Cyberbullying

Here's a copy of my post from the General Conspiracies thread. I believe it has relevance to this thread as well because it addresses a social inequity.

I just wanted to point this out. It may be an example of an actual conspiracy, or just one of the many stupid things government researchers do that make people believe crazy conspiracy theories in the first place. Cyberbullying is considered a cybercrime, okay. Right up there with cyberterrorism, software piracy, and drug trafficking. Seriously? If I'm bored and decide to log on to my school's network for some good old-fashioned bullying I could be arrested? But I'm just having fun, I'm just being young, cut me some slack.
What about all the real-world bullies out there? What happens to them? They end up working for major corporations and making buku bucks, that's what. No way to find out the truth about how they socially interact with people, is there? No records of their conversations with others, are there? This asymmetry in the treatment of real-world bullies vs. cyberbullies is absolutely ridiculous!!!
Are you wondering why this inequty exists? Are you wondering why that kid named Francis who experienced a massive growth spurt in elementary school and picked on you every day during fifth grade is now making millions of dollars, his past completely hidden and inaccessible? It's because real-world bullying creates natural leadership structures that the government can only dream about, while cyberbullying has no basis in reality. The only person who benefits from cyberbullying is the cyberbullly. Real-world bullying benefits the bully and society. Some corporations even hire bullies, known as goons, to take care of those who stand in the way of mergers. There are even organizations, i.e. the Mafia, based on bullying.

reply to post by ulysses


i agree.

people should stop catching feelings over typed characters in a screen, it's just that absurd.

edit: if modern parents did their jobs in raising ballanced individuals and not just tv clones also, there would be no cyber bullying victims either.

reply to post by ulysses


Well, way I see it, as there is no physical damage done to one's body in (cyber)bullying, it is not big issue. I'd rather say it is one's own fault if offended from verbal slander. In fact, I've often thought that while the bully is not very bright person himself, one who gets offended is not bright either. As long as bullying doesn't include hacking on one's Internet accounts and other concrete damage, there's no harm done.

If I offend you somehow, I am of course giving display of my own mental infancy, but if you would get offended, you wouldn't be much better. In Finland we have proverb "Barking doesn't make a wound" (as usual, proverbs doesn't always translate well), which everyone should remember.

-v

I agree with both of you. It's ridiculous that there are severe consequences for something as harmless as cyberbullying while the consequences for real-world bullying are so light. I mean, what is cyberbullying anyway. It's when you are constantly PMing or IMing someone while they are trying to get something else done. If you don't like it, adjust your god dang firewall!
But in the real world, we don't all have access to the same methods of protection like we do on the Internet. In the real world, there's a lot more to exploit than a person's connection to the Internet. Yet the penalties for real world bullying remain slack. No effort is made to record instances of real world bullying and use it against the bully in a legal sense. I can go out to a bar, pick a fight with someone obviously less physically inclined than even myself, spend a night in jail, and never hear of it again. I can do this on a weekly basis if I want to, and nothing will happen. I may get sentenced to some AM or AA classes, but that's it. Yet if I log onto my campus's network and start harrassing some Trekkies I could go to jail. Prospective employers could find out about my hedonistic excursions and deny me employment. In effect, I would be bullied.