Cyber Bullies
Cyber bullying is on the rise. Recently, two students from Rutgers University have been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy. The two students posted a video online of their classmate’s sexual encounter. Tyler Clementi, was the Rutgers student who was spied on by his roommate, Dharun Ravi. Tyler Clementi had asked his roommate, Ravi for privacy; wanting their room until midnight to himself. Ravi agreed, but had set up a webcam, and sent a live feed of Clementi having an encounter with another young man. Ravi tweeted: “that his roommate had asked for privacy and that Ravi turned on his webcam and saw his roommate with a dude.” Ravi also tweeted in August that “he found out that his roommate is gay.” http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/01/new.jersey.student.suicide/?hpt=T1
The story of Clementi’s suicide is heartbreaking. To be publicly “outed” before you are ready, can be tragic to the person who is gay, as is evident in this case. Ravi states that the video post was just a joke. But I wonder why Ravi tweeted about his roommate being gay? When Ravi went to class, did he tweet about how many heterosexuals were in his class? There are no laws to address cyber bullying. I for one, think that there should be.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Cyber bullying is on the rise, not just with students, but with the population in general; and it has also become a twenty-four hours a day/seven days a week issue, whose victims can never escape. In the past, if you were being harassed by a bully you could find comfort in knowing the school or work day would come to an end, and the weekend would soon arrive; but now thanks to our constantly tuned in lives there is never a respite.
If you are a victim of cyber bullies, or would like to learn more about how to address this threat, I suggest you take a look at the following web site: http://www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying
