Concerns over surge in cyber bullying

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Concerns over surge in cyber bullying

3News NZ

Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean says he’s seeing more suicides where cyber bullying has been a contributing factor

Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean says he’s seeing more suicides where cyber bullying has been a contributing factor

By Jenny Suo

Cyber safety experts are concerned about a recent surge of Facebook pages that encourage bullying among young people.

For young New Zealanders, a world of gossip and bullying is just a click away.

The posts are mean, they're public, and deeply distressing for their targets.

Stacey Daymond-Wildbore, 21, is a victim of cyber bullying.

“I ended up in tears that night, I was so upset. The posts that are on there are so disgusting and disrespectful to a lot of people that haven’t done anything wrong,” she says.

She says she chose to speak out to bring attention to the issue.

“I’ve had nasty private messages and people texting me nasty messages as well.”

Netsafe says it has had a surge in calls from concerned parents asking them to contact Facebook to have the pages taken down. But keeping them down is another problem all together.

“That’s the difficulty, in order for them to be taken down someone has to report them. So often if they're taken down, it will come back with a slightly different name,” says Netsafe operations manager Lee Chisholm.

Currently the makers face no real consequence, but their victims often do.

Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean says he’s seeing more suicides where cyber bullying has been a contributing factor.

“It’s anonymous often, it’s twenty-four seven. It’s often going on late at night – no one is aware of what's going on and the young person is often in a very vulnerable state,” he says.

A Law Commission report on cyber bullying has been seen as such a priority that Justice Minister Judith Collins has asked for it to be fast tracked

It's now due to be released next month, and changes that are being considered include extending the Harassment Act to include cyber bullying, and making the incitement to suicide a criminal offence.

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Comments

4/09/2012 10:17:27 a.m.

Gary wrote:

We have gone cyber mad. Even the government are getting dragged into this B/S. Come on Judith Collins surly you are smarter than that are is it just for your own attention to boost your votes? We need to be addressing the real issue of why kids live on the internet and phones? What is it about this that makes it so addictive it changes their persona? I guess it is similar to drugs, smoking, gambling can not stop, it takes over our lives! That is what we should be investigating. Are these media sites set up in such a way it brainwashes its users, changes their opinions and minds?? Why do people become addicted??

9/07/2012 12:09:40 p.m.

jan wrote:

Simple don't answer your phone if you don't recgonise the numer. How about you switcht the thing off. Stop living your life on the computer,facebook, social networking places, get a life. Oh thats right your phones and computers are your life. Fight back and forward there bullying to the police, teachers or anyone who could help. They will get sick of you forwarding stuff and may step in and do something that you can't. Agree with chargone. Mind you if people believe any rubbish about another person placed on the internet is real, the world is doomed. If you are being bullied, don't put up with it, get even, and do it before the government decides to change the law so you don't get done to.

7/07/2012 12:17:31 p.m.

Fenix wrote:

Kids cant even last in the cyber world without breaking down or go mentally unstable due to influences.. I heard/seen kids as young as 10 surfing on dangerous grounds on the internet?! This is all too common in a uncontrolled cyber world.

6/07/2012 2:59:41 p.m.

stacey Daymond Wildbore wrote:

to anyone being bullyed i was to as you now know i am here if any one needs to talk

6/07/2012 12:40:10 p.m.

Chargone wrote:

cyber bullying: exactly the same as regular bullying, but ON THE INTERNET! gasp! panic! fear! the consequences are also exactly the same. only with an added element of 'you know 'avoid them' is actually Viable online, right?'... unlike the advice teachers give to the same effect in school, which is a load of rubbish. it's simple: DO NOT share your contact details in publicly accessible locations. DO NOT allow private messages from people you don't know. DO NOT go to pages you know to be upsetting. if you're doing any of these, particularly the last one, it almost may as well be self inflicted. if someone's dedicated enough to find out how to contact you to harass you when your contact details are not readily available you've got bigger problems than simple bullying. if they're actually sending you txt messages then they can be tracked (ALL cellphones can be tracked, it's a function of how they Work), which means the individual in question Can be tracked down and done for harassment or whatever. if it's a website that's allowing them to send messages you're getting as txts, then Disable that feature. there are a whole host of options for dealing with this stuff. it's not like anything is ever done about REAL bullying, which is NOT anonymous, anyway. most school's 'zero tolerance' policies amount to ignoring the real issues, punishing victims for responding in any way at all, or other such nonsense. out in the real world, such bullying is either low key and, again, nothing is done, or overt enough that it is dealt with for other reasons... though you still come across stories of situations where it wasn't dealt with fast enough. consider all that before someone gets the bright idea that anonymity is bad or that being 'on the internet' somehow changes the rules.