I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with ABC Family's original movie Cyberbully. It premiered on July 17, 2011 on ABC Family and was released on DVD February 7, 2012. It tells the story of a teenage girl who is bullied online.
Cyberbully is an attempt to address a challenge effecting the youth in America. Story after story comes out of our children committing suicide following attacks on their person via social media and networking sites.
Below is a synopsis of Cyberbully.
Cyberbully follows Taylor Hillridge (Emily Osment), a teenage girl who falls victim to online bullying, and the cost it takes on her as well as her friends and family. Taylor is a pretty 17-year-old student dealing with her parents' recent divorce and painfully aware of her lower social status in high school. When her mom gives her a computer for her birthday, Taylor is excited by the prospect of going online to meet new friends without her mother always looking over her shoulder. However, Taylor soon finds herself the victim of betrayal and bullying while visiting a popular social website. Obsessed with the damaging posts, she begins to withdraw from her family and friends, including her life-long best friend, Samantha Caldone (Kay Panabaker). Tormented and afraid to face her peers at school, Taylor is pushed to an extreme breaking point. It is only after this life-changing event that Taylor learns that she is not alone – meeting other teens, including a classmate, who have had similar experiences. Taylor's mom, Kris (Kelly Rowan), reels from the incident and takes on the school system and state legislation to help prevent others from going through the same harrowing ordeal as her daughter.
Emily Osment does a fantastic job of taking on this role as the girl who is being bullied online and brings to light an issue that effects so many teens, and individuals in general. Online bullying is a serious matter that shouldn’t be taken as anything less. This movie was well produced and casted and did a fantastic job in making the plot something which many people can relate to.
This would be a great movie if not for one scene where a gay student tries to empathize with Taylor, saying how he previously been called stuff like "Fairy boy" and "2 gay 2 live" on his clickster account. Taylor replied that it isn't the same because he is actually gay, where as she is not really a slut. The very idea that someone could make a movie about bullying, while playing down the plight of bullied gay is something that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Other than that, I would recommend this film to anyone who is looking for something entertaining and something that teaches the importance of internet safety for kids, in order to prevent cyber bullying and other serious matters in cyber world.
Cyber bullying is a horrible result of the openness and freedom of information we enjoy through the internet. It is prevalent in certain groups and cultures and is a real concern for parents over internet safety for kids. If a child is getting bullied at school or in a social situation then it is visible for others to see there is a structure in which the bully is taking his/her action. Usually this means the bully can be addressed and punished within the structure in which the bullying is taking place. This is not so much the case when it comes to a cyber bully. Who is there to stop a cyber bully? How can they be punished for their actions online? These are questions that are harder to answer than if bullying takes place in a structured environment that is controlled by other (for example teachers or coaches).
As this trend of kids being targeted by a cyber bully continues there is more evidence of the consequences being exposed through popular media. Stories are emerging of cases as extreme as suicide from kids who are victims of cyber bullying. The reasons being cited for these occurrences are that traditionally when a kid is bullied at school they can go home and escape the torment. Home at least acted as a haven from the actions of bullies. In recent times a bully can also turn into a cyber bully and torment and terrorize a child whilst they are at home as well. Instant messaging, facebook, emails and text messages all act as avenues for a cyber bully to continue their wrongdoings. In some cases the degree of bullying becomes much more severe when transferred over a virtual medium. This is due to the psychological effect in that when you don’t actually have to physically say or confront someone it is much easier to be more aggressive and hateful. There can also be the added effect of others joining in with a cyber bully more easily when activities take place online. Again this is due to the effect that their actions seem less real and the impact is not considered.
What can be done about cyber bullying? The solutions are far trickier than normal playground bullying. Perhaps one solutions is for kids to avoid using social forms of media and eradicating the problem altogether. However this is a double edged sword as other kids may ostracise and isolate them if they are not part of certain fads such as facebook. Another approach is to encourage kids to be completely open with whomever they feel comfortable if they are a victim of a cyber bully. Recording what has happened and presenting this information to someone with authority is a sensible approach. This way the confidence that their actions are not as accountable online will be taken away from the cyber bully.
Overall it is a horrid and sickening cultural element of kids use of the internet. Thankfully it’s rare for children to encounter a cyber bully but when they do it can be life changing. Be sure to try and best protect your children from cyber bullying.
Using Parental Control Hardware to control internet safety for kids is a lesser known option than the more popular software alternative. There are a range of parental control hardware devices that can be used in the home to filter the web content available to the user. Some devices act as a bridge between the source [...]
