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[Prospero]

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The fight started at school, when some eighth-grade girls stole a pencil case filled with makeup that belonged to a new classmate, Amanda Marcuson, and she reported them.

But it did not end there. As soon as Amanda got home, the instant messages started popping up on her computer screen. She was a tattletale and a liar, they said. Shaken, she typed back, "You stole my stuff!" She was a "stuck-up bitch," came the instant response in the box on the screen, followed by a series of increasingly ugly epithets.

"It seems like people can say a lot worse things to someone online than when they're actually talking to them," said Amanda, 14, of Birmingham, Mich., who transferred to the school last year. The girls never said another word to her in person, she said.

The technology, which allows its users to inflict pain without being forced to see its effect, also seems to incite a deeper level of meanness. Psychologists say the distance between bully and victim on the Internet is leading to an unprecedented - and often unintentional - degree of brutality, especially when combined with a typical adolescent's lack of impulse control and underdeveloped empathy skills.

"I have kids coming into school upset daily because of what happened on the Internet the night before," Ms. Yuratovac said. " 'We were online last night and somebody said I was fat,' or 'They asked me why I wear the same pair of jeans every day,' or 'They say I have Wal-Mart clothes.' "

Recently, Ms. Yuratovac intervened when a 12-year-old girl showed her an instant message exchange in which a boy in her class wrote, "My brother says you have really good boobs." Boys make many more explicit sexual comments online than off, counselors say.

A sophomore girl at Fieldston High School in the Bronx, for instance, agreed not to return this fall after a racist comment she wrote in an instant message to a friend about a boy who had spurned her ignited controversy last spring. The friend forwarded the message to the boy, and copies were distributed around the school the next day, people familiar with the situation said.

My high school days are far enough behind me so that I don't have the information to decide whether this is a subject worthy of genuine concern, or a non-story. Interesting reading, though.

 

[Teddman]

http://bugmenot.com

 

[xsarien]

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My high school days are far enough behind me so that I don't have the information to decide whether this is a subject worthy of genuine concern, or a non-story. Interesting reading, though.

I was doing the IM thing in high school, back when the software was pretty-damned new and it was basically just a bunch of nerds on the service, plus whoever was on AOL. Did I get "harassed" by people from my school? Yeah, but the "block" feature's been there since day 1, and it's meant to be used.

 

[belgurdo]

Recently, Ms. Yuratovac intervened when a 12-year-old girl showed her an instant message exchange in which a boy in her class wrote, "My brother says you have really good boobs." Boys make many more explicit sexual comments online than off, counselors say.

+1 boy

 

[Teddman]

Like a lot of other teenagers, Amanda has her Internet messages automatically forwarded to her cellphone, and by the end of the game she had received 50 - the limit of its capacity.

Why would you do that? Like I'd really want to be bothered by IM's when I'm away from the computer...

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

When I was in elementary/jr. high you got kicked in the balls. I would have rather been harrassed online.

 

[Dilbert]

Damn...I came into this thread hoping to get tips.

 

[mrmyth]

OMG TEH TYYPED WURDS TEHY STING!!!!11!!


Jesus. Kids a fucking wusses nowadays. As long as she can walk the halls without getting her ass kicked, I don't see the problem.

 

[bjork]

'They say I have Wal-Mart clothes.'

TRAUMA

See, this is why technology is spoiling people... if someone said some shit to you in MY day, you'd get them back by like... hucking their backpack on the roof or pantsing them or "accidentally" elbowing them in the nuts while playing basketball... not going on aim and being like "oh noes u teh homo i hat u"

BUCK UP, PUSSIES.

 

[Ripclawe]

I bet they IM'ed in RED COLOR TEXT!

 

[bjork]

:sniff:... and :sniff:... it was UNDERLINED and in ITALICS :sobsob:

MOM YOU BITCH TAKE ME TO HOT TOPIC AND GIVE ME YOUR CREDIT CARD

 

[LakeEarth]

Right Click - Block