What are your respective takes on cyber-bullying? Is it something the government(including state or local) should get involved in, or should you have the freedom to use unrestricted speech to destroy someone's life? If we already acknowledge bullying to the point of suicide as a crime, is it then within the government's right to take action to prevent these suicides, at the expense of free speech?
I'm not sure where to stand on this. While I do believe one should have the freedom to be an asshole, I also believe that right ends when you start causing someone else harm. What do you guys think?

I'm still unsure what "Cyber Bullying" entails.

That's an interesting subject to bring up. I agree that cyber bullying can be a huge problem, but on the other hand I feel that speech on the internet should be as free as speech in real life. And similarly, just as private buildings are private property and subject to the rules of the owner and their discretion on expulsion, I believe owners of private websites, such as myself, have the right to arbitrarily expel members. I think the problem really comes down to someone participating in an unhealthy community; I think there's some responsibility on the users, some on the administration, but I don't feel it falls under government jurisdiction. Besides, as much as I think certain politicians might not like this idea, the Internet is international and not within the jurisdiction of any single governing body.

As Kerm said, why does anyone continue to participate in a bad community in the first place? They can just leave that community behind, pursue a change in virtual identity, or do whatever else would make them feel more comfortable online. Further, these people just have to realize that what occurs online is not pertinent to their real lives. If they do feel that they have that sort of sensitivity and can't control it, then maybe it's best to avoid or minimize online contact as a matter of personal responsibility. It's just like if you had certain food allergies. You know you should avoid those foods to keep yourself healthy. Kind of an awkward comparison, but still...

That isn't to say there aren't something things on the Internet that can disturb me. I absolutely hate horror movies. Most of all, I hate the Saw series. If I went through YouTube right now, searched for "all of Saw traps" and forced myself to watch them, I would go through panic attack after panic attack. Since I have no desire to suffer that, I don't subject myself to Saw clips. I know what my psychological limits are, and I carefully respect them.

I will also not be checking back with this thread, for fear that someone is now going to attach Saw clips in their post.

It's really an interesting topic. I don't think that the government should get involved, because then you would have to define exactly what cyber-bullying was, and the government couldn't even keep up with all the cases.

Really, we need to more or less have parents set bounds on their children until that point in time which they trust them to make their own decisions.

I'm the type of person that thinks that the previous generation needs to teach the next. And if someone is a cyber bully (Let's use zera for example, not that he is a bully, he was the last one to post and said he won't check back ), I should either handle it myself, or talk to KermM if there is some real abuse.

All in all, I don't like the government messing in areas that it shouldn't.

Agreed. I think if there was more accountability between your online self and your real-world self, there would be less cyber-bullying because people tend to be more aggressive when they can hide behind the cowardly veil on anonymity. Nevertheless, I think enforcing some kind of online ID would be ridiculously horrible not to mention impossible to actually implement, so I'm just theorizing at this point. :_

Here is my point of view. If you take what is said online so seriously, just avoid the internet, stay away from anything online, and you are safe. Now any "sensible" person (IMHO) should realize that people are going to do that where ever you are at, and just learn to ignore it.

In my whole life on the internet, I've only met one person who really made me angry. It was just another common troll, but this one really pissed me off. A simple report button fixed this though.

Anyways, Cyber Bullies != Troll.

To me, anonymity makes things less severe, because you know they don't want to show a face. My view is that the government should not be involved unless a criminal offense is made and the victim reports this to officials. While you can't track Anonymous, the administrators can. I mean, if you have a serious problem with someone on the internet, just leave the site.

That reminded me of this post from another forum:

So what's the solution then? Until there are rules against it(even just local laws where necessary) people are going to continue to harass people online. I think as long as that keeps happening at a personal level, young boys and girls are going to continue to kill themselves. Treating it as a crime after the fact is useless to the victims. Now maybe the responsibility lies with the schools and their counselors, who need to be aware of the emotional state of every student. If that's not enough to prevent more suicides however, then what more can reasonably be done?

pf, is someone lacks the maturity to deal or ignore a cyber bully then why are they on the internet anyway? Also, in regards to phones, just block the numbers of people who are bullying you via phone. Duh

Suck it dry, beeetch.

Easy enough to say, but saying stuff won't stop kids from killing themselves.

Over here blocking phone numbers isn't always possible. I wouldn't be surprised if there were companies that allowed you to ignore calls from certain numbers, though... probably just not with regular home phone lines. Back when only Bell provided phone service over here, you could report people to them so they could take action, but now it's impossible as the person can simply choose another phone company.

As for internet bullying, the great thing about the Internet is that if you have problems with a site or someone, you can simply stop visiting that site or avoid that person. If you want to stay away from possible online bullying, you just have to get offline, then you don't have to worry about that when you're at work, because the person cannot cause you real life troubles (well, in most cases).

Personally if I have a problem with someone somewhere and nothing is done, I just leave the place and go elsewhere. I return later if I feel I am "safe" or I move on. Also if you are the kind of person who can get offended and just can't help it, just avoid places or people where this risks happening often. If you only get offended or pissed off when you are in a bad mood, just visit the place only when you're in a good mood and not tired. Of course sometimes you may think you're in a good-enough mood to frequent the site, but finally aren't, then something wrong will happen, but at least, it won't happen as often.

Eh, probably because I am used to getting bullied so I am forced to suck it up each day and I am pretty desensitized to bullies.