Anti-Bullying Week. If ever there was a dedicated and themed week towards raising so much awareness that it will ultimately provoke the bullies of the world…
In all seriousness, bullying is a very serious topic. Reports of being bullied, according to The Guardian, are rising amongst teens. A growing portion of the bullying contribution is from cyber-bullying. Several initiatives, particularly in the UK, have begun to work towards squashing out cyber-bullying, requesting aid from all of the major social networks.
As social networks are primary targets for cyber-bullies to wage their battles, many advocacy groups have turned to the social networks themselves in order to have a more administrative and regulatory approach to dealing with cyber-bullies.
Several of these major social networks have found compromising ways in which to help out with these anti-bullying efforts, including Facebook. And in honor of Anti-Bullying Week, Facebook has provided a set of guidelines targeted towards young victims of cyber-bullying and their parents. Some of the safety tips include not accepting friends requests from people you don’t already know, blocking users that start to act up, and report their behavior to Facebook.
What’s good about Facebook’s participation in this is the company’s opportunity to promote safety within its social network. Facebook is known for its dedication towards providing a wealth of information to its users, highlighting the importance of providing a well-informed potential for its user base.
At times the overabundance of information has been troublesome for Facebook, as constant changes to its long-winded jargon is a lot of responsibility to expect from the average social network user. In this regard, Facebook still has to deal with the fact that some advocates would like an even more inclusive set of tactics for dealing with unacceptable site behavior.
Should Facebook be doing more to prevent cyber-bullying? For the time being, there isn’t much more that Facebook can do without upsetting other privacy advocates and stepping on users’ toes. Facebook and most other social networking sites have systematically implemented features, options and various settings to grant individual users a great deal of control over their on-site experience. Having more institutionalized ways in which to deal with cyber-bullies means that Facebook would have to compromise even more, and that could lead to issues that go against the free use of such public networks.
In the end I think it is important to make children, teens and their parents aware of how cyber-bullying can manifest, and subsequently how they can avoid its making a mess of their lives. The anonymity of the web has provided a unique opportunity for cyber-bullying, extending new ways in which we must think about our interactions with other people.
I think it’s good that Facebook is promoting its safety tips for users on its social network, as they are good points to consider despite the fact that they’re largely based on common sense. When it comes to child and teen use of social networks, however, common sense doesn’t always win out. Point blank, some users need some guidance when utilizing social networks. if this means that they can avoid the whims of cyber-bullies, then I’m all for it.