Blocking the Bullies - not the answer

or

Won't somebody please think of the children?

Well, today is Hallowe'en or Samhain so my natural instinct is to think about the origins of the festival, the traditions and customs, childhood memories and how the Americans have ruined it as they ruin all that is good in the world.  But that's such as cliché and there is so much information about this out there that I really reel that I've nothing constructive to add.  Obviously, my personal Hallowe'en stories aren't out there, but really they're typical of any Irish child of the 70s and 80s.  What really antagonizes me is the Americanization of our culture; who the hell ever said 'Trick or Treat' at Hallowe'en?  However I'm really making an effort to resist the urge to rant about this.

I am in a ranting mood though.  On the news today, there is a story about a second teenager committing suicide, supposedly due to on-line bullying.  (I say supposedly, because suicide is never that simple).  Of course, the natural reaction in the media is calls for the Government to do something and the website (ask.fm) that has been implicated in both cases, to come on the airwaves and give an account of themselves.  It's all very "Won't somebody please think of the children!" à la The Simpsons (and the reason for the sub-heading above).

This kind of emotional, irrational response serves no purpose.  Those teenagers did not take their own lives because they were bullied on-line.  Of course, the bullying would have contributed to their feelings of isoliation, worthlessness and despair, but it would not have caused those feelings.  Bullying has been around a lot longer than the internet.  Most people have experienced, at the very least, a bullying attempt.  It's how one reacts to it that makes the difference.  If you give in and aknowledge them, you are feeding the bullies and the abuse will continue.

The problem therefore is that some people do not have the tools to deal with abusive behaviour.  If children are happy, secure and have confidence, they will not take their owns lives.  Bullies are everywhere; in the playground, in the classroom, in the workplace, in the sports' clubs, in the pub.  Even if it were possible to eradicate cyber-bullying, people would still meet and have to deal with bullies at some place and some stage of their lives.  You can't protect children forever.  Sooner or later they will be fending for themselves and exposed to the possibility of bullying.  "But it should be stopped!" I hear the 'do-gooders' cry.  I don't think it can be; it hasn't yet.

The danger is this situation is that people don't want to take responsibility for themselves.  "The website should be banned!" they implore.  Well, here's a novel idea:  if you think your child is susceptible to being affected by bullying on these sites, don't let them go on-line unsupervised!  It amazes me that parents can, on the one hand, be so protective of their children; giving them lifts everywhere, arranging supervised 'play-dates', insisting on knowing their every move and location and yet give them free-rein on the internet.

Access to the world wide web and the internet should be available only in a family room, where parents or guardians can keep an eye on what's going on.  And so what if every other kid has a smart 'phone?  Parents set the rules for their children.  This is enshrined in our constitution.  Whatever happens, there should be no sanctions for any websites that appear to connect these suicides.  As my sister once remarked "Over 90% of people who die are wearing underwear.  Therefore not wearing  underwear will significantly reduce your chance of dying" (I paraphrase, of course.  The discussion, as far as I remember, was in relation to erroneous correlation non evidence-based assertions).  Banning this website will not reduce cyber-bullying and does not address the issue.

When Tim Berners-Lee conceived of the world wide web (oringally dubbed Enquire) in 1989, it was to communicate and collaborate.  As he said

"When I proposed the Web in 1989, the driving force I had in mind was communication through shared knowledge, and the driving 'market' for it was collaboration among people at work and at home." (Berners-Lee, p174)

Also

"The web was designed as a universal medium.  A hypertext link must be able to point to anything.  Information that is put up for commercial gain can't be excluded." (Berners-Lee, p115)

You may wonder why I included the reference to commercial gain.  In the mid to late 90s, the web shifted in ethos and the for some the focus shifting to making money.  Although, some worried that this went against the ideas of information being freely available, he was making the argument, that by definition, this included all information, even if it was for commercial gain.  By extension, I assume the same argument would apply to social networking and other sites which facilitate cyber-bullying.

Censoring, in any form, goes against the whole philosophy of the web.  This issue also came up in the mid 1900s.  At this time, the biggest threat of the internet was children gaining access to pornography.  Tim Berner-Lee describes how the issue was dealt with:

"John Patrick from IBM was the first W3C member to broach the topic. ... John mentioned that there might be a problem with kids seeing indecent material on the Web.  Everyone in the room turned towards him with raised eyebrows: 'John, the Web is open.  This is free speech.  What do you want us to do, censor it?'" (Berners-Lee, p121)

For me, this is what the World Wide Web and the Internet is all about- "the Web is open.  This is free speech".  Any attempt to censor it cannot be tolerated.  To appease the concerns about vulnerable people accessing inappropriate information, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) came up with PICS which rates content and allows parents to filter content on the Web.

By calling on the websites mentioned in these suicides to take responsibility for the actions of their users, or by shutting them down, you are marching another step closer to George Orwell's world of 1984.  Is that really the kind of world you want to live in?

All quotes taken from Weaving the Web: The Past, Present and Future of the World Wide Web by its Inventor by Tim Berners-Lee (with Mark Fischetti), published by Orion Business Books in Great Britain, 1999