Tag: CYBERBULLYING

The parents of Tyler Clementi -- the 18-year-old Rutgers student who committed suicide last year after his classmates secretly recorded and streamed video of him having sex -- said yesterday that they want his former roommate Dharun Ravi's invasion of privacy case prosecuted, though they do not want him to receive "harsh punishment." His parents hope that the invasion of privacy charges will ...

Perhaps you've heard of this Exodus International iPhone app fracas? The leading organization behind the ex-gay movement (the belief that religious counseling can help LGBT people "struggling" with their sexualities to reorient themselves to heterosexuality) recently had its official app approved by Apple, and gay rights groups are now in an uproar. Surprise? Despite the fact that Apple deemed ...

Facebook is expected to unveil a new set of anti-bullying tools today at the White House Conference for Bullying Prevention in Washington, D.C. The changes, designed to "create a culture of respect" among Facebook users, are focused on two main areas: a revamped safety center, and a broader array of more social mechanisms for reporting offensive or threatening content. The social network's ...

MTV, Facebook and Justin "The Beebs" Bieber have launched Draw Your Line, a campaign to track and discourage acts of cyberbullying. While we hate cyberbullying as much as the next blog, we have to question the inclusion of Justin Bieber, as it reminds us of those old anti-drug specials featuring the Ninja Turtles. Young dope fiends didn't care about masked reptiles back then, and we'd wager ...

Share A California teenager who called his teacher a "fat ass" on Facebook has avoided punishment from his high school, thanks to the ACLU. In December, 10th-grader Donny Dunlap received an unusually large amount of homework from his biology teacher, so he decided to vent about it on Facebook. In a status update, the teen announced that the teacher is a "fat ass who should stop eating fast ...

Facebook has removed a controversial page from its platform, at the request of Long Island school officials. The page, titled "Nassau's Nasty List," reportedly served as an online forum for salacious rumors about specific female students at Uniondale High School, and provided detailed information on alleged sexual dalliances. As news of the page spread to other schools in the region, more users ...

A suburban Illinois student is facing expulsion for ranking 50 of his female classmates, and posting the list to Facebook. The unnamed Oak Park-River Forest High School student, who has since been suspended, also gave other male students hard copies of the list, which ranked girls based on their physical attractiveness and level of alleged promiscuity, and labeled them with names such as "Fallen ...

When they're not launching ill-advised DDoS attacks, flooding Tea Party forums with LOLcats or attempting to send Justin Bieber to North Korea, the members of 4chan like to pass around naked pics of dumb teens, and generally make life a living hell for everyone they can. [Ed. Note: They also like to party at Barcade, apparently.] An unidentified student from Philadelphia was the victim of a recent ...

Two teenage girls from Florida were arrested Wednesday, on allegations that they had set up a fake Facebook account in their classmate's name, and filled it with sexually explicit photos. According to the police report, the fake Facebook page first appeared on April 20th, and eventually accumulated 181 friends. A second page under the same victim's name surfaced on April 29th, and attracted ...

December is the month that marks Christmas, Boxing Day and Emily Dickinson's birthday. It's also the time of year that we face endless Year In Review lists, posted across every form of media. Most of these lists focus on The Best, The Greatest, The Most Memorable. Well, isn't that cheery? But, you see, 2010 was a horrible year, and it doesn't deserve self-congratulatory pats on the back. Sure, ...

Figuring out where to draw the line between free speech and harassment is hard enough for the government; it's even more difficult for Facebook. In recent months, the social network has found itself on the fulcrum of many high-profile free speech debates, ranging in topics from controversial cartoons to cyberbullying to Wikileaks. Through it all, Facebook's 'hate and harassment' team has tried to ...

Cyberbullying pervades every manner of online interaction, and a tragic series of recent events is forcing communities, schools and law enforcement agencies to vigorously address the issue. Anti-bullying organizations abound on the Web, but most offer relatively generic and ambiguous tips for dealing with tormentors. Sure, "report the abuse" seems like a simple step, but when exactly should the ...

Today's teenage bullies may conduct the majority of their schoolyard terrorism on Facebook, but parents are quickly catching on, and doing their best to mitigate cyberbullying. The New York Times Magazine recently investigated what some parents are doing to counteract online bullying, and, not surprisingly, found a pretty wide variety of approaches. Some run to the police, while others choose to ...

Yesterday, both houses of the New Jersey state legislature passed an 'Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights,' just a few months after 18-year-old Rutgers student and cyberbully target Tyler Clementi committed suicide. The bill, which is now awaiting the signature of Governor Chris Christie, would require most public school employees to take training courses on how to pick up on cyberbullying, while ...

The FCC takes cyberbullying very seriously -- and it wants to make sure that schools do, too. Today, the Federal Communications Commission announced that all schools receiving subsidies for Internet access must educate students on the dangers of cyberbullying, and teach them how to use social networking sites responsibly. Schools receiving federal funding under the nationwide E-rate program are ...