subject: Adding Another Voice: Media Safety Controls Could Have Prevented Cyberbullying Suicide [print this page] I know I'm not Ellen DeGeneres so my voice may not carry as much as weight. Yet, as a writer, I will feel a need, a compulsion if you will, to speak out about this horrific example of yet another case of cyberbullying gone beyond the pale.
A huge public outcry is necessary. Despite the trendiness of anger management, sometimes anger is justifiable. In this instance, it is morally the thing to do.
Did the two 'outing' students know that the result would be their victim's suicide? Maybe not, but their intent falls within the legal requirements to be classified as criminal conduct. It was a malicious invasion of privacy intended to do harm, even if they did not foresee that harm as suicide.
And it is true that their thoughtless, adolescent behavior will now haunt them for the rest of their lives, perhaps drastically affecting the course of their lives.
Is that enough punishment for a life lost? I don't know.
Will criminal sanctions be enough? I can't answer that either.
What I can say is that something has to be done. The legal system and the various legislatures aren't moving fast enough.
Pundits are going to far as to query: "Is social media a social malignancy?" I believe that social media is not a social blight. It is an extension of free speech. Free speech and freedom of the press, whether it is professional or simple man press, is permitted in our society. That doesn't mean that it should be entirely unregulated.
I promise not to review a history of the evolution of case law on freedom of speech. The point is that dealing with this issue is not unprecedented in our history. It just needs to adapt to the new course of media dissemination.
Because the law and judicial review do not move at the pace of the internet, additional remedies are needed in the interim.
If Google can develop analytics with spiders that determine page ranking, the means to do something exists. If article submission services can apply software to determine if an article is truly original and not copycatted, something can be done.
The fast resolution lies with technology. Someone, somewhere, needs to develop a software application that can be applied across the board to screen Google, Twitter, Facebook, and the like. Once developed and legally approved, its application should be legally mandated as a requirement for operating these sites on the web.
C'mon Silicon Valley, you know you have it in you. Intel, get on board. There has to be a way.
Perhaps an international review board would have to be convened as the usage of such an application requires global accord. Therein lies the challenge because free press and speech are different in every country.
But something has to be done. Now.
The internet is not license to ignore basic rules of human conduct and social decency.
Nothing, no new techno-development, should ever be above those rules.
Education of our youth factors in here as well. Schools need to discuss cyberbullying and the Golden Rules of Internet Behavior in greater depth. I know my children are asked each year to sign a school contact about proper computer usage. That is a reasonable first step. But more is needed.
Going online doesn't give the user permission or license to do what they would otherwise never do for fear of being caught. If we have to capitalize on that fear to prevent further abuse, then so be it.
There has to be a way. Cyberbullying is just terrorism on another front. It is on a front that is affecting our kids and that hits us where we live and breathe. It slaps our souls without mercy.
Each of us needs to add our voice to the media buzz on this one. It is one way we can make some small recompense in cyberspace and start to find peace in that universe. And then, those that have the ability need to take action. Please.
Adding Another Voice: Media Safety Controls Could Have Prevented Cyberbullying Suicide
