Okay, here's a new one - "cyberbullying."
Of all the pernicious hazards circulating in cyberspace - spam, porn, pornographic spam, cyber-stalking pedophiles, and the like - cyberbullying has
suddenly entered into popular consciousness after instances of such hazing surfaced in Westchester County, New York.
According to published reports, last year a video circulated on the Web of two
female high school students from Scarsdale, New York, engaging in a sexual encounter. There were no charges brought. In 2001, a pair of male high school students who attend school in nearby Chappaqua
avoided prosecution for allegedly running a Web site brimming with girls' sexual secrets. The boys were protected by the First Amendment.
Now, comes word that Westchester County has hired an
expert on cyberbullying to talk to students, teachers, parents, and police about the trend where kids can stalk their peers with nasty Web sites, blogs, and text messages via cell phones. The county
tapped Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org to stage a summit on the issue of cyberbullying.
Aftab told the Associated Press that while bullies have always been a problem for kids,
"We didn't have the power to communicate what we were doing to 700 million people with a click." Isn't that the truth?
The Web has so much power to do good - massive charity efforts for
organizations running tsunami relief efforts to voter education/awareness and campaign drives - and yet can enable so much evil.
First, do no harm.