YouTube vs UK cyber bullies
p2pnet.net news:- The likes of YouTube and ratemyteachers.com have a moral and social obligation to protect UK teachers and pupils from cyber bullies, says UK education secretary Alan Johnson.
Britain’s Department for Education and Skills (DES) says teachers aren’t defenceless against “cyber bullying”: they, “now have stronger legal powers to deal with cyber pests”.
But, YouTube, et al, should ban video clips of teachers or pupils who’ve been targets, Johnson was slated to tell the National Union of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) at a conference in Belfast, says EducationGuardian.co.uk.
“Cyber-bullying is cruel and relentless, able to follow a child beyond the school gates and into their homes,” he believes, according to the story, which also has himdown to say, “The online harassment of teachers is causing some to consider leaving the profession because of the defamation and humiliation they are forced to suffer.”
New powers for teachers to confiscate mobile phones in the classroom came into force last week, but Johnson also thinks sites could help to reduce cyber-bullying by refusing to accept the video footage in the first place, because “without the online approval which appeals to the innate insecurities of the bully, such sinister activities would have much less attraction”.
Adds EducationGuardian.co.uk:
“The charity Beatbullying said sites should collate video clips which are used to bully individuals in case they can be used in any future criminal prosecutions.
“Deleting this potential evidence could be interpreted as perverting the course of justice,” it has a spokesman stating. “YouTube would do well to modify its current policies before the state forces regulation upon them.”
Would Tim O’Reilly and Jimmy Wales agree?
In the US, they’re calling for a CyberSpace Code of Conduct.
Also See:
stronger legal powers – UK teachers vs Cyber Bullies, April 4, 2007
EducationGuardian.co.uk – Ban cyber-bullying clips, Johnson to urge websites, April 10, 2007
Code of Conduc – Online Code of Conduct, April 10, 2007
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