When Vile Goes Viral

Sticking to my theme and area of interest, teens and social media use/abuse, I chose the mashable.com article  “Teens Brag on Facebook After Alleged Bullying Victim Commits Suicide” http://mashable.com/2013/10/15/bullying-teen-brags-facebook) to focus on for this week’s blog.  Bullying from behind a phone or computer screen limits a teen’s ability to properly discern consequences for his or her words and also allows them to say and act in a way that they would not otherwise.  While bullying is not a new concept, the idea that one can use mere words and/or pictures on a screen to inflict so much damage to another is a relatively new and bewildering phenomenon.  It leaves parents, educators, and lawmakers alike scrambling for solutions to the cyber-bullying epidemic.  

            The above-mentioned article doesn’t just focus on the words spoken that hurt a young girl to the point of suicide, it points to the callous and seemingly heartless comments that were made afterwards—comments again posted via social media.  Would the teen who so thoughtlessly typed those words say that to the victim’s family?  Her friends?  Or did he/she feel protected enough behind a screen to utter words so vile?  And this is how cyber-bullying begins....with words—words on a screen typed by someone who often does not see the consequences that will follow--consequences with the law, with school officials, fights among family and friends, and in this case the consequence of an untimely death of the bullying victim.

            Because of the nature of social media, the type of communication that would be considered cyber-bullying often goes viral, and once it does there is little that can stop that kind of moving train.  The recent Rolling Stone article “Sexting, Shame, and Suicide” (http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/sexting-shame-and-suicide-20130917) recounts the story of Audrie Pott.  Audrie was drunk and passed out when a group of boys took markers and colored her body.  The same boys took photos of Audrie’s decorated body and shared them among friends.   While this article focuses more on the issue of “sexting”, it can not be ignored that social media was used to share the pictures of Audrie, and in the end it was more than she could bear.   When it was told to her that the whole school had heard and seen what had happened, Audrie persevered just a few more days before strangling herself to death. 

            Lawmakers and school officials in every state are searching for ways to deal with the cyber-bullying problem.  California Governor, Jerry Brown, recently signed legislation  http://losgatos.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/cyberbullying-law-signed-into-law-by-governor allowing for schools to take more disciplinary action in cases of cyber bullying.   Cyber-bully victim, Audrie Pott’s suicide, was a contributing factor in this Assembly Bill being passed in her own state.   While I am thankful that such laws are being considered and that school districts and government bodies are attempting to tackle the problem, I believe that one of the greatest ways to decrease cases of cyber-bullying is parental involvement.  Many social media sites have age restrictions.  A teen must be 13 to sign up for a Facebook and 17 to activate a Vine account.  Many parents turn a blind eye to these minimum standards and thus open up a whole new world of communication to their young teens.  Additionally, many parents are not aware of what social media accounts are being used on their child’s phone and/or computer.  Knowledge and monitoring of those accounts  (including text messaging) by parents is a key factor in reducing the number of cyber-bullying cases. 

            I closely monitor my daughter’s accounts on Twitter and Facebook.  In monitoring her account I also am aware of the communication of other teens.  I have seen very few (if any) situations of cyber-bullying, but if I did I would be on it—on the phone to parents, school counselors, or would even speak to the teens involved.  I consider it a serious issue and one that parents need to do their part to prevent.  When I read articles like the ones mentioned above, my heart breaks.  It breaks for the victims, for the parents and friends of the victim, for the one who wrote the damaging words or sent the harassing pictures and will have to live with the knowledge of what they have done, also and for those teens who will be too blind or calloused in the future to see be able to see the consequences of seemingly mere words on a screen.