Facebook Bullying Stories are All-too-Familiar Today

Reference & Education

  • Author Mandy Jane Clarke
  • Published June 10, 2011
  • Word count 564

There are Facebook bullying stories all over the Internet and television today. You can watch news programs like Nancy Grace in the evening and see the faces of young kids who took their own life due to bullying on the Internet as well as through cell phones and in the school hallways. Then you go online and continue to read and hear about more young kids all around the world who have been negatively impacted by online bullying.

There are some new words that have been introduced into our vocabulary because of these new forms of bullying:

• Cyber Bullying

• Facebook Bullying

• Bullycide

No one should be happy for the development of any of these words. It's true that every generation comes up with their own "cool" terminology, but the terminology being used with our children today is downright scary. These terms speak to the growing trend of kids teasing, threatening, stalking, and even impersonating one another online.

Teasing was bad when it happened during school hours in the hallways, but today kids who are bullied get no relief. They are bullied at school then it follows them home through text messages on their cell phones and messages posted to their Facebook accounts and on other social media accounts they may maintain.

This is why the growing number of Facebook bullying stories is being taken seriously by many government officials. Many states now have laws stating that stalking and harassing someone online is a crime. Many others are set to follow that lead and implement similar laws which will give police the ability to charge bullies for harassing others online.

Yet, even with these laws in place Facebook bullying stories continue to come from across the country and around the world.

One of those Facebook bullying stories was Phoebe Prince, who hung herself in her closet in January, 2010. She was knowingly harassed and teased by other kids in her school, both online and during the school day offline. The town where Phoebe lived was so outraged by her death that a storm of controversy was sparked over whether her Facebook bullies should be publically announced and criminally charged.

Yet, not all Facebook bullying stories end in suicide. There are some stories of teens and their families fighting back against the bullies for justice. In 2008, a suit was filed by a teenager and his mother against four teenagers who bullied him online. In this case, the teenagers set up a fake Facebook account using the boy's real name, pictures of the boy, and even his real cell phone number.

On this fake Facebook page the bullies pretended to be their victim and posted comments about homosexual gay acts along with remarks that would be racially offensive to many people. Once the page was discovered by the victim and his mother, there was extreme embarrassment and emotional distress which led to a lawsuit.

Unfortunately, the number of Facebook bullying stories that end in suicide continues to rise. While there are some victims fighting back through the courts and winning with new laws, there continues to be a culture of bullying and stalking working beneath the surface of Facebook and other social networking sites.

Today, hearing that a teenager killed themselves due to Facebook bullying isn't unheard of or nearly as shocking as it should be. Facebook bullying stories are almost commonplace because they are becoming so common.

By Mandy-Jane Clarke

By Mandy-Jane Clarke. For more information about Facebook bullying stories visit Stop-Bullies.com

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