It was disappointing, yet not at all surprising, to hear of the new smash-hit website entitled LittleGossip.com, which promotes bullying behaviour online.
In one post, a student at Eton made the following barely literate contribution about a peer: ‘mate your a ******* wannabe, u spend all of dads cash on your drug addiction.’
Another pupil at Emanuel School in Battersea, South London, wrote of a girl at the school: ‘****** is working her way through the boys, but unfortunately hasn’t made any girl friends along the way, what will she do when she runs out of boys? And who is her next target?’
In my opinion, even if this site gets closed down, it’s only a matter of time before copycat sites appear all over the place. While it is integral that parents and teachers are proactive in curbing bullying the problem is far too great to have confidence that such measures is going to be near sufficient. Instead, it’s up to the online community to ensure that all such sites get closed down. There is absolutely nothing of benefit for sites like this to exist. We must ensure that we do all we can to stop the proliferation of online bullying. It is one of the worst types of bullying. Shame on the creators and users of this horrendous website!
Tags: Bullying, Community, Education, Family, Friends, Internet, life, Parenting, social media, Thoughts
Topical Teaching 
December 23, 2010 at 1:22 pm |
How ghastly. At least in the pre-internet/cellphone days kids could have a break from bullying (if they were in that situation)…these days it seems there is no respite.
December 26, 2010 at 11:51 am |
It IS an appalling situation, but where adults need to tackle this problem is with the kids themselves. We can try to shut down all the nasty websites such as LittleGossip, but a hundred more will pop up in a moment’s notice. It’s like battling a hydra.
Kids have been desensitized to violence, and they’ve come to see using aggression and violence as a means of getting ahead in whatever they’re doing by watching adults. They figure if adults do it, it must be okay. This also goes beyond being ‘PC’. Being considerate of other cultures, religions, lifestyles, disability, et cetera, is not a ‘liberal’ gimmick. It’s not weakening society by being aware of those categories.
It is NOT okay to harass one another, or create ugly gossip out of sheer malice. Too many parents are afraid to discipline their kids, so the kids turn into little monsters who have no limits to their cruelty. Some parents also go the other extreme in abusing their kids, so that child takes their own rage out on other kids because it’s all they know.
I speak from personal experience as the victim of such bullying, being hurt verbally, emotionally, and physically. Parents NEED to step up and take responsibility for their children. They need to get it through their childrens’ heads that bullying is absolutely unacceptable and absolutely wrong in ANY circumstance.
December 26, 2010 at 5:09 pm |
I agree with you and hope that we do more to make sure to limit the kind of bullying that you dealt with in your youth. Thank you for your comment.
December 28, 2010 at 4:12 pm |
Promising approach to the prevention of cyberbullying:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217765?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entrepreneur%2Fstartingabusiness+%28Entrepreneur.com%3A+Starting+a+Business%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
From the article: “The application also analyzes keywords in comments and posts and notifies parents if there are references to drugs, violence and suicide and words commonly used in cyberbullying.”
December 28, 2010 at 4:31 pm |
Sounds great Green-Tern. Thanks for the link!