With every benefit that comes from being able to log on, sms, take part in an exciting internet game or create our own website there appears a flip side. This week cyber bullying took the spotlight with reports of Japanese students callously mistreating their classmates online or via sms phone messages. In extreme cases cyber bullied students had committed suicide or been left traumatized for years. In July an 18-year-old Kobe student killed himself by jumping out of a school building. He was victimized on a school net bulletin board where some students had taken a photo of him nude and then posted it online and demanded he pay them money. Last month the Japan Times reported that the National Police Agency received 8,037 complaints about online harassment that had been reported to police stations. This was a 39 percent jump from the year before. As an international trendsetter Japan's example needs to be heeded by other countries. Earlier in the month Finland saw the extreme effects of bullying with the crazed rampage of one male student who before taking his own life killed 7 students and the headmistress. What placed this tragedy into the specter of information age evil was the killer's use of social networking Internet site youtube. Before he killed his classmates he made sure to post his desire for death on the Internet for the whole world to download, a tormented cry for attention. It was all too familiar to another tragedy that took place at Virginia Tech, USA, in April where a student killed 32 others after having earlier posted his misdeeds and intent to destroy online prior to committing the atrocity. This student again was a loner; a social outcast who retreated deep into a virtual world and sought revenge on a society he felt had done him wrong. In February 19 Canadian students in Toronto were suspended after they littered social networking websites with profanities towards their school principal. The students felt justified in their actions because the principal had earlier banned all electronic devices from school. What better way to exact revenge than by defaming him online? In Australia this week in the run up to the election, the opposition Labor party has boldly stated that if put into power they will draw up an internet safety wall for children, schools and homes – so as to regulate harmful content in an effort to fight cyber-bullying, child computer addiction and the invasion of privacy. It seems like a good call. To illustrate the problem they used a young 16 year old to hack through the present national firewall that had been set up to do the job. The election pledge came alongside a report that US firm ReputationDefender was growing in popularity for providing a service that specializes in wiping out cyber slander. Parents are employing such services to save their children's esteem and reputations which at a young age are vulnerable to such provocation from their peers. Technology is moving so swiftly throughout Asia and the developed world that children as young as 6 bring phones to school. Here in China I've seen students in class with state of the art Nokia's worth several thousand Yuan. Such phones have built in cameras, GPS, email, gaming, mp3 and English dictionary functions. On reflection with all the demands Chinese students' face of having to pass punishing exams, cope with hormonal changes, while thinking about the future of their career and how they are going to support their family etc the retreat into a cyber world most certainly looks appealing. Take a look into any Internet café in any province you'll see it's packed with young boys shooting others in games like Counterstrike or Doom. Sadly today many parents are so busy trying to pay the bills that they don't often have quality time to spend with their children when the kids most need it. While the Internet is certainly a great tool for learning and relaxation, nothing can seem to replace the caring guidance of a loved one. How to find time and prevent such tragedies that are happening in other countries from occurring here is a question we all must ask and set about finding a solution to before another tragedy makes its way into the headlines. 我要看更多专栏文章 |