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Vodafone Wants To Stop Text Bullies
from the go-running-to-NetSafe? dept
SMS text bullying among kids is nothing new. It's been talked about for years. Now, however, Vodafone New Zealand and an organization called NetSafe say they're going to fight back against text bullying... by telling bully victims to run screaming to NetSafe. Just like the typical adult response to bullying: tell an adult about it, and they'll hand you a brochure about why you shouldn't worry about the bullies. While it's good that they're trying to do something, somehow I doubt this will be much comfort to those being bullied. The one aspect of the program that could be somewhat effective is that it will allow kids to block text messages from certain individuals. Still, if a bully finds out that someone he or she is bullying has taken these steps, it seems only like to make them bully more, since they know it's having an impact.
Reader Comments
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Ok Seriously
If someone can only manage an SMS message then I'd say they are pretty much a failure as a bully. Boy Howdy, I tell ya, back in my days bullies were bullies ......
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Re: Ok Seriously
Bullies using SMS are only setting themselves up for PROOF that they are bullying.
I hope the idiot bullies continue to use SMS so they victims can prove they are being harassed.
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No Subject Given
Netsafe seems to me to be typical of the busybody organisations that want to blame the net for everything wrong in the world.
They're also short on factual accuracy, see:
http://www.netsafe.org.nz/copyright/copyright_default.asp
"You may think it is OK to copy a track from a CD onto your hard drive, or convert it to an MP3. It is not – that is a breach of copyright. You may think it is OK to share some of your MP3 files on your hard drive with your friends, but it is not. It is a breach of copyright. You may think that it is OK to use a file sharing program like Gnutella or Limewire and download MP3 files or movie files or any other files from other people on the Internet, but it is not. It is breach of copyright."
(The first point is correct, under New Zealand copyright law as it currently stands (though probably not for much longer). The others: well, actually it *can* be alright to download files from people on the internet. You know, if they hold the copyright, and that sort of thing).
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