By Anna Mikhailova, Social networks granted us easy access to people and information but they also made us vulnerable. You would think online behavior differs from how we usually act in real life but the phenomenon of 'trolling' or cyber-bullying that has become widely recognized over the last years proves it wrong. Regardless of who you talk to - 'real' people or those only known to you by their online identities, you can get emotionally hurt. Surely bullying in itself is nothing but cyberbullying takes it to a whole new level - it does not require a face-to-face confrontation, so it's easier both psychologically and physically to harass someone through telecommunications. And as more and more young people are becoming the victims of cyberbullies, which even leads to suicides, the issue needs regulation on a legislative level, - says Mac Watson, a radio talkshow host in Arizona, where a bipartisan bill designed to fight cyber-bullying and cyber-stalking, was recently adopted. 'It’s interesting that if there is a parent that has a child that has been bullied, the parents are usually for this because they know what it’s like, obviously in their own experience of having their child bullied. You aren’t just bullied at school anymore. You are bullied 24/7. There are so many different ways and devices that you can use to bully somebody, to bully a kid especially, that usually parents are for it.' http://voiceofrussia.com/2012_04_11/71340608/, Currently there is US federal legislation in bill form for cyberbullying with 14 states already having such legislation adopted or pending. The United Kingdom is also closely watching the situation. The new regulations added to the Defamation Bill argue that victims have a right to know who is behind a cyberbullying attack. This way bullies can now have their identities revealed without a court order. Rose McNeill, a Head of Education and Equality at the National Union of Teachers, says girls are particularly liable to online bullying as there a sexist aspect involved. 'Some of the attitudes that we think we fixed, the general sexist attitudes, are still there, that we now have kind of new issues really – sometimes linked to the internet, sometimes linked to how boys and girls use mobile phones and Facebook pages. There are new areas of sexual bullying and we have new issues around things like anorexia and self-harm for girls.' http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_04_03/Teens-exposed-to-Raunch-Culture-of-sex/ The social networks realize the scale of the problem too. Back in 2011, Facebook introduced a number of tools used to protect users from cyberbullying. These tools were an improved safety center with more multimedia resources, as well as convenient functionality for reporting offensive content or instances of cyber-bullying. You can also choose instead of contacting administration to privately message the user who posted offensive content. But even if you are lucky enough to never come across online “trolls”, it’s good to know social networks care for the etiquette. Source: Article
