Chocko
03-02-2008, 07:48 PM
Virtual bullying: A grim reality
SAY THE word ‘bullying’ and think of the image that comes to your mind. It would probably be of a schoolyard bully grinning with pleasure, as his victims cower in fear. Well, this image, though not wrong, is no longer sufficient to describe the whole gamut of bullying, as it exists today. Parents can no longer feel relieved if their child doesn’t come home with a black eye or a few bruises that his/her life has not been touched by the pernicious affects of bullying.
Virtual bullying or e-bullying (electronic bullying) is a harsh reality of our world today. It has spread quickly keeping a few paces ahead of any controls that the information technology (IT) experts can conjure up as a remedy. Ask teens in any country and chances are that a large percentage would have been at the receiving end of offensive, abusive, threatening or just plain annoying emails and messages on their mobiles. What makes things especially difficult is that such bullying often comes from both known and unknown sources, and the steps of blocking offenders from your computer or mobile is unlikely to weed out the problem.
As the social networking portals mushroom and gain almost cult status amongst the young ones, it has become virtually impossible for parents to have an idea of whom their children are communicating with online. Even more bizarre is the fact that while the children might be making friends in good trust, there is no knowing who is at the other end.
Young users, while being extremely savvy users of the technology, are many times left exposed by their lack of worldly experience. They share their email IDs and personal information freely, and sometimes, this trust is exploited and they become victims of deception and bullying. It is so easy to create a false ID and pretend to be someone who you are not.
Easy to use photo editing software has made it simple to alter perfectly innocent pictures into offensive ones and post online for the whole world to see. Young women are increasingly finding themselves at the receiving end of such bullying.
Already newspapers have done a fair bit of reporting on the unhappy consequences of such online deceptions. The most serious one was perhaps the murder of a young boy in Mumbai by his buddies, who he made online on a social networking site. One more case gets recounted here about a young girl overseas who committed suicide because of the dejection she felt when rejected by a boyfriend she had made online. As things turned out, the ‘boyfriend’ was actually the mother of a school friend with whom the poor victim had some schoolyard difficulties.
If you think that virtual bullying is limited to school children and students only, then think again. As emails are exchanged as a matter of routine at work, the tentacles of bullying have spread to the office space too. Bullying can be subtle, ranging from repeated pressure to meet unrealistic deadlines to more sinister forms of threats and abuses.
Gone are the days when a day off from work could mean a welcome break from the pressure of a difficult boss or colleagues. The world of 24/7 connectivity via mobiles and personal computers offers no sanctuary for the victims of bullies. Leaking of sensitive office information with malicious intent has the potential to land many an innocent employee into trouble.
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=130713.
SAY THE word ‘bullying’ and think of the image that comes to your mind. It would probably be of a schoolyard bully grinning with pleasure, as his victims cower in fear. Well, this image, though not wrong, is no longer sufficient to describe the whole gamut of bullying, as it exists today. Parents can no longer feel relieved if their child doesn’t come home with a black eye or a few bruises that his/her life has not been touched by the pernicious affects of bullying.
Virtual bullying or e-bullying (electronic bullying) is a harsh reality of our world today. It has spread quickly keeping a few paces ahead of any controls that the information technology (IT) experts can conjure up as a remedy. Ask teens in any country and chances are that a large percentage would have been at the receiving end of offensive, abusive, threatening or just plain annoying emails and messages on their mobiles. What makes things especially difficult is that such bullying often comes from both known and unknown sources, and the steps of blocking offenders from your computer or mobile is unlikely to weed out the problem.
As the social networking portals mushroom and gain almost cult status amongst the young ones, it has become virtually impossible for parents to have an idea of whom their children are communicating with online. Even more bizarre is the fact that while the children might be making friends in good trust, there is no knowing who is at the other end.
Young users, while being extremely savvy users of the technology, are many times left exposed by their lack of worldly experience. They share their email IDs and personal information freely, and sometimes, this trust is exploited and they become victims of deception and bullying. It is so easy to create a false ID and pretend to be someone who you are not.
Easy to use photo editing software has made it simple to alter perfectly innocent pictures into offensive ones and post online for the whole world to see. Young women are increasingly finding themselves at the receiving end of such bullying.
Already newspapers have done a fair bit of reporting on the unhappy consequences of such online deceptions. The most serious one was perhaps the murder of a young boy in Mumbai by his buddies, who he made online on a social networking site. One more case gets recounted here about a young girl overseas who committed suicide because of the dejection she felt when rejected by a boyfriend she had made online. As things turned out, the ‘boyfriend’ was actually the mother of a school friend with whom the poor victim had some schoolyard difficulties.
If you think that virtual bullying is limited to school children and students only, then think again. As emails are exchanged as a matter of routine at work, the tentacles of bullying have spread to the office space too. Bullying can be subtle, ranging from repeated pressure to meet unrealistic deadlines to more sinister forms of threats and abuses.
Gone are the days when a day off from work could mean a welcome break from the pressure of a difficult boss or colleagues. The world of 24/7 connectivity via mobiles and personal computers offers no sanctuary for the victims of bullies. Leaking of sensitive office information with malicious intent has the potential to land many an innocent employee into trouble.
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=130713.