202 drama <3

Sunday, 19 July 2009 ; 06:52Y

drama-mama-ed

Hello :D First time posting here. Anyway, below are 5 stories about cyberbullying in Facebook and other online websites like Myspace (:

1. Facebook Sued
A Long Island teen has named Facebook as part of a cyberbullying suit that alleges she was taunted on the social networking site.

Teenager Denise Finkel has filed a suit, alleging that some former classmates created a Facebook page to cyberbully her. Finkel, now a student at SUNY Albany, claims the bullying traumatized her, and is seeking $3 million in damages.

She’s filed the suit against former classmates Michael Dauber, Jeffrey Schwartz, Leah Herz, and Melinda Danowitz, their parents, and Facebook, according to Information Week. The suit states that the password-protected page stated she had AIDS and other STDs, as well as being an IV drug user, and other things.

However, it’s not clear exactly what Finkel did to get Facebook to remove the offending page. The company says the suit has no merit and will fight it. Under the Communications Decency Act, operators of sites can’t be held liable for statements posted on their sites. Generally, social networking sites prohibit the posting of offensive material.

2. The Dog Poop Girl
In South Korea, a female college student was riding the train with her dog when it defecated on the floor of the subway car. After the girl refused to clean up the mess, another passenger on the train took her picture using her cell phone and posted it online. In the months to follow, it became an Internet sensation in South Korea and “Dog Poop” girl became the target of extreme harassment. Individuals found out her name and address and soon she was forced to withdraw from school and move to another part of the country.

3. A Fake Facebook Rival
This year in Clinton Missouri, charges were filed against a teenager who allegedly created a fake Facebook account to serve as a competition against a young girl who was interested romantically in a male student. The account was created by another girl who wanted the boy all to herself, the suit claims. As a result, the targeted individual underwent significant levels of stress which affected her studies and her ability to attend school regularly. The case is one of many that feature phony accounts on Facebook or MySpace that are used to harass young people or stir up trouble among friends.

Cyber Bullying has become a worldwide problem because of the difficulty to track its occurrences. It some cases it has been accepted as humor, but when is it taken to far? When a child has taken her own life because she was cyber bullied, we know it has been taken way too far.

Cyber bullying has been present in the 2008 presidential election with the slurrying of both presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. Even the vice-presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden have been victims of this abuse. These slanders wouldn’t technically be considered cyber bullying, but are loosely related. Senator Sarah Palin has received the worst of it with the creation of videos mocking her interviews on Saturday Night Live. NBC reports over 7 million views online, with millions more watching it on YouTube and Google video.

4. The “Kill Kylie” Campaign of Hate and Homophobia
Kylie Kenney, an eighth grade student from Vermont lost two years of her life as a result of cyber bullying from classmates. From junior high through her sophomore year of high school, Kylie was forced to deal with websites created by her classmates that featured names like “Kill Kylie Incorporated” that were filled with threatening, homophobic remarks about the young girl. These hurtful kids obtained screen names with handles close to Kylie’s name and used them to make suggestive remarks and sexual advances on Kylie’s teammates on the field hockey team. As a result police filed charges of harassments against the individuals responsible.

5. The Megan Meier Myspace Incident (this one is Myspace one, but it was quite serious)
Megan Meier was a 13 year old from Missouri who struck up an online friendship on the popular social networking site MySpace with a person she believed was a new boy in her hometown. In actuality, the “friend” was a group of individuals, including adults, who were intent on humiliating the poor girl because of a friendship with another child that had gone awry. Megan was very upset when she found out the truth, then later committed suicide once the friendship had terminated. The horrifying case stunned the community and caused state government officials to pass some of the harshest cyber bullying laws in the country.

Byebye!,
ellen :D