Internet age present problem of cyberbullies

Internet age present problem of 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.

While the main text continued in this vein, at the side of the page were "a few words to describe Feisal".

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 program page- builder. The bullies said they first uploaded it in November and publicized 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 Feb. 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. 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 favorite of British teenage girls, according to Liz Carnell of Bullying Online a UK-based organization.

"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 rumors 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. But she predicts it will become more widespread as it becomes increasingly simple to build websites.

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.

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. We do rely on our users to inform us of anything that may violate the terms of service," he says.

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, libelous, 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.

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."