Topic : 01/08 Cyber Bullies

As for the woman from Missouri why would she think that what she put on the internet

is a joke. I think it sounded more like a statement. She should stick to her job which she

sounds like she does very well.

Now, the My Space wrong doing was probably the most cruel thing I have ever heard of

in my life. The people involved weather it be of age or under age should be held accountable.

I also feel that My Space is one of the most over rated sites on the internet. Yes it gives people

ways to communicate and meet new friends and enjoy each other but what I have seen

recently is it also is being used alot more to hurt people. Beatings going on and aloud to be

put on these postings is ridiculous and cruel. I would like to know where is the control. Alot

of the people are minors on this site. The parents of these minors need to police there childs

internet habits and stop this bad behavior once and for all. If you are a adult and get involved in

this kind of behavior you should be prosecuted to the fullest.

1.  I believe it is totally the parent's responsibility to monitor ALL minor children.  And if the neighbor woman was involved in teaching her child to bully she should be held accountable for her behavior in some way.  However, this woman knew her daughter was being bombarded with insulting emails.  Why didn't she take her off emailing totally the first insulting email that was received.  Yet, they let a 13 yr old child keep getting these emails to the point that the child was very upset.  Honestly, why did the parents let this continue over and over and did the mom really monitor this 13 yr old child's computer time as she said?   Then she was aggrivated with her daughter and raised her voice and blamed her daughter by telling her, you knew better than to stay on my space, you knew the rules of my space.  WHAT??? a 13 yr old child takes the responsibilty here? Oh please. I think these parents are not taking any responsibility for what happened with their child....and she WAS a child!  At 13 they have no concept of what is really going on here with cyberspace.  Then, there was another girl who said she got over 300 emails with massive insults. WHAT? 300 EMAILS?  Where are the parents and why are they not shutting down those emails.  WHEN ARE YOU PARENTS GOING TO WAKE UP AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY HERE !!!!!  What a shame. 

2.  This city council woman was in an official capacity when she posted a supposed joke.  If she wants to do it on her personal computer on her my space account or her personal webpage, on her own time, go for it.  But don't do it on my tax dollar and on your work time.  That's not a part of your job description and I don't pay taxes for that kind of nonsense. If she hadn't quit, she surely should have received due process. I don't think that kind of behavior would be tolerated in many workforces, and in front of their customers. Because, her constituants that read that, are her customers.  

3.  Microsoft should be totally responsible for any harrassment on xbox live accounts.  This is a business that provides a service to individuals that pay for that service.  It should be totally professional and harassment in any capacity should be dealt with by microsoft swiftly.  If I was in a store and being harrassed by other customers in the same respect, the police would have been called and those people would have been taken away for hate crimes or other crimes against a person.  But being a business on the internet such as MS Xbox live, we should expect the same behavior from those customers as if they were standing right next to us in a store.  Suspend that account number, make them accountable.  And if these are children doing the harrassing on here, PARENTS...again, take responsibilties for your children.  Why are they playing these games or instant messaging without supervision.

ABSOLUTELY there should be free speech on the internet.  Don't take my rights away.  But people, wake up and take responsibilty for your children.  And if you are responsible for helping your children be the bully then you should be held accountable by child and family services.

A person can change their IP address.  One way I think is just by asking your ISP for a new IP.  Or by changing service providers or by finding other ways to hide it by routing it though another computer.  Not to mention if people really want to they can access the internet from more then one location.  It is not always simple to just ban a person.  Many times they ban people based upon their email address.  Which I think everyone know's how easy it is to get a new email address.

Also sometimes people share simular IP addresses and blocking them can kick off other users as well, possibly whole neighborhoods as I understand it in some cases.

IP addresses are sort of like phone numbers in some regards.  Such that knowing an IP number can give you a general idea of a person's location.

Not something I know a ton about, but I know it can be done. 

And they do keep an eye on my space sites.  Bear in mind that at this very moment there are 218,391,289 pages.  It's simply not possible for them to keep track of everything that goes on.  It would be like 100 people in NYC trying to keep everyone there from passing gas.  I think they are doing a good job if they can just keep up with the complaints sent to them.

This is a touchy subject and although the death of that  girl who killed herself is horrible , you cannot stop people from saying what they want. On the other hand you can't yell fire in a crowded area either and not be held responsible ... My stand on the internet is that Parents need to watch what their kids do online and teach their kids not everyone is who they say they are.  The laws as they are now are on the  side of nieghbor that tricked that girl which led to her death because there is no law that stops what happened.

 If a law were to be made that if harrasement leads to death , you can be held responsible ...many lawyers are going to get  very busy with every suicide being blamed for online chats...

  So To parents: watch your kids...and to young kids online I say don't take everything online so seriously because there are sickos out there that can be anyone posing as anyone.

 You cannot hold someone who sent your daughter messages online responsible for her committing suicide. It is obviously terrible that a young girl killed herself, but that does not change the fact that she made the choice to hang herself, not anyone else. Her mother is in pain and trying to blame it on anyone she can. 

I don’t see the humour in Sandy Tucker’s joke, nor do I see why people are offended by it. Given that it involves so many races, disabled and gay people, I don’t know why any particular group would be upset. If anyone should be offended, it’s Conservatives.  

If Terry is so concerned that his children are in danger because of his playing video games, he should stop playing video games! I don’t think Microsoft has a duty to protect people from these offensive comments. 

Don't get me wrong... I feel terrible for the girl ( and her loved ones) who was so hurt by this BS that she felt the need to end her life, but I was so surprised that no one on the Dr Phil show even mentioned the fact that this poor girl chose to end her life over some guy she had never even met on a myspace page.  ( who turned out to not even be a real boy) , I mean does anyone else find it disturbing that this was the only choice that she felt she had?!?!?

 When I watched the show today , to me it sounded like the girl just walked upstairs and hung herself!  Was there no sign of depression?Did she TALK to anyone about what she was FEELING? I mean I remember being a teenager ( 20 + yrs ago) and I remember being suicidal about things... beleive me I do realize how ridicule can affect anyone, ESPECIALLY a teenager . What disturbs me is someone feeling the only answer is to end their own life!!!! Not just to THINK about doing it, but actually going thru with it!!!

It seems to me that trying to fight cyber bullying although I do feel it is necessary to try, I feel it is like fighting drugs...It will be never ending and there is only so much we can do to prevent it.  Why not focus on the  potential victims instead? The preventative measures we should take.  I mean, I don't hear kids saying the good ole saying anymore... "Sticks and stones may break my bones but Names will never hurt me!"  Are we not teaching our kids this anymore?!?  Its more important now than ever that we focus on our kids self esteem ( not to mention our own!) and help them be thick skinned enough to survive in this NEW world of technology and all the evils that come along with that. 

It is not enough to simply not allow Internet access to our children in our own homes because that will just force them to get online somewhere else, where we have no control to observe what they are doing, to monitor what they say and look at online. There are also security and privacy options on myspace that our kids should be taught to use.  These options include BLOCKING/REPORTING people who harass you, making your page PRIVATE in the first place where only people you know can add you to their page. Opting to previewing ANYONES comments BEFORE you allow them to be posted on your page for others to see, thus giving you the chance to delete messages AND block and report the abuser!  Not to mention the option to simply delete your myspace page, delete your email address. It is very easy to get a new email address and a new myspace page at a later time.  And of course we MUST teach our kids NOT to post personal info such as phone numbers, addresses and full names online! 

I feel it is EXTREMELY important to EDUCATE our children in the same way we try and educate them in our crusade against drugs.  JUST SAY NO.  

We could say JUST LOG OFF... JUST PUSH DELETE... Sticks and stones...

WE HAVE TO TEACH OUR KIDS TO BE STRONG! Because sadly, there will be other peice of s*** neighbors out there, willing to hide behind a fake myspace page and hurt someone by calling names or making threats, There is no excuse for that kind of behavior.  But the woman did not pull the trigger.  I hope to GOD her intention was NOT to push the girl into suicide, I just think we should focus on preventive measures so our kids do not find themselves believing this is the only option for them. 

Thank you, Seeyah.....couldn't have said it better myself.  Get off Sandy's back, everyone, and Dr. Phil, I am surprised at you.  Since when is everything we do and say in this country wrong?  I'm so sick of everyone having to be politically/socially correct.   A joke is a joke is a joke.  If you don't like it, don't laugh, but don't deny others the right to be themselves. 

Sandy, there was NOTHING wrong with your joke, and I thought it was funny!  I am not backward, I am not a racist.  I am an American who has the right, thank God, to say what I want to say and feel what I want to feel.  I won't give that up for anyone, and I will NOT feel the pressure to be politically correct.  People have got to quit taking themselves so seriously.