Cyber Bullying and the pros and cons of the Internet
From watching the first video, (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/), I believe that cyber bullying can be more dangerous/threatening to the victim, but I think that it's not necessarily all that bad. I am not saying that cyber bullying is not bad, but the results vary depending on the victim. Not all victims of cyber bullying are committing suicide or being scared to even leave their own house. As stated in the same video, the kids know better than what most parents would suspect. The victims don't necessary have to listen/read or even fall victim to the bullying. As we all know, the messages/instant messages/posts are delete-able, not to mention that it can be ignored. Unless it is a specific target, such as the case in the second video, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6797340n .
Maybe it's because I have never been a victim of cyber bullying or never knew anyone personally that was a victim, but I don't have the sympathy for them as maybe I would had I known someone that was.
Pros and cons of the internet.
As mentioned in the first video, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/ , I think the internet also has its pros. It seems like only the cons have/will always be displayed more than the pros. I guess it's just human nature that we discuss only the bad and not the good. As an example, in the video, Jessica, seemed to have figured herself out through the internet. I think that parents have to learn that the more restrictions they put on the kids, rather than trying to understand, puts more feeling going against them. Parents should also familiarize themselves with advancing technologies.
I actually disagree with some of the things you said about cyber bullying because sometimes we can't delete or ignore things, someone could just post something on their own Facebook page and people from the same school or work may know that person and could see it. Even if you ask the person to delete it so that no one else could see it, it may be too late, others may have already seen it. The video also mentions things like the different effects words have on paper or on a screen to some people and to others it may not affect them at all. For some people reading a word even though it is delete-able may still have an effect on them no matter how hard they try to forget. I do agree with what you said about the parenting where sometimes kids would just go against their parents because they want to be rebellious, so we shouldn't really put too much restriction. Parents should also have to familiarize themselves with new upcoming technologies. I do also agree with the reason why you don't have sympathy for some of these people is that you do not know someone that has gone through this or you have not been the victim. Sometimes we may have to put ourselves in their shoes and think would you want to be treated like this or have someone you know go through being cyber bullied.
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