DBHS Student Publication.

The Bull's Eye

DBHS Student Publication.

The Bull's Eye

DBHS Student Publication.

The Bull's Eye

Eye of the Editors: Cyberbullying

Fourteen-year-old Hannah Smith, who was constantly told, “go die” on the popular social networking site Ask.fm, was found hanged in her bedroom on August 2, granting the wishes of several anonymous online bullies. Linked to the suicide of not only Hannah Smith but also those of four other British teenagers, Ask.fm, an anonymous Q&A site, has lately received heavy criticism for its lack of regulation of harassing comments posted on its site.

With almost 70 million users worldwide, the Latvian-based site suffered attacks from the public following the death of Hannah Smith, for its neglect in tackling online bullying. After losing its main advertisers and being pressured by the media for change, Ask.fm created more options that allowed users to opt out of receiving anonymous messages and limited the access of unregistered users.

Despite the tragic loss of another life to the digital hands of cyberbullies, those angered by Ask.fm do not realize that the site is not the primary source of cyberbullying, rather, just another social networking site created for the sake of laughs. Humans are inherently interested in what other people think of them, and Ask.fm has provided the perfect solution. Some users are attracted to Ask.fm because they know the questions they receive are completely honest. Others are attention seekers who use this site as a source of instant gratification similarly achieved through a Facebook like, indicating popularity and status. However, given the safety of anonymity, it is unsurprising that Ask.fm with its large teenage demographic encounters online bullying mixed in with the rest of the afterschool chit-chat. Although Ask.fm is a potentially inoffensive and innocent website, it is undeniable that it provides an easy platform for cyberbullying to occur. Because people are not held accountable for the content of a message when they post as an anonymous user, there will certainly be those who abuse this anonymity and prey on the vulnerability of others. One example is the Twitter page @Dbhs_facts.

Trending among students on campus, the Twitter account @Dbhs_Facts, run by an unknown user, has been a highly popular forum for its slanderous tweets targeting certain groups of students. The hateful profanity-laced tweets attacks not only the various sports teams on campus, but also student organizations, groups of people, and often times individual students themselves.

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Cyberbullying must be fixed from the root, which lies with the misinformed and uneducated users. Eradicating controversial sites will not do away with this issue. If an online bully has his or her account removed, they can easily create another account to continue the harassment. Likewise, even if sites like Ask.fm or Twitter were to be taken down or restricted from its current liberties, the online bullying would continue, reappearing in other forms. Before attacking these sites and grabbing pitchforks, teenagers need to realize that the hatred people receive through such forums is merely the hollow comments produced from the insecurities of bullies, hidden behind computer screens. But they must also understand the severity of cyberbullying, that it can potentially lead victims to severe depression and even suicide.

Meanwhile, we must stop pointing our fingers at social networking sites like Ask.fm that do not deserve the hatred and criticism they are receiving. After all, would we sue a keyboard company for the hateful comments their products were used to type out?

(If you encounter or witness abusive comments made online between students, you can report it to the reporting site on the DBHS homepage. Under “Students” is the “No Bullying Policy.”)

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