A CASE STUDY

Cyber-bullying. In relation to the rather serious cyber-bullying case in our school where two students were suspended, we had at least two talks regarding cyber-bullying. One was conducted by Mr. Steven in which the talk featured some wonderful videos about cyber safety, while the other was conducted by a rambunctious teacher from Singapore which lightened up the tense atmosphere in the theater by talking about Facebook and Formspring, which we can easily relate to.

The case study is a concocted story that Ms Suzy made up. This is a pretty good job as it made me realise that cyber-bullying is the last thing that you'd want to be involved in.

1. Who is the perpetrator in this case? Who is the target?
At first, Nazar was the perpetrator as he manipulated others into 'unfriending' Chong Wei. However, Chong Wei was in the wrong later on when he created a facebook group 'Why I hate Chong Wei' and accused him of things that CW never did. CW never knew the existence of this site yet. When this launched a heated debate among their friends, their friends who made their own accusations and suggestions on how should Nazar should be treated was also involved in cyber-bullying as well.

2. What acts of cyber-bullying has happened? How serious would you rank them?
CW: engaged in singling and excluding
Nazar: Why I hate CW- harassing and targeting
            Accusations about CW- insulting
Other members: suggestions- insulting

I think I would rank Nazar's actions as the most serious as he engaged in many cyber-bullying acts. He did not just stop after creating the group. He continued to insult and post fabricated shocking 'revelations' about CW without his permission or knowledge. CW would come in the next as he pressurized others in unfriending Nazar. The last would be the other members who participated in and was aware about what was happening. They shouldn't join in the conversation and make 'incredible' comments and suggestions about how Nazar should deal with CW.

All in all, I think CW bears the same responsibility as Nazar because he initiated this whole terrible event. A domino effect it seems, as Nazar won't commit into cyber-bullying if CW did not pressurize others into unfriending him. This is wrong and nobody should do that.

We live in a world where technology rules all. For the better or the worse, cyber-bullying should be last in the list to restrict our internet, social networking sites in particular. We live in a digital world, make it civil.

Nicole