Internet age present problem of cyberbullies<\/p>\n
John Aglionby, Guardian, Jakarta<\/p>\n
\"Welcome to my Feisal-hating website! This website is
\ndedicated to people who hate Feisal Susanto.\"<\/p>\n
Thus ended the polite introduction. In a mixture of English,
\nIndonesian and slang, the website, built by two 13-year-old boys
\nat a private school in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, rapidly
\ndegenerated into a no-holds-barred attack on their fellow pupil.<\/p>\n
While the main text continued in this vein, at the side of the
\npage were \"a few words to describe Feisal\".<\/p>\n
Below this readers had the opportunity to sign the site's
\nguestbook to post their \"Feisal-hating stories\". Thirty names
\nappear in the guestbook, many of whom the senior staff at the
\nschool - which asked not to be identified out of genuine concerns
\nthat the publicity might precipitate legal action - were shocked
\nto see identified with the bullying.<\/p>\n
\"It turned out the bullies put up virtually all the names
\nthemselves,\" the headteacher says. \"It was just another way of
\nhurting their victim.\"<\/p>\n
The school has no idea how many people accessed the website,
\nwhich was created on a Yahoo geocities page using the program
\npage- builder. The bullies said they first uploaded it in
\nNovember and publicized it by word of mouth and passing out the
\naddress on pieces of paper to pupils.<\/p>\n
Despite this openness and the boys' admissions that they had
\nsometimes edited it at school, staff only learnt about it on Feb.
\n5. Within two days, the boys had been expelled, a decision the
\ngovernors upheld a couple of weeks later.<\/p>\n
\"I couldn't see there was any way we could have them back in
\nthe school community once they'd broken the fundamental tenets of
\nour social code,\" the head said.<\/p>\n
He was amazed that the boys showed no contrition whatsoever.
\n\"What was even more striking was that their parents showed no
\nremorse,\" he said. \"One father said it was just a way of letting
\noff their emotions.\"<\/p>\n
The parents also said Feisal was not blameless in the matter,
\naccording to the head. He believes the boys were so cocky they
\nthought they wouldn't get caught - which explains why one of the
\nbullies put his full name on the site.<\/p>\n
Using modern technology to bully is nothing new. In the last
\nfew years, text messaging has become a particular favorite of
\nBritish teenage girls, according to Liz Carnell of Bullying
\nOnline a UK-based organization.<\/p>\n
\"For some reason it's very rare for anyone under the age of 12
\nor 13 to do it,\" she said. \"And it's also rare for it to be boys.
\nThey are usually more physical in their bullying, while girls
\nspread rumors and exclude people from friendships.\"<\/p>\n
The situation is similar with affluent children in Jakarta,
\naccording to the school head.<\/p>\n
\"With girls it's about inclusion and exclusion, who's in and
\nwho's out,\" he said. \"A typical message might be: `We've gone to
\nthe shopping mall and you're not invited.\"<\/p>\n
Following people into internet chatrooms or posting insulting
\nmaterial on existing websites is also relatively common,
\naccording to Tim Field, the director of Bully Online, another UK
\nwebsite.<\/p>\n
\"It's called internet stalking,\" he says. \"Bullies follow
\ntheir victims into chatrooms and then slag them off at every
\nopportunity.\"<\/p>\n
Carnell says that while using such methods to bully people is
\ncommon because little work is involved, building a site
\nspecifically to bully an individual, rather than a group such as
\na race or religion, is virtually unknown in Britain. But she
\npredicts it will become more widespread as it becomes
\nincreasingly simple to build websites.<\/p>\n
The attractions of building a website to bully, Carnell says,
\nare that it can, potentially, be read by tens of millions of
\npeople and can also be done virtually anonymously from anywhere
\nin the world.<\/p>\n
The drawback of cyberbullying - from the bully's perspective -
\nis that \"you can find out who's hosting the site and then you can
\ncomplain to get it removed\".<\/p>\n
This is what the Jakarta school did and Yahoo responded
\npromptly to shut down the site. Not only is the active site
\ninaccessible but cached (previously stored) versions are also
\nunavailable.<\/p>\n
Some parents expressed surprise that the site was allowed to
\nremain active for so long but a Yahoo spokesman, Scott Morris,
\nsays it's impossible for his company to police all sites.<\/p>\n
\"More than half a million images are uploaded onto Yahoo sites
\nevery day. We do rely on our users to inform us of anything that
\nmay violate the terms of service,\" he says.<\/p>\n
These terms of service include a section called member conduct
\nwhich, among other things, informs people that by using Yahoo
\nthey agree not to \"upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise
\nmake available any content that is unlawful, harmful,
\nthreatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar,
\nobscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or
\nracially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable\", or \"harm minors
\nin any way\".<\/p>\n
Yahoo accepts that this code is bound to be violated and so
\nwarns that people might be exposed to content that is \"offensive,
\nindecent or objectionable\". To counter this it has established a
\ncustomer care committee that looks into complaints.<\/p>\n
Tim Field says people who find themselves being cyberbullied
\nshould take seven basic steps. These are: don't respond and don't
\nengage; keep all abusive emails (although they don't have to be
\nread); understand bullying; get help; become alert to
\nprovocation; and become an observer. His final piece of advice
\nis: \"Decide if you want to take action, and if so, prepare
\ncarefully and strike hard.\"<\/p>",
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