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WHEN CELEBRITIES READ mean tweets about themselves it can be hilarious.
When young people do the same thing, not so much.
Jimmy Kimmel often gets famous faces to read mean messages about themselves, with President Barack Obama giving it a go just last week.
The Canadian Safe School Network has taken the idea one step further in a bid to highlight how cyberbullying affects young people.
It’s a tough watch.
The network is currently trying to raise funds to help make schools in Canada safer by reducing bullying and violence.
That’s so sad, it makes me angry.
And of course the cyber bullies would never use their real names. Cowards.
Bit like some people that post on here
Very true that. Some real nasty, cowardly people certainly post here.
Thing is, they’re not even doing it anonymously. I bet that it’s obvious who owns those accounts and they don’t care.
good dog barry
It is terrible what these kids do. We all remember what it was like to be a teenager. Imagine what it would be like with social media?? Bit of a nightmare I think. It can ruin lives.
When my son was 12 he was having an awful time on Facebook. I have my teenagers passwords so I can regularly check what they’re saying and what is being said to them. I was literally in tears reading the messages other kids were sending. I sent them all private messages from my own account warning them that if they didn’t stop, I’d contact their parents and their schools. My daughter, who is older and popular, confronted the culprits with her friends the following day and that pretty much put an end to it. But not all children are as lucky as he was, he had an older sibling who was in a position to put a stop to it. It’s horrible to see your children change because they are being bullied.
Sad to read that. Maybe extreme action is needed like Facebook refusing anyone under 18. They won’t do it of course as it’s about money. But this is where government can step in. Kids are not responsible enough to use social media. I mean adults are bad enough…..
I couldn’t agree more but it’s a minefield now. There are so many outlets and their smartphones are never out of their hands. I actually change their passwords during the school year and only change them back during the summer months now. I can’t handle dealing with this crap all year round when their minds need to be focused elsewhere. I also got rid of the Internet at home so if they have no credit, they have no access most of the day. Only when they’re out and can use WiFi. It keeps me a little more sane…
It is against facebook policy to use it under the age of thirteen…
I know, they just say they’re a year older than they are. Kids will be kids…
Not trying to be facetious, but in that case, parents should be parents…
Your 12 year old shouldn’t be on Facebook , 12 year olds can’t deal with being 12 yet alone having to deal with all the emotional rubbish being thrown at them on social media.
Did you allow your child access to facebook aged 12 .
Yes I did because he was in first year and one of a handful of kids who hadn’t turned 13. I decided to allow him, I set up the account with him, I set the password and I monitored it 3 times a week. I felt that that was better than convincing myself that he wouldn’t have set one up by himself when I wasn’t around and having an account that I had no knowledge of or access to. Because if you think that our children don’t know how to do these things behind their parents backs, you are very much mistaken.
Spot on , if the kids didn’t have access to it , well then it would be one less thing for them to have to worry about and deal with .
The age limit for Facebook is 13, Your twelve year old son shouldn’t have been on it in the first place.
Some parents allow their kids access the internet and social media sites at a way too young of an age . they are too young to have to cope and deal with cyber bullying .parents need to be more aware and not trust their kids completely when they are on the internet .
Nasty business bullying with anonymity.
cyber bullies are disgusting
Specifically cyber bullies? This is what I don’t get, this kind of thing has always gone on, but it used to be spoken words, or notes or graffiti or whatever to deliver the abuse. The only thing that’s changed is the medium via which abuse is delivered, and in some ways maybe this is a good thing because at least there’s a paper trail to it these days. Are people really so naive to think that bullying is some new phenomenon or is getting worse just because ye can actually see what’s being said now? Same as it ever was.
It’s not actually. It’s completely different due to sheer volume. Slag someone off prior to social media and it would be heard by a couple of people. Now it can be hundreds. It’s far worse. Plus the fact it’s far easier to hide behind a screen and spout bile.
So rumours were never started behind people’s back that reached hundreds or thousands of people prior to social media? Groups didn’t gang up an abuse vulnerable kids? And while it may be easier to abuse someone on social media (debatable) it is also easier to ignore people on social media, and it’s also a whole lot easier to gather evidence of bullying when it is conducted via social media. The abuse in this video is certainly no worse than what was going round when I was a kid, tame by comparison really, and we didn’t have social media.
The difference was that if you were being bullied in school before, at least you could go home and not see them until the next day. Now they can be hounded 24/7 and with a much wider audience. While the digital footprint is good to track down the bullies, it also serves as a permanent reminder to the victim. I had a pretty bad time in school, but am very grateful the internet wasn’t around then.
I like this idea. Post nasty and anonymous messages against child victims and then get the child victims to read these messages out loud in frint of all. It brings cruelty to a new height or low, depending on your perspective.
In front of all.
Imo it’s a good thing. There’s a remove between typing on a screen and seeing the effect it has on their target. It’s heartbreaking to watch, and you’d hope it might give those doing the bullying a chance to reflect on the effects of their throwaway comments. The ‘kill yourself’ tweet turned my stomach.
Imagine saying that to someone? A despicable thing to say. There’s so much anger in young people today. You see it everywhere. The way they even talk to their parents is shocking. Where has this come from??
Charles, if I thought that a single young person would suddenly find a sense of empathy and recognise the cruelty of the vile social media messaging, I would say that putting the child victims through that experience was worth it. The sad reality is that the offenders will not be influenced in the slightest by this.
Instread these unfortunate children have been put through a further ordeal for what turns out to be the voyeuristic gaze of others.
I would not let a child of mine read out such material. I would deal severely with any adult who made a request of a child of mine to read out such material.
What is on social media is largely nonsense, the expression of the basest motives and attitudes of human beings and generally false and self serving with no effective moderation if standards. I include the Huffington Post, the online opinion comments on the Irish Times and The journal.
We need to educate children to treat toxic material in social media as a hazard, as worthless.
Remember the Roma child seized by the Garda in Tallght resulted from a malicious Facebook message by a malicious neighbour to a crime journalist, and taken literally by the local Garda Station.
Teach children that social media is a haven for toxic rubbish and that cowards tell lies on social media behind a veil of anonymity that they would not dare communicate face to face.
It is possible to get the IP addresses of malicious posters. It is the person who operates the IP address who is responsible. Ignore the children. Target the adults and make the adults accountable.
Their parents should be informed about what they are writing! Excuses for human beings.
Some parents don’t care what their children are doing online or indeed offline.
The first couple of tweets are quite funny to be fair.
You clearly missed the point.
I didn’t, I’m just pointing out the first few are somewhat humorous. The rest not so much.
Leonard, would you find them humorous if they were aimed at your children or other family members?
Calm yourself, it’s St. Paddy’s Day :D
heartbreaking kids dont realises how hurtful they are
You’d wonder whats going on in the bully’s head that they think its “ok” to abuse people like that..
Kids are stupid I blame the parents, personally as a parent I actively teach my kids what you say or do to someone can affect that persons life.
Being a teenager is hard, we all remember that but with the added pressure of social media/ cyber bullying in the mix I am so glad I’m not growing up in this era. Everything that happens now is automatically recorded on phones and uploaded to the Internet then shared and so on. There’s no controlling it once it’s up and that’s what people need to be responsible for and stop and think before they upload these embarrassing, funny, nasty videos of others!!!!
I was wondering in the beginning what the hell they had laughter for. But as they faded it out it became obvious. Most people laugh because they don’t think first. The more you think the less you laugh. There is plenty in the world to laugh at, start with yourself before laughing at others. Laughing a bullying is thick!
Cyber bullying is very hurtful.
I think social media platforms create such a ‘safe’ place for bullies to operate.
A vocal insult is instant and traumatic, but one doesn’t physical record it, that moment allows for the overwhelming emotion.
An insult/bully comment on social media can be read over and over and over. And it is so public.
No one wants to admit they are being bullied but they have no choice if the bully publishes soul destroying content towards a specific person.
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