“...the technology lubricating the social lives of teenagers is amplifying standard adolescent cruelty,” reports The New York Times.
The “new weapons in the arsenal of social cruelty include stealing each others' screen names and sending inflammatory messages to friends or crush-objects, forwarding private material to people for whom it was never intended and anonymously posting derogatory comments about fellow students on Web journals called blogs.”
“Cyberbullies”? Give me a break.
Okay, so teens caught up in oh-so-important social drama tend to IM offensive messages more readily than if they were on the phone or standing face-to-face. It’s harder to call someone an irrational hypocrite, and other things, in person.
But today’s teens are adapting quickly to new technology and learning how to cope with its so-called “dangers.” Unless they’re incredibly clueless and/or reckless, teens should be able to protect themselves against harassment, gossip, and online threats.
RULE 1: Don’t post anything in a blog that says bad things about anyone you know personally. Newsflash: blogs aren’t private. Neither are IMs and e-mails, which can be easily forwarded, so be careful. Think before you type.
If you're anonymously posting mean messages in someone's blog, you're a spineless chicken who doesn't deserve to be taken seriously anyway. And more blogs are becoming private, with "friends only" posting settings.
RULE 2: Don’t give screen names to your enemies, your soon-to-be-enemies, those-notorious-friends-turned-backstabbers, or boys you prefer to avoid (the creepy stalker or persistent can-I-have-a-date types). If you need to, block all users except the ones you list. Privacy settings exist for a reason. Either that, or switch screen names whenever you make a new enemy, which hopefully isn't often.
RULE 3: While girls usually rely on emotional bullying, boys can use the Internet to say things they’d never say in person and/or make flaky promises. Girls have trouble fully understanding what boys say online, without the benefit of nonverbal communication. And besides boys are hard enough to understand in the first place. So beware. Be smart.
Or else the “cyberbullies” will get ya.
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