Australia NetAlert against cyber-bullies
p2pnet news | P2P:- Sixteen-year-old Jessica Jones received a text message from a schoolmate, “abusing and threatening to hurt her,” but she was told she, “just had to learn to live with it,” says the Sydney Morning Herald.
“When I received the message I felt completely shocked,” she say in the story.
“I became very reclusive and depressed because I was trying to understand what had prompted it. It was also very scary because I thought I was going to be physically hurt. I knew the girl who sent the message had done things to harm herself and I thought she might hurt me as well.”
But this kind of online persecution is nothing new and it prompted Australia’s federal government to launch NetAlert to provide “a safe online environment for all families, especially children”.
Managed by the department of communications, information technology and the arts (DCITA), it features a national filter scheme, “to provide every Australian household and public library with access to a free internet content filter to help block unwanted content” and; a, “new website and national helpline to provide advice about protecting children online, as well as access to the free filters, and information about how they work”.
According to NetAlert statistics, 16% of Australian children say they’ve been bullied online, and 14% have been bullied using a mobile phone.
In the background is the tragic story of a 13-year-old American girl, Megan Meier, who hanged herself after ‘Josh,’ someone shed met on MySpace, turned against her.
‘Josh’ turned out to be a fake.
Also See:
Sydney Morning Herald – Cyber intimidation and the art of bullying, November 19, 2007
Megan Meier – MySpace tragedy: girl hangs herself, November 17, 2007
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