Children are the victims of gossip, cruelty and bullying even though we do everything we can to counter these horrors when we see them. Sometimes we succeed and sometime we fail but we always try to make it stop and we never want to see it getting worse.
Accusing someone of bullying is easy to do but should never be done without evidence. The need to gather facts is paramount in the school environment where hearsay and supposition are everywhere and children have only partial experience of life to help them form or sustain an argument. Many young people have little to fall back on when they are bullied or maligned.
So in a world where we know the massive and possibly permanent damage that bullying can cause what do we do to help? We permit websites to exist and actually make money where bullying can be done publically but anonymously. Isn't this the worst of all worlds? Unfair and hurtful remarks can be written for the world to see but the perpetrator can hide in the shadows with no danger of having to own up or justify what they have written?
At the moment there is a website in existence called Little Gossip with the purpose of young people telling tales and spreading gossip. Another invites gossip, hearsay and lies about boarding schools, their staff and their pupils. Like other sites they are unregulated, comments are unattributed and the damage they do is enormous. Time and again we learn that the writing of such anonymous and pernicious comments causes anxiety and crushes confidence and yet they thrive in the unregulated on-line environment.
Just good fun! Having a laugh! They deserved it! What about free speech? What have you got to hide? Perhaps these are counter arguments but I am far from convinced. After a 17 year old girl killed herself last year and an on-line tribute page was set up in her name the site was bombarded with hateful comments. When an 18 year old girl was killed in a car crash her parents were e.mailed with messages and photos with subject lines such as "Hey Daddy, I'm still alive". When anyone can say whatever they like without having to admit who they are or account for their conduct it is no wonder such things happen.
Facebook are trying to help and one of their product design managers has written eloquently in the American press about the problem. Juile Zhuo is no fan of the inflammatory and the derogatory bullying she sees although she knows it is not new. In The New York Times recently she reminded readers of Plato's Ring of Gyges. It endowed the wearer with invisibility; every wearer eventually became a criminal because they knew they would not be caught.
The right and noble can be trusted to speak the truth even if they are not held to account but if we licence the bully, if we offer the cheat the forum to publicise their cruel and hurtful words then we are letting our moral compass spin out of control.
On-line there is often smoke without fire and there can be no ending to the bullying. In our schools we can work together, sit around a table and sort out our differences but on-line at the moment there is no effective way to bring matters out into the open and then to a close.
Legislation is needed to protect the innocent from defamation, bullying and anonymous cruelty but until then we will just have to do the best we can with what we have. Loretto is trying to help its community by bringing these matters to a wider audience and offering guidance on-line. A detailed and effective resource produced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and adapted by the school will be made available to parents on the school website. It has practical guidance and advice about cyber bullying for parents and children of all ages.
