EDITORIAL
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In some ways cyber bullying is merely an amplification of an old human vice to belittle and subjugate.
But as experts have long highlighted, it has an insidious reach and an almost universal presence that makes the vulnerable more susceptible than perhaps any time before.
If social media is often little more than gossip writ large on a million device screens rather than over the back fence, it also has the destructive force of volume.
The seemingly harmless if innately malicious, nature of those stories suddenly magnified by the speed and breadth of an online audience then has the nefarious power to destroy lives.
Parents have experienced these fears for many years and many of the problematic habits such as sexting and image-sharing but a new destructive practice appears to be coming common.
Kids of little imagination and opportunity have always corralled in the same trouble spots, boredom and bravado drives them to violence.
Whether it is Bridge Mall, Central Square or any of a thousand after school ‘meeting places’ across the state the result has frequently been the same; some rash antagonists and an inciting mob.
Perhaps what is all the more sinister about the usual cowardly titillation of those who like to look on (normally without the spine to shun, protect or intervene) are those who harness modern technology to spread this ugliness still further.
Whether it is to further humiliate the victims or simply in the toxic sharing of such brutality, there is a wider problem here.
The power to exchange ideas and images has never been more instantaneous but none of this has guaranteed secuirity.
The innovations driven by ease of access have made it difficult for safeguards or regulation to keep pace.
The problem is none of the pitfalls have really gone away.
The problem as always is not in the tools themselves but in the failure of those who use them to make any kind of rational or moral decision around their use or its affects.
Schools have developed excellent programs around cyber-bullying, and maintain commendable vigilance over students during school hours but what happens when they walk out the school gates?
In some cases the responsibility which perhaps should have been engendered earlier or at home is blithely left behind.
But before we brand them ‘little monsters’ we must look at the failure that brought them to this nadir.
Without addressing that the costs of this brutality and excess will be high.
- If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, phone Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Help Line on 1800 55 1800