Abuse and Bullying Online

In 1997, a Korean actress commited suicide and her family and a psychiatrist attributed her death to cyberbullying. The actress reportedly got upset about negative comments that were posted on her website which may have resulted in her to commit suicide.

While many countries still consider cyber crimes and cyberbullying as trivial resulting in more of law practitioners to focus on other fields such as in real property liens, cyberbullying is actually more serious than it seems. In September 2006, Abc News made a report about a survey conducted by I-Safe.Org. The survey was conducted among 1,500 students who are between grades 4 to 8 and the result showed that:

42% of kids have been bullied online

35% have been threatened online

21% received threatening emails and

58 percent did not tell an adult about the cyberbullying that they experienced online

This statistics is alarming and parents and guardians should therefore keep watch of their children when they use the internet even at home. Parents should also:

1 Keep watch of their children’s internet and mobile phone usage and

2. Teach children how to protect themselves from cyberbullies such as by not giving away personal information to anyone they met online and reporting to an adult whenever they feel they are bullied by someone online.

More information is also available at WiredSafety.org.

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