Is social media shaping world politics and is populist agenda now more important than democrasy?

The Dude

Changing schools is much harder than changing your username.

It really isn't that difficult to avoid online bullies, just as with 'traditional' bullying the difficult part is asking for help.

weaviemx5

You did it yourself just a few months ago..

Bl4ckGryph0n

And how long do you think it takes a determined bully to find someone's new username?  I know this is a theoretical conversation, but it does feel like it's being seen as very black/white when the reality is considerably more difficult.

Bl4ckGryph0n

Only got a bit of experience with that with one teenage daughter who was severely affected, so bad that the police got involved and we also involved CEOP. The physical beating up was the worst, you would never wan't to get that phone call from the police that you have to come to hospital. The online bullying stopped relatively quickly. The physical world avoidance of individuals involved is nearly impossible.

The whole professional attitude to online bullying has changed many years ago, it used to be a message of that what was posted can never be undone. But the professionals moved on, as it isn't true, and the effects of such a message made it even worse for the victims.

CEOP are awesome, any parent that has concerns and sees behavioural changes in their children should use the resources available to them.

But don't let that get in the way of our assumptions and prejudices to score cheap points.

Bl4ckGryph0n

That is banning, not regulation. And how do you propose to ban something like that? You can't stop people conversing with each other, they will find other ways. Law enforcement find it already too hard to 'listen' in to the conversations. Standard peer-2-peer encryption methods thwarts them, then what?

The Dude

Totally agree, it is easy to hide yourself online. Or have yourself only known to those you consider as real and true friends. Much easier than with non online sources.

And I agree, that step to ask for help is extremely difficult and no different. In our direct experience the asking for help didn't happen. We noticed a change in behaviour, have an electronic devices contract in place with our children that we drew up together so we looked and were shocked at some of the material which we reported to the police and also to CEOP. But unfortunately for my daughter the traditional bullying ended up with her in hospital

The online bullying is totally stopped, or perhaps it hasn't, but we don't know and don't care, totally hidden from it, and they'll get bored. The traditional part you can't get away from, you see them at the shops, across the road, at the cinema, whenever you least expect them. And then the panic attacks can still happen.

Totally agree avoiding online bullies is easy, very easy...

weaviemx5

Good question, how long do you think it would take me to find you online?

Even if I do find you on twitter or facebook or whatsapp, what then?


'Cyber Bullying' sounds like some evil psychological torture that Doctor Who still has nightmares about 1000s of years later, whereas 'eBullying' sounds like something that you'll soon get bored with and throw in a bottom drawer.


Which term do the press use?

weaviemx5

I’m sorry for your daughters’ experience, as a parent myself I can only imagine how horrible that must have been for all of you.  My “point scoring” post was in response to what appeared to be a flippant statement that it’s easy to get away from online bullies so I apologise if it came across as equally flippant.

The Dude

A useful response demonstrating the same mistake that many teenagers make. Your desire to 'have the last word' has only swerved to highlight your inability to answer the question(s) posed.

If you can't answer (beat) the question (bully), then just don't respond to the question. A weak response only encourages follow up questions.

It's cyber-bullying survival lesson one.

weaviemx5

What are you on about?

You gave online bullying two names (that mean the same thing) and asked me how long it would take you to find me online?  I responded by saying I'm not a teenager suffering bullying (online or physical) so your question was irrelevant.

Edit - I 'think' you're trying to suggest that if someone is being targeted by an online nobody (bully) then they should simply not respond (ignore) and they'll go away?  That's a lovely idea but, in the real world, it's not always the case.  Hence my original post suggesting that online bullying is different to physical because it can be 24x7 (as not all bullying victims will be able to simply ignore it).  Sadly, not all kids/teenagers have support from their parents/teachers or are able to share the fact they're being bullied, so don't get the support from Police/CEOP.  That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, just that not everyone is in the same well-supported position.