Vodafone Wants To Stop Text Bullies
from the go-running-to-NetSafe? dept
SMS text bullying among kids is nothing new. It's been talked about for years. Now, however, Vodafone New Zealand and an organization called NetSafe say they're going to fight back against text bullying... by telling bully victims to run screaming to NetSafe. Just like the typical adult response to bullying: tell an adult about it, and they'll hand you a brochure about why you shouldn't worry about the bullies. While it's good that they're trying to do something, somehow I doubt this will be much comfort to those being bullied. The one aspect of the program that could be somewhat effective is that it will allow kids to block text messages from certain individuals. Still, if a bully finds out that someone he or she is bullying has taken these steps, it seems only like to make them bully more, since they know it's having an impact.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Ok Seriously
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Ok Seriously
I hope the idiot bullies continue to use SMS so they victims can prove they are being harassed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
They're also short on factual accuracy, see:
http://www.netsafe.org.nz/copyright/copyright_default.asp
"You may think it is OK to copy a track from a CD onto your hard drive, or convert it to an MP3. It is not � that is a breach of copyright. You may think it is OK to share some of your MP3 files on your hard drive with your friends, but it is not. It is a breach of copyright. You may think that it is OK to use a file sharing program like Gnutella or Limewire and download MP3 files or movie files or any other files from other people on the Internet, but it is not. It is breach of copyright."
(The first point is correct, under New Zealand copyright law as it currently stands (though probably not for much longer). The others: well, actually it *can* be alright to download files from people on the internet. You know, if they hold the copyright, and that sort of thing).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
TEXT CYBER BULLYING
[ link to this | view in chronology ]