I have to begin by saying that I have never researched cyberbullying or online identity so these articles were very insightful. Also, it may be naive of me but I cannot believe how many children are involved in cyberbullying. However, with the increased use of computers and technology by younger and younger chidren I can see how it could be such a major issue. I think to me the scariest thing about online identity and cyberbullying is the prevelance and growing interest in it among younger people.
From reading the articles it seems to me that they, more than anything else, want to portray themselves as someone they are not. Online is a place where they can be anything they want to and others can see them as their "ideal" self. Again, the extremes of this scares me because I feel as though children/teens are losing their individuality by thinking that it is not good enough. Exactly this was shown through the New Yorker article on the girl Megan who took her own life because of an online made up person. I think the thing that is especially sad about this case is that Megan's mom and dad were involoved in her life and were hesitant to allow her to have a myspace account. They even made rules about her myspace use. So, my question is how can this happen, especially to someone whos parents are watching over the site? This idea frieghtens me even more because, at least I, tend to think that the people who are into cyberbullying and varying online identity are children and teens whose parents/guardians are not around a lot. I guess I am wrong!
As I was reading about Megan's case I was wondering what types of laws we have set in place for this kind of situation. By reading the M&C US News article I found that they did in fact make a law stating, "cyberbulling is a crime." It will be recognized as a misdemeanor. I was very excited to hear this however when I continued to scroll down the page a post someone made caught my attention. It said that we already have laws for cyberbullying all we need to do is implement them. Again, I am not a professional on cyberbullying but I am sure that if cases such as Megan's begin to increase the government will have no choice but to strongly implement the laws. I just hope that it does not come down to that. I hope that we can learn from situations that have already occured and prevent from more happening.
The following quote is from the LA times article, "The criminal charges against a Missouri woman accused of using a fake MySpace persona to bully a 13-year-old girl should be dismissed because there is no law that prohibits such behavior." Wow! After reading this article, I am able to see the point the Defense was trying to make however I still disagree with him. I feel as though as people get older they should be completely responsible for their actions. Lori Drews knew exactly what she was doing and if she did not want to hurt Megan, why would she have started it? I believe one of the articles said she did it to see if Megan would talk poorly about her daughter. I am sorry, but grow up! If there are problems between friends that they cannot work out, you could talk with the other mother/family but creating a myspace account to, in my opinion, tourment a young girl who you know has some issues handling different things is completely unacceptable. By her getting away with this is shows other children/teens and other adults that it is OK behavior and everyone is doing it.
I understand that it was ultimately Megan's "choice" to do what she did but I have to think that she would not have done it if it weren't for "Josh Evans." I do not know that I will ever be able to comprehend how or why someone would want to do this to another person. Does it make them feel empowered? It is hard to think that people think so highly of themselves that they are willing to belittle and hurt others. I am very interested to see if more cases like this arises. I really hope not.
I think that all children and young teens should be monitored while using the internet and especially sites such as myspace. My hope would be that it would make cyberbulling and the changing of online identity more scarce. Again, with the continual increase use of technology I am not sure how realistic that is but one can hope. I think that word will continue to get out and ultimately people will not tolerate it.
