Browser BULLIES
Date of Publishing:07/11/2010
Location:Hyderabad
The internet may have made the world a truly global community, but it has also made it a global school yard, complete with It bullies.
W hen the death of university fresh man Tyler Clementi hit the headlines recently, the ugly face of cyber bullying came under scrutiny once again. But while such tragic stories make the news occasionally, the reality is that cyber bullying is more commonplace, and sometimes more organised, than we care to think.
As we spend a greater amount of time in the online jungle, we are exposed to an increasing number of scams, cheats and hostile behaviour. A recent survey by security software company Norton revealed a shocking 76 per cent of Indians have been victims of cyber crime, including online harassment while another survey conducted by NGO Plan India discovered that only nine percent girls knew where to report cases of cyber bullying. But while the government hosts seminars on national cyber security, what is being done to protect our children at school? According to an article by advocate Debarati Halder and Dr K. Jaishankar, who run NGO Centre for Cyber Victim Counselling, neither the Juvenile Act nor the IT Act deal with cyber bullying and there are no official school guidelines. Instead a bul letin from the Central Board of Secondary Education merely suggests implementing a scheme whereby students can speak out against cyber bullying, with incident report and management systems.
But while the usual suspects for cyber bullying are SMS messages, Facebook groups and YouTube videos that victimise everybody from minority groups, to school kids, teachers and even celebs, this is mere ly scratching the surface.
In the most disturbing cases, cyber bullying has involved individuals or even organised online groups who are accused of pushing the boundaries of cyber bullying to the extreme, by allegedly attempting to frame people as paedophiles, mocking the disabled and pushing vulnerable teens to suicide. But while such cases are appalling, there is an everyday kind of bullying that occurs in the online playground.
As the video game industry draws more players online, using headsets for players to communicate, instances of abuse have become routine on services such as Xbox Live. Sometimes online chatter goes well beyond boisterous -in one case a player in the US became the victim of racial slurs, reportedly being called `monkey' and threatened with lynching. Online player, Rajesh (name changed on request) tells us that racial or homophobic arguments are common, adding, "The culprits and victims are mostly kids between 10 and 22. Generally, older players don't care to do it or don't get affected by someone trying."
"Overall, it can ruin a person's experience of multi-player gaming," says Rajesh, "The younger they are, the more impressionable it can be." And it's not just some players either; over the years, the Internet has thrown up a series of hateful games like Border Patrol (where players were encouraged to shoot Mexican immigrants).
And bullies beware -while the authorities, schools and Internet companies like Google and Facebook play catch up, self-regulation is already occurring in the wider online community too, but it's not always so civilised.
While volunteer groups and websites have emerged to tackle online harassment in a positive way, making videos and working with authorities to bring bullies to justice, more extreme cases (such as the suicide of American girl Megan Meier) have ignited the fury of the masses and `mobs' have purportedly formed to expose the bullies, sometimes turning the tormentor into the tormented. CYBER BULLYING CLOSER HOME SOUMYA SAMYUKTA: One of my friends was close to a guy. Once, after a tiff, he created a fake profile of her on a social networking site in which he posted indecent pictures and content. She even got replies on the site which were very embarrassing. Unable to bear the humiliation, she left the college. But she never lodged a complaint against him for reasons best known to her. SIRISHA VANKA: My profile has been impersonated several times. But there was one time when it got particularly annoying. Somebody created a fake profile of me and even posted some of my pictures. It obviously had to be one of my friends, as nobody else had access to my photographs. What got on my nerves was that the impersonator would chat with my friends online and say some pretty offensive things. PREVENTIVE MEASURES AT SCHOOL Sarita Mahi, principal, primary section, Srinidhi Interational School says,"We teach our students about the Internet and its pitfalls. As they grow, they are edu cated on factors like chatting, social networking sites and are made aware of the crimes that take place. The aim is to create awareness. We teach them how to pro tect themselves online. There is also a session for parents to encourage them to keep a watch on their kids."
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