Do you Support an Anti-Bullying Law?

[celinamuna]

Apparently, eleven year old kids are more creative than you are.

Are you aware of what cyberbullying actually is?
Pro-tip: It's more than a random insult from someone on the internet.

Clearly 11 years old are more creative than I am.

I covered the part of posting videos / pictures / chat logs etc, but that's in your control to prevent people from getting. If there's anything else that qualifies as cyber bulling do share.

[Tuulikki 27]

So are kids, creatures highly exposed to peer pressure, supposed to have enough maturity to know how to handle bullying? Kids have all the right and all the reason to be sensitive about bullying, it is something that just shouldn't happen and shows the incompetence and the lack of effort that the teachers of a certain school look into it. Suicide doesn't solve anything, of course, but how are kids supposed to know that, since they haven't lived enough to realize that life offers better days? You know nothing of the world when you're a kid. It isn't up to kids to handle bullying. It's up to teachers, who frequently don't give a rats ass about it

Parents, it's up to the parents.
And we are talking about teens here, not children.
I believe most teachers do care, but they either DONT hear about it, or have no tools to deal with it.


Most of you are getting it wrong, I'm against bullys...
I am also against blaming your own actions on someone else, suicide or murder, or whatever else you can come up with.
I am also against having to sit in a love circle and holding hands because little jane and billy are sensitive and if you laugh in class at them, they might killthem selves.
Beating and tormenting them is far from some hurtfull comments on line.

[vindicatorx]

I'm sorry but I won't support either. I think too many people these days give a shit about what others think and I'm sorry why would you continue to go online and subject yourself to being harassed to the point where you commit suicide my guess is there is more behind the whole thing. I got tormented for quite a while myself in school my parents said I was not to get in fights in school ergo I did nothing I told my mom about one guy in particular and she said ok well fine fight him after school. I guess a big deal was made about it cause like 40 people showed up to watch. My mom actually drove me to fight him and wouldn't let me wear my contacts or glasses so I was like half blind he shows up late and starts mouthing like normal and I just popped him in the nose. He turns and runs home and never harassed me again. I know some of you will lose the meaning in all of this since you care more about peoples feelings but yes, sometimes violence does solve the problem.

[McFrotton]

The point isn't to deal with every bullying act that happens everywhere. The point is to find out as many as you can and to deal with as many as you can.



You're the kind of person that believes that learning karate or kung fu will make you a badass able to take a dozen of armed thugs in the street

We cannot even deal with most of the stuff that happen illegaly , bullying will be the same , I was thinking by now people woul dknow thta laws arent a way to stop something most of the time.

[Deleted]

The law wouldn't work, bullying is all ready frowned upon, it wouldn't work to make it "illegal to bully".
Do you start arresting 12 year old kids for calling someone fat?
IMHO kids should just toughen up, as seems nowadays people will just off themselves when they get called a fag.

[Orlong]

How about you shut the fuck up because you have no fucking idea what bullying is

We were all bullied at one point or another. Its how we learn to be tougher and it is a rite of passage just like puberty or joining a fraternity. Get over yourself. People who let it get to them are weak minded or have poor parents or both.

[Spectral]

We were all bullied at one point or another. Its how we learn to be tougher and it is a rite of passage just like puberty or joining a fraternity. Get over yourself. People who let it get to them are weak minded or have poor parents or both.

Well, no, not all of us were. I know I wasn't.

[Bananarez]

"omg someone saw my boobs" /bleach

But on a serious note, I think the Amanda Todd thing was just poorly handled. Her teachers didn't do anything to stop the bullying, her parents didn't do anything to help her through her problems, and she attempted suicide already and nothing was done. I don't understand why people would rather die than suffer through some ingrates projecting their insecurity onto you and showing people your boobs. Just think, if the world wasn't so obsessed with preventing "human indecency" she would probably still be alive today. If it is anything's fault, its humanity's oppressive sense of 'morality.'

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Every kid was bullied in one way or another. The ones who kill themselves are the ones who don't know how to handle it.

The world is full of terrible people. Time would be better spent teaching kids how to deal with bullies than trying and make the bullies stop.

[Deleted]

You cant police cyber bullying and I see no reason why we should. Yeah, there as assholes out there, but if people are willing to kill themselves over words spoken over the internet then to me, these people need help if they can't deal with it themselves, punishment for stuff said over the internet is a slippery slope.

[Puck]

I am also against having to sit in a love circle and holding hands because little jane and billy are sensitive and if you laugh in class at them, they might killthem selves.

Children are not as stupid as you make them out to be. They can tell the difference between playful teasing and actual hurtful comments. Do you honestly think it's okay for a kid to stand up in the middle of class, call Billy a dirty fag, and then have everyone laugh along in agreement?

You just aren't getting it. There is a difference between harmless teasing and bullying, nobody is suggesting we walk on eggshells, we are suggesting you show people some degree of respect and common courtesy.

[Deleted]

Parents, it's up to the parents.
And we are talking about teens here, not children.
I believe most teachers do care, but they either DONT hear about it, or have no tools to deal with it.


Most of you are getting it wrong, I'm against bullys...
I am also against blaming your own actions on someone else, suicide or murder, or whatever else you can come up with.
I am also against having to sit in a love circle and holding hands because little jane and billy are sensitive and if you laugh in class at them, they might killthem selves.
Beating and tormenting them is far from some hurtfull comments on line.

Since kids spend roughly 25-40 hours a week at school, i think it's mostly up to the teachers to fix the issue. Teachers should make the kids aware that there are solutions to bullying, but from my experience teachers like to sit in their room eating their lunch rather than actually keeping an eye on what the kids outside are doing. Most of the bullying i had to endure happened during the breaks between classes, outside, with no teacher around, and if there was a teacher he/she wouldn't do anything but shoo the bullies away, after which the bullies would come back 10 sec later to go on, with the teacher doing nothing.

I believe this happens way too often and needs to be brought to attention. Teachers guide kids through the entire day, and need to continue doing so during the breaks, instead of just during lessons.

[Xilurm]

Yeah man, because bullying in school or online leads to war. Totally all the time.

But seriously. OH MAN SOMEONE SAID A BUNCH OF BAD STUFF ABOUT ME ON THE INTERNET GONNA GO KILL MYSELF. They're already fucked in the head, it was bound to happen sometime. I guess people can't IGNORE other people when it comes to verbal harassment over the internet. I mean really, what are they going to do to you besides say stuff?

Why are you even replying to me when you have no idea what I'm talking about. I just gave an example.

OT: Teachers in school should learn to punish the bullies. Break his hand or something. What? He should toughen up and move on after that. It's just a silly hand.

[Ynna]

Killing yourself over mean words is stupid. Most of them don't have any ''real'' problem like depression, or even mental problem, they just can't deal with it and instead of looking for help they look for attention. Sorry but bully have a problem, but the bullied have another one that isn't necessarily the bully (bully is part of it but not always the main cause).

You are wrong.

1) It's not just mean words. Although that can be a big part of it. It's everyone you interact with (remember, for children, their school is pretty much their entire world) thinking you're stupid. No-one of your peers you can trust. No-one to play with, no-one who wants you in their group for assignments, no-one you can talk to. People spreading lies about you without anything you can do about it. Losing your stuff on a daily basis. Being tripped and shoved and pushed and kicked and punched by people you used to think were your friends. Telling something in absolute confidence, only for it to spread the entire school.
2) Bullying leads to depression. The symptoms of depression are almost exactly the same as the feelings victims get from being bullied.
3) "Instead of looking for help" Very funny. Where is the kid going to find help? Friends? If the kid has them (being bullied isn't exactly great for your social life), there still isn't much another kid their age can do against a group. Parents? How many parents will tell their kid to man up, or ignore it, or just shrug it of as kids being kids? Teachers? You know what teachers say? "I can't do anything unless I see it myself." "Are you sure they're not just teasing you?" "Maybe you should try to open up more."

[Tuulikki 27]

It has become obvious that you lack the ability to differentiate between bullying and free speech.

Nope, Go read the story, then the evidence of this bullying.
Hand full of hurtfull comments by strangers.
hand full of hurtfull comments by schoolmates.
And to you, this equates to suicide, and this suicide is to be blamed on someone else?
I am going to google more on her in case I missed something.

Also, I never said anything about free speech?

[anveena]

I think the current laws already cover what would be considered physical bullying. Maybe it's time to actually start using them?

This whole cyber bullying is a bunch of bullshit. It's 100% avoidable if it really bothers you that much. I think parents just need to teach their children to not take hateful comments from people on the internet too seriously.

[Puck]

Nope, Go read the story, then the evidence of this bullying.
Hand full of hurtfull comments by strangers.
hand full of hurtfull comments by schoolmates.
And to you, this equates to suicide, and this suicide is to be blamed on someone else?
I am going to google more on her in case I missed something.

Also, I never said anything about free speech?

Would she have done it if those hurtful comments were never said?

Also you keep complaining about not being able to say what's on your mind "walking on eggshells", that's an issue of free speech.

[Kasierith]

While it would be a wonderful thought, there are a few problems with such a law. First off, bullying is pretty hard to define. Its a very wide range of activities, since bullying is not a specific action, but a consequence. It is the intentions and results that define bullying, not the deed which is far more variable, and so defining bullying in a legal sense would be highly cumbersome and likely unsustainable. Second, who would be overseeing bullying? Who would you put in charge of such oversight... teachers? Some agency? The CIA monitoring the internet? Would the local police be involved or federal? What happens if someone in China is hacking and stalking you online; if it falls into the lines of bullying by American law, what then? The standards for controlling the law's implementation aren't really feasible. Third, the punishment. What are you going to do about it? While not all of it by any means, the majority of bullying is done by children and teens. Are you going to send them to juvy, where they take one mistake started over a grudge and down the road become a burden on society even after getting out? Are you going to somehow require parental punishment? What could you possibly do to punish what is primarily an age group that is overall extremely malleable to external influences.

So there's three huge issues that would make such a law absolutely impossible to pass. Can't define it, can't control it, can't really punish for it. For the record, yes I know its a huge problem, and both that article and the one from the girl in Canada absolutely sicken me that people are capable of such things. The attitude of some of the people on this site who put on the internet tough guy routine and say "toughen up" pretty much speaks of blind ignorance of all reality outside their little spheres. But a law isn't the way to deal with it.

[Puck]

I think the current laws already cover what would be considered physical bullying. Maybe it's time to actually start using them?

This whole cyber bullying is a bunch of bullshit. It's 100% avoidable if it really bothers you that much. I think parents just need to teach their children to not take hateful comments from people on the internet too seriously.

And if you know the people insulting you on the internet in real life?

[Deleted]

Time would be better spent teaching kids how to deal with bullies than trying and make the bullies stop.

I fully agree with this.

It's time for me to log, so on a last note; I imagine half of the people here saying the kids need to 'toughen up' or 'should stop being giant pussies' classify more as the bullies than the bullied. You don't tell some young kid that they have to deal with the hateful comments for the rest of the time spent at school. It's inhuman and instead you should tell them something that will HELP them in a nice way, or teach them how to bring it to the teachers' attention.

Logging off to someone bullying you online or removing them from facebook will usually result in it being taken to physical bullying.