat this, the computer should be in the living/family room. If that doesn't work disconnect the internet because your child's life is worth it.  You can always turn it back on in another month and use as different email and user name.

Dyan

i kno that cyberbullys/stalkers or whatever you call it should be held accountable for every action they take.

 im a 31yr old married man & have my own cyberbully/stalker. they post fake pictures of me (edited photos) holding penis(s) instead of guitars, paste my face of some dude with a diaper ect. then make myspace pages of me, photobucket account dedicated to holding edited pictures of me with captions.

  i personally have 20+ fake sites claiming im homosexual, calling me names, & giving out my address.

they have made fake ebay accounts to bid on our ebay items & even a photobucket & youtube site.

 my wifes rear windshield was busted out & at the time i didnt kno why or about all the sites & comments.

  i have a feeling i know who it is but i know i have a short temper so i try to avoid the places they go in fear that ill get into a fight.

  im not usually a complaner but they other day they made a site claiming to have hacked my wow account (worldofwarcraft) to rip people off.

 they have made fake profiles even claiming im a gay racist who hates gays, latinos & blacks.

 of course thats not the case.

  since this been going on i been getting the headaches i used to get when i was younger & would like information on numbers to call to report this & have this squashed or whatever. i been on my local sherrifs office site & had seen nothing on it.

You are a very lucky person as it is obvious that you have not buried a child of yours , as I have...the pain, the devestating pain is beyond belief.  Was I to blame because my 22 year old son drove with great speed? Shame on you be cruel to these parents.  Be careful because life can throw you curves that are unbelievable.

I know that one's automatic emotional response to occurrences like these is to say that the government needs to step in and regulate communication on the internet, however it is important to sit back and think about the full implications of such a thing.  Why are we as Americans so eager to throw away everything that has made us the most envied nation on earth?  Why is our answer to everything that the government needs to regulate or make a law?  Where has the idea of personal responsibility gone?  It is not the government's job to regulate morality.  It is the job of each individual to regulate and control themselves, and it is the job of each parent to instill morals and a sense of responsibility towards one's fellow man into their children.  Do we really want the government controlling every aspect of our lives?  Why are we not more concerned with protecting our precious freedoms?  Why are we so eager to hand them over to our government?  Are we really incapable of controlling ourselves and therefore need the government to step in and do it for us?