anti-bullying piece

[HouseofWool]

There has been a huge fervor in my community this week because someone wrote an anonymous email to one of our local news anchors who is overweight. I've met this woman several times, her children go to school with mine and the odds are next year her middle daughter will be in S's 4K class. She is a wonderful person and a class act in every way.

It is now on Huffington Post. She was featured on this morning's Good Morning America.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_1932869.html

[SuzySunshine]

I had seen this come across my fb but hadn't had a chance to watch it, thanks for posting it!

[Thirteen]

I saw it last night: what tact and grace she has!

[Cinderella]

We're talking about it in my local community too and honestly I feel it's about time. I've been talking about cyber bullying going on among adults for years. It's a problem that doesn't just affect the children which seems to have been the main focus for some time.

Due to the nature of my degree I've had to take law classes in this. So I am aware of the software programs out there that can show you the IP addresses of who is online at a particular site and I know what are the laws that apply to hold people accountable for what is written. The rules are all pretty new online and still in development but I've been tracking it as cases come up and set precedence. Most of these cases have involved kids but I think it won't be much longer until it's sorted out and applied across the board in terms of the online community.

People think that they can hide behind an "anonymous" account online and get away with cyber bullying someone but that's just not the case. For the record I have never made an anonymous account online to attack another person. It's a verifiable fact I stand by. I have had anonymous accounts however, but that is either to protect my identity and/or in some cases avoid a known gang of cyber bullies that have targeted me and my friends in that past on a site that I frequented. When I have stood up for myself in the past and gotten into "flame wars" or personal attacks in an online forum it was in my early years of online community use where people commonly knew my identity by my real first and last name. In those cases I was either provoked as a target of someones game, or the "devil-may-care behavior" was permitted by the TOS of a particular site and encouraged and carried out by the membership. I've always been pretty forth coming about who I am and have even invited people (including publicly on this site) to get to know me further on facebook. I'm not in the business of hiding anything. If for some reason anyone ever tells you otherwise about me then know they are lying.

Early on I learned that isn't something I wanted to be around or associated with and I've even spoken out against it. Which made me unpopular in some places. For the most part I don't partake in that behavior. However, when I continuously see a group of people ridicule others under the not so cleverly disguised veneer of showing concern for others I'll call it like I see it and tell them they need to grow up and get a life. And boy howdy have I ever learned how manipulative, deceptive, malicious and deceitful some people can be when they think there are no repercussions. I've met some pretty disgusting individuals online in the past five years. That is why I am so thankful for a mutually supportive community like this one that I've found online. I'd rather be here with you good people.

In the spirit of Halloween and the topic.

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