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Are laws needed to curb online bullying?


Child advocates say "cyberbullying" -- the use of computers, cell phones, social-networking sites and other technology to threaten or humiliate others -- is putting young people at risk, sometimes with major consequences. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has labeled "electronic aggression" a growing public health problem.

We'd like your thoughts for a July edition of citizenQ. Have you or your child ever been harassed online? Have you had any problems with unwanted attention on MySpace or Facebook? Do you think the use of computers and other high-tech equipment should be regulated so children and adults can avoid harm -- or be kept from potentially harming others?

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a Conservative Approach

Every time a law is created another freedom is restricted and controlled.

When anything is restricted and/or controlled it is no longer free.

It is reasonable to hold people accountable and liable for their individual actions WHEN THEY GET OUT OF CONTROL. It is fair and realistic to expect people to present themselves according to decent and acceptable etiquette.

 

Web Hitlist

Our family was not in NC when we had to deal with online bulling. Our son came home one day telling us that a police officer had come to his 4th grade class to talk about cyber bulling. I thought this was odd as his class was the only one who had this lecture. The next day we found out the reason why. Our son over heard the teacher telling another teacher that a child had set up a website with a hit-list on it. We then called parents in the class and found out or son had been on the list. I was shocked that the principal had never told us. When I spoke to the principal he said it was all untrue. After I pressured him a while he finally confessed there had been a website but refused to confirm or deny our son’s name had been on it. This scared the hell out of us. The class was a gifted only class with kids who no one would ever be believe would act this way. The biggest shock was the child who set up the list was at our son’s birthday the year before. They had been friends the year before and at the beginning of the 4th grade. Who would believe that this friend would turn on our son this way.
This year our NC middle school is putting together a directory for the school as you have in elementary. I know that I will not put any of our daily electronic information in the directory. The school has a huge bulling and aggressive behavior problem already. Our son deals with it all day at school; the last thing I plan on happening is allowing his classmates the ability to then also bully him while he is home. I will set up a free email for the directory and not allow my son access to it.

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