Harassment 21st century style

With increased integration of the internet and CMC into the lives of millions of peoples ranging to nearly any age, harassment has become a very scary reality in the World Wide Web. Though, when I was growing up harassment was childish and often behind people’s backs, the internet allows a person to hide behind their mainframe. With this in mind, it makes harassment on the internet very simple and un-personable to many people.

I remember in class when a topic was brought up about the girl who was literally harassed to death by a mother who disliked her via the internet. The neighbor mother who is almost 50 years old tricked the 13 year old neighbor girl into believing she was a cute 16 year old boy interested in the girl romantically. Essentially the woman built the young girl up and then tore her apart after gaining both her trust and even love. The mother and her attorney denied any wrong doing and the mother even said "She thought it was funny." A sick statement from a person who you would hope is aged much further past childish torment.

This sparked me to research a little bit into the new aged on-line harassment ways. I came across an organization named WHO@ (Working to Halt Online Abuse) this organization is a volunteer based staff aimed to help fight online harassment through education and empowerment of victims. I found a statistics page that said WHO@ receives between 50-75 cases a week about on-line harassment. That statistic blew my mind, especially thinking that I'm sure there are at least a few worthy of being compared to the case stated above. Makes you wonder what has happened to people in today’s day and age.

I would hope that I would never be a victim or related to a victim of online harassment. Any harassment is never a good thing, but the ability for the harasser to hide makes it possible for much of the statements said to be much more demeaning and hurtful. And what’s scarier than a 50 year old woman picking on an immature and less experienced teen. The age gap, in my eyes, is the scariest mental terrorism. The intellect doesn’t even compare between the two and it would be much easier for the harasser to convince the victim of committing unspeakable crimes.

I have never been an advocate for parental controls for items such as the V-Chip or internet protection programs, but this may have started to sway me a bit. I personally looked at my usage of the internet and T.V. growing up much like real life. Sometimes you come across material that is way above your age bracket, but that’s how you learn. I would never allow even the possibility of such internet catastrophes upon my children, assuming one day I will have some. I guess it comes with the territory and maturity of growing up, but maybe one day I will too be an advocate.