|
|
Post by Anna on Aug 17, 2013 21:57:47 GMT
No I agree, anyone who doesn't treat the internet as being dangerous is stupid. A 14 year old shouldn't have unlimited access to the web, I was always amazed how much internet access that thingy on the Bruno forum had.
Bullying is bullying, it happens. People deal with it in different ways, it has always happened and will continue to happen. No where in the world has found a way to end bullying yet. The internet is just another way to bully people, it is sad but it is true that people feel the need to do it.
Will closing down the internet help?
No. Because no one has found a way to stop physical bullying at school, at work and just in general in life.
Every bully has a different reason for being the way they are. Some pick on others because they are abused themselves at home, others do it because it makes them feel better about themselves, some do it just because they are wankers, others do it because they are bullied into it by their peers.
No victim should ever have to just walk away from a bully but at the same time being bullied on a site like Ask.Fm is different to being bullied at school or work and even different from being bullied on Facebook/Twitter. At the end of the day it isn't a real social site, you ask questions and people reply to them. You have the choice to write those questions anonymously. The first people on that site probably thought it was great and used it properly, then miserable people went onto the site and decided to make others feel as down as them, or else some bored idiot decided to do it.
Facebook and Twitter are different as you are always in control. Not only that but they are platforms that you can keep in touch and meet new people with similar ideas/opinions. When you get bullied on there it can be like being at school or work, its a place you want to be, your friends are there, you use it to keep in touch and find out news. Ask.Fm you log in so people can ask you questions, be it your friends or random strangers. Well... Good for you? Why do you really need that? If anything Tumblr has a similar feature but as it has more of a community heart to it if you ever got a death threat and published it you'd have other people messaging you right away to tell you to ignore them and report them. Ask.Fm doesn't seem to be a community thing and I'm not sure what you are getting out of being asked random questions.
Her father is grieving, and he probably does feel guilty. He annoys me though as he seems to be clueless about the internet and that is half the reason that this happened. His daughter wasn't happy. Something else was wrong with that girl other than getting abuse on a website, a website that had report buttons, block buttons and a off switch. She didn't go to her dad, her dad never questioned what she did on the internet which is bizarre (my mum still does and I'm 10 years older than this girl!) he let her do what she pleased on the internet and then when something tragic and terrible happened he's resorted to his cluelessness to find a face to the person that did this to his daughter. Understandable I'm sure but by banging on about ask.fm in all his interviews, by the press just reporting tit for tat between the dad and the website we are losing the most important debating point there is.
Why the heck would a 14 year old girl a. go to a site like this b. feel the need to kill herself over abuse and c.what is the appropriate action of parents with kids on the internet?
I don't know what the girl was going through, I do know what bullying can be like and the lasting effects of it. Personally suicide has never popped into my head through all my years of bullying (I'm still being bullied now in the work place after all!) so I'll obviously never understand why she did what she did. Again like bullies we'll never understand why people do this and that is the big thing. Her father is being pig headed, she was being bullied online therefore the website should be thrown into the abyss. Well what if it turns out the bullies where from her school or where her sister? Should the school or her sister be thrown into the abyss as well?!
There is only one thing that needs to come out of this and that is for parents to realize that they are giving their kids access to a dangerous world. Our generation knows this and will (hopefully) pass it on to our kids. The generation before us doesn't know it to the same extent. The website isn't to blame, the bullies are but unless her father can actually come up with a way to stop all bullying in every form then shutting down websites WITH REPORT BUTTONS, BLOCK BUTTONS ETC ALREADY IN USE won't help the matter. It might make him feel better but it won't do anything. And the government doesn't need to do shit all in this case, the police can ask for IP addresses and see what to do after they've got the data back. Websites do usually give the IP addresses if asked for them. What the hell more can you do? Unless we make it a law that ANY kind of bullying is prosecuted in the way that her father wants then it can't just be made law for the internet.
Abuse in real life will always be just that little bit worse then from an annon online.
|
|
.
