Is Mobile Bullying Worse?

from the the-enemy-you-can't-see... dept

This isn't the first time people have been upset that online and mobile bullying seems worse than physical bullying. In fact, the story has been covered many times before. However, there is an interesting discussion on why the bullying seems so much worse. With mobile and online bullying, the victim often feels as though everyone is ganging up on him or her. They have no way to tell how many people are really taking part in the bullying -- or sharing in the results. Bullies are often taking information and posting it on the internet or sending it to plenty of friends, leading to a feeling of all against one. At the same time, unlike traditional bullying, mobile bullying can follow you everywhere you go. Also, the last resort to physical bullying, punching the bully back, isn't available. So is there anything that can be done? Should kids learn to virtually bully back the virtual bullies, or are their better solutions? Some people have said that cyber-bullying has allowed for a "revenge of the geeks," since it's often the geeks who are better able to cyberbully, compared to other kids who are better built for bullying on the playground. Of course, these days, with so many kids learning and understanding phones and computers, that's probably not as true any more.
Hide this

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


  • identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 18 Oct 2004 @ 8:49am

    Paper trail

    But if you're being cyber-bullied, isn't there a digital "paper trail" that leads back to the bully? Shouldn't the victim be able to simply show their phone to parents, the police, school officials, etc. and have the bully tracked down and punished?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      thecaptain, 18 Oct 2004 @ 10:09am

      Re: Paper trail

      There's always a trail....BUT.

      Local police and/or school administrators are often too clueless to follow it. Even when presented with evidence you can still get "kids being kids" type thing and refer it back to the parents (who likely do NOTHING at all...), OR you will be told that the evidence itself isn't admissible if it was collected in the wrong manner.

      On the other hand, the target of the bullying likely is not savvy enough either to realize that he CAN fight back (either with evidence and going to the authorities, or simply using other tactics in cyberspace etc..) and so feels incredibly helpless.

      If the bully is both computer savvy and subtle, the bullying can go on for a long period with devastating effects without looking serious enough in the few cases that CAN be brought to authorities to warrant an arrest or sanctions.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        David Tramp, 19 Oct 2004 @ 6:35am

        How to bully online

        I've enjoyed bullying an idiot online now for years. A business competitor of mine chose to go online on Aohell with three different screen names. You know, one for business, one for emails from Mommy & one so he could get his cyber-freak on. ( A quick search for location & name as well as similarities in profiles provided me w/ the clues that all 3 were his email addresses ) Several weeks of watching him in my buddy list showed me that he was spending a LARGE amount of time in gay chat rooms under one specific screen name. Knowing that this guy is an idiot, I made up a screen name that I felt he might respond to. After two days of sitting in the chatroom he sent me an IM telling me he liked my profile. Long story short, after a few weeks I was able to con this dolt out of 3 pictures of him that showed him in full leather drag, tied up being spanked & in a dungeon. I had a field day. The first thing I did was go to e mail services and make up email addresses that matched his screen names. ( just at other domains ) Then I sent the pictures back & forth from one address to another. Then I sent the pictures to him at his business email addresses with cryptic messages like: " I know who you are and what your into ". The terrified responses I got were wonderful & provided much entertainment within our office. ( as the "victim" is not well liked by anyone in our industry ) I varied my responses, email addresses, etc so that each time I did not leave a consistent trail. I also used public computers and multiple locations. I even went so far as to set up a web page at one of those free porn locations that featured all 3 photo's with a .wav file of " Whip it " playing in the background. Changing the text and then sending notification to the victim provided hours of time wasting at the office,

        This went on for years and I still have transcripts of all of this saved to disk.

        For my piece de la resistance last year I printed out all three of the photo's in a lovely photoshop collage including all 3 email addresses he uses. I took the 50 copies and mailed them from another state to every customer of his I could locate. To seal the deal, I emailed the pictures to everyone in his office including his boss.

        To this day I suspect he knows it might have been me, but the fact is he has no proof AND he is the idiot that sent me the compromising photo's in the 1st place.

        and no, I have no regrets.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          thecaptain, 20 Oct 2004 @ 8:13am

          Re: How to bully online

          So basically you admit you're an *sshole and proud of it.

          Good job.

          (note the sarcasm)

          link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.