subject: Cyber Bullying E-book Addresses This Growing Problem [print this page] Students today have enough to worry about without having to be subjected to the harassment of cyber bullying. Yet a new e-book reports that this type of online stalking is becoming more and more common in schools worldwide.
Many victims find pages on sites like Facebook, YouTube, or MySpace that are devoted to vicious slurs about themselves. Or they find videos secretly taped by webcams or cell phones where they say something they thought was confidential or that capture images of them doing something stupid posted on video blogging sites. They may have their tormentor appear incognito while online chatting and launch an attack against the victim or the victim's friends. Online bullying e-books can document thousands of such cases.
A cyber bullying e-book will describe online bullying as an action taken by a minor or group of minors against another minor, using technology like webcams and cell phones to damage the victim's reputation or cause the victim humiliation. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, video blogging sites, and online chatting locations are popular with students, and these are the main sources used to post hurtful data to further the online stalking or harassment.
Cyber bullying e-books can provide documentation of suicides caused by bullying and lives wrecked by online stalking and harassment. Damaging posts to sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and video blogging sites can have far reaching consequences for the victim. Even online chatting with friends can be a hazardous pastime. Online stalking and harassment can cause grades to decline and normally sunny teenagers to become sullen and withdrawn. More than one cyber bullying e-book has noted that parents comment that their child's whole personality has changed as the bullying has progressed.
Sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and most video blogging sites will remove information that violates their policies if they are made aware that such postings exist. However, by the time the cyber bullying victim learns of the online stalking or harassment, thousands or even millions of people around the world may have already viewed the information, which the e-book states may have been obtained by the covert use of webcams or cell phones.
The cyber bullying e-book relates that victims may also receive text messages from cell phones. These text messages often go far beyond harassment, featuring death threats, racial slurs, or threats of physical violence. They can also be a form of online stalking used to display knowledge of the victim's activities or location to make the victim believe that they are constantly being watched.
Parents and victims can benefit from the cyber bullying e-book to learn how to deal with online stalking and harassment. Those who enjoy MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, video blogging, or online chatting should not be forced to abandon their activities due to cyber bullying, yet the e-book reports that many victims do precisely that. They may also be afraid to use cell phones or webcams to transmit videos to friends or relative, lest they be intercepted and used for cyber bullying.
