online bullying

[amalan11]

I wondered if anyone can explain how this continues to happen? .

I'm constantly reading how children are being bullied on line by their peers and classmates ect.What I'm curious to know  is why they don't just change their email address and set up social media acounts that only approved people can access. 

Do their classmates have to have access to their email addresses or something. .. I'm just surprised  that you can have children who are at the stage of being suicidal  and yet bullies can still contact them , am I missing something?   

[donnashuggy]

I guess it could make a person more likely to suicide but I don't believe it is the cause. Maybe I'm wrong.

[donnashuggy]

This is really interesting. The bullies are very much at risk of suicide

Note the reference to drowning and supervision. 

 http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullying-suicide-translation-final-a.pdf

[***super_nova***]

Some bullies bully because they have problems too.  They may feel inferior.  Some kids that experience homosexual feelings may bully kids who are gay to cover up their own homosexuality. 

[donnashuggy]

Yes, now that reminds me of a movie

[johcaschro]

This whole cyber-bullying thing is a first world problem, isn't it?

If someone is being virtually  psychologically assaulted or bullied by online entities (and that's the only sort of bullying that words on a screen can threaten) then there's a simple solution  . . . turn it off . . . don't go there.

People complain of cyber bullying . . .  but they still go back online. at their very own chosen risk of being bullied (by hideously scary and soul-scarring Words!  . . . oh my!) . . .  are we breeding a race of wusses who go all timid and weak at the knees all because of a few words on a screen? which they really don't actually need to read in the first place and can avoid by the excercise of only a small amount of will power.

It's a tool. We use it. We don't let it use us. Well, the more enlightend folk among us do that.

Online comms and connectivity is supposed to be a "good thing" . . . and it can be and it is. People who believe that they are being "bullied" online, should study English grammar and maybe even creative writing so that they arm themselves with fit and effective defensive rejoinders to what is (let's face it) usually a rather crude and illiterate attempt at virtual intimidation.

best defense against a virtual bully is laughter and derision effectively expressed.

against a physical bully? it's different. in that case, running speed, agility and/or a good education in fighting technique is more appropriate.

Online bullying? It's like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer. A person is under no compulsion to pick up the hammer. but if they insist on doing so, then it's of little use to complain when they find themselves singularly unskilled in its use.

[lurker172602]

I agree with much of what you are saying and yes, it probably is a first world problem. But that is the world we live in now and we need, as a society, to learn how to live in it, not just avoid it 

Some of us here have been witness, over the past few days, to a particularly nasty and prolonged attempted online attack (not here specifically, but round about). Is it really a solution to tell the victim they should just go away?  Should they have to avoid a place where their cyber friends congregate and they have previously felt comfortable?  Shouldn't the onus be on the bully to modify their behaviour, not the victim?

Would we expect a victim of workplace or schoolyard bullying to just leave their job or school?  Find somewhere else to go?  Leave their friends and colleagues behind?  The internet is where a lot of people work and spend social time nowadays. We need a more complex solution than just turn it off.

[donnashuggy]

It is a strange thing, would you go back to the same pub every friday night if you got beaten to a pulp? Probably not, but people will go online and allow themselves to be bullied.

[***super_nova***]

Once the people who beat me are dealt with, and I would expect that they would be charged and banned by the publican, then yes.  And of-course, there are other pubs and places to go. 

[lionrose.7]

Donna I believe this was about teenagers not adults, this is bullying in school and on line, Teens do not think like adults, their peer group are every thing to them, they cant walk away from school and if they feel that every one is against them they will become depressed and yes some suicidal.

[mick321748]

Hello all, I know this is a little late on this topic  but I struggled with what is posted on online bullying that promotes such a drastic response. What is it that is posted the eats away at the reader. As a senoir citizen ( 67 yrs) I thought I was immune and bullying was a generational gap thing until the last 24 hours.

I posted some posket watches on ebay. They had been ticking away on my dask for the last few weeks with regular time checks and so felt reasonably happy with their performance and posted them as working but not tested for accuracy nor guaranteed to be accurate as some were 110 years old.

Yesterday evening two hours after the parcel was delivered I received:

Him: Just received the pocket watches to find only 1 works and the other 2 tick for a second or 2 then stop??? I brought believing they were working Took then to a watch maker local here and he has said they need to be serviced at very least which would cost more than i paid ? Not happy jan !

I replied:

Hello, I am happy to refund your money if you return the watches in original condition, packed and posted at your expense as I indicated in the original listing within 14 days. I hope this helps
Kind regards

to which I received:

Him: BUT WHY DID YOU FALSELY CLAIM THEY ARE WORKING MATE THAT IS TOTALLY FALSE ADVERTISING EASY TO SEE 2 DO NOT WORK

I having thought he missed my earlier response i replied:

Me: Hello, I am happy to refund your money if you return the watches in original condition, packed and posted at your expense as I indicated in the original listing within 14 days. I hope this helps
Kind regards

To which he replied:

Him: So no reason other than to cheat me ok if i have to pay for return then i will also post negative feedback to warn other of your deception and then want me to pay for return postage OUTRAGEOUS !

To which I replied as before thinkng he misunderstood my previous two messages

In response he replied:

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK POSTED NOW I WILL REPORT YOUR FRAUD TO EBAY !

to which I replied: I am happy to pay for my watches to be returned and provide a full refund but you have to click on the Return Item before I can do anything.

Now in those simple text messages I went from feeling excited to get a response from a buyer to being under threat and feeling bullied. The operative word is FEELING bullied. This  has occupied my thoughts for the past 24 hours. Productivity was nil. I can only imagine how a vulnerable teenager feels with multiple aggressive text messages being dumped on them.

I was unaware of the feelings bullying generated until I was dumped on and for that I owe that guy in South Australia a vote of thanks. Please lets keep the internet safe.

Kind regards

Mick