Saturday, May 1, 2010

Popular Websites Used for Cyber Bullying

Most of the young people around the world are victims of cyberbullying by using electronic devices, mostly by internet-connected computers. But where is all of this online cyberbullying taking place? The following list provides insight into the sites most commonly being used for cyberbullying as well as why and how this problem is occurring.
( The Source: http://www.cyberbullyalert.com/blog/2008/10/popular-websites-used-for-cyber-bullying/ )


MySpace Cyberbullying


MySpace is the number one social networking site for high school age students and younger.Most kids use MySpace to set up profiles and share information about themselves, their favorite music, Hollywood stars and other interests with kids in their school or neighborhood. For most of them, MySpace represents a fun form of self-expression that utilizes the latest online technology.


But a small percentage of kids use MySpace for cyber bullying. This can be accomplished in several different ways, including:

» Posting hateful information on another person’s MySpace page.

» Posting hateful information about another person on your own MySpace page

» Creating a new MySpace profile for the sole purpose of bullying another individual.


Facebook Cyberbullying

Facebook is similar to MySpace except that it is geared towards a slightly older audience (the music and customization functionality is a lot less robust than found on MySpace) but is still being used by cyber bullies to harass their classmates and ex-friends. The rules of engagement are similar to those found in MySpace: people will either use their own profile to harass others, or create fake identities and build profiles to harass other people or dupe them into thinking another person is interested in them (romantically or as a friend).


Twitter Cyberbullying

One of the fastest growing social media enterprises, Twitter allows people to “follow” one another by posting regular updates about their activities. Twitter is seeing a growing number of cyberbullying incidents as more and more kids figure out how to post hateful, harassing information about their friends and deliver it “via Tweet” to as many followers of the site as they can.