Dealing with the cyberbullies

Dealing with the cyberbullies

Dealing with cyberbullies

John Aglionby Guardian Jakarta

"Welcome to my Feisal-hating website! This website is dedicated to people who hate Feisal Susanto."

Thus ended the polite introduction. In a mixture of English, Indonesian and slang, the website, built by two 13-year-old boys at a private school in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, rapidly degenerated into a no-holds-barred attack on their fellow pupil.

"Note from Arief: Feisal you fatass dick, wait a sec youv got a plastic one don't yeh. Fake Gayass Bitch. You only can insult behind me n wil a not infront, infront of me your such a gasass chicken shit. Your such a bloddy hypocrate. Hey if u insult any of the list mostly ss il kick yr ass till chinatown, n make you lick my ass. "Well, the main purpose of this site is just to put up REAL stories of the son of a slut and there is also a list of people who hate Feisal. If your name is not in the list and you want it to be then please tell me!!"

While the main text continued in this vein, at the side of the page were "a few words to describe Feisal". The Indonesian insults translated as "Dog sodomiser, dog, bat, mother fucker" while the English list read "Son of A Bitch, Shit eater, Ass licker, Gay bitch, Horny Gay Slut".

Below this readers had the opportunity to sign the site's guestbook to post their "Feisal-hating stories". Thirty names appear in the guestbook, many of whom the senior staff at the school - which asked not to be identified out of genuine concerns that the publicity might precipitate legal action - were shocked to see identified with the bullying.

"It turned out the bullies put up virtually all the names themselves," the headteacher says. "It was just another way of hurting their victim."

The school has no idea how many people accessed the website, which was created on a Yahoo geocities page using the programme page- builder. The bullies said they first uploaded it in November and publicised it by word of mouth and passing out the address on pieces of paper to pupils.

Despite this openness and the boys' admissions that they had sometimes edited it at school, staff only learnt about it on February 5. Within two days, the boys had been expelled, a decision the governors upheld a couple of weeks later.

"I couldn't see there was any way we could have them back in the school community once they'd broken the fundamental tenets of our social code," the head said. He was amazed that the boys showed no contrition whatsoever. "What was even more striking was that their parents showed no remorse," he said. "One father said it was just a way of letting off their emotions."

The parents also said Feisal was not blameless in the matter, according to the head. "But they've not brought forward anything to show there was anything of a similar magnitude, or indeed of any magnitude." He believes the boys were so cocky they thought they wouldn't get caught - which explains why one of the bullies put his full name on the site.

Using modern technology to bully is nothing new. In the last few years, text messaging has become a particular favourite of British teenage girls, according to Liz Carnell of Bullying Online a UK-based organisation. "For some reason it's very rare for anyone under the age of 12 or 13 to do it," she said. "And it's also rare for it to be boys. They are usually more physical in their bullying, while girls spread rumours and exclude people from friendships."

The situation is similar with affluent children in Jakarta, according to the school head. "With girls it's about inclusion and exclusion, who's in and who's out," he said. "A typical message might be: `We've gone to the shopping mall and you're not invited."

Following people into internet chatrooms or posting insulting material on existing websites is also relatively common, according to Tim Field, the director of Bully Online, another UK website. "It's called internet stalking," he says. "Bullies follow their victims into chatrooms and then slag them off at every opportunity."

Carnell says that while using such methods to bully people is common because little work is involved, building a site specifically to bully an individual, rather than a group such as a race or religion, is virtually unknown in Britain. She first heard about it in late 1999 and since then has come across fewer than 10 instances. But she predicts it will become more widespread as it becomes increas =ingly simple to build websites.

"As technology changes so, usually, does the bullying," she says. "Bullies are always exploiting technology for their own advantage."

The attractions of building a website to bully, Carnell says, are that it can, potentially, be read by tens of millions of people and can also be done virtually anonymously from anywhere in the world. "If you've got your teenage son upstairs in his room playing on a computer with his friends, you've got no idea what he might be posting on the internet," she says.

The drawback of cyberbullying - from the bully's perspective - is that "you can find out who's hosting the site and then you can complain to get it removed".

This is what the Jakarta school did and Yahoo responded promptly to shut down the site. Not only is the active site inaccessible but cached (previously stored) versions are also unavailable.

Some parents expressed surprise that the site was allowed to remain active for so long but a Yahoo spokesman, Scott Morris, says it's impossible for his company to police all sites. "More than half a million images are uploaded onto Yahoo sites every day," he says. "Realistically, it would be impossible for us to monitor everything and so we do rely on our users to inform us of anything that may violate the terms of service."

These terms of service include a section called member conduct which, among other things, informs people that by using Yahoo they agree not to "upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable", or "harm minors in any way".

Yahoo accepts that this code is bound to be violated and so warns that people might be exposed to content that is "offensive, indecent or objectionable". To counter this it has established a customer care committee that looks into complaints.

Friends Reunited, a website that helps old school friends to re- establish contact, took a different approach in 2001, after it found people were using the site to spread insulting gossip about others, especially former teachers. "We had an abuse button installed on the site so that if anyone comes across something offensive they can click on it," says spokesman David Fisher. This sounds an alarm at Friends Reunited and someone investigates.

Tim Field says people who find themselves being cyberbullied should take seven basic steps. These are: don't respond and don't engage; keep all abusive emails (although they don't have to be read); understand bullying; get help; become alert to provocation; and become an observer. His final piece of advice is: "Decide if you want to take action, and if so, prepare carefully and strike hard."

The dilemma for schools, as the Jakarta head found, is how widely to discuss the issue within the school. After some debate, teachers limited a public meeting on the case to the pupils in the year of the two bullies and the victim. "We spoke to all the students in the year about hurting each other in what you say and do," one teacher involved says. "But we didn't want to make too big a thing of it."

In the long term, however, the head accepts that the problem will not go away. "We will use the lessons we have learnt," he says. "We will make sure all the pupils are aware that this behaviour is unacceptable."