New York bill to ban online posting anonymity

ren wrote: Don't want to be bullied online? Don't go there. I don't even understand how it's possible to be cyber-bullied.

To be honest, I find it much more annoying to have my boîte-aux-lettres infiltrated with thousands of spams (advertising everything from voyages to Viagara) than to be harassed by a particular person. In fact, that has only been the case really one time, and of course, the response from my part was precisely as suggested Mace, I blocked her.

I don't really understand the concept of cyber-bullying either, except in the cases of cyber-fraud -- which has it's own category, I believe. On the other hand, 'don't go there' seems a bit harsh also, as internet is one of the few truly common domains we enjoy.

From my experience being bullied when I was very young, all bullies are weak, insecure, cowards...the moment you stand up to them they find a new victim to torment....

The anonymity that cyber bullying provides gives them a protective cushion against retaliation...as has been pointed out even if forced to "register" before posting, bullies can simply use aliases...heck I only use my real info on two sites...

I don't see the point to wasting tax dollars on the prevention of any sort of bullying, when the parents should be the ones teaching their children to respect others...if your child is being bullied teach them what true strength really is and show them how strong they can be...if your child is bullying teach them what respect and remorse are...it's not everyone else's job to raise your child, but they can help...

The internet does have looser values and more unrestricted behaviours then the real world because more people can act threatening and get away with it then can do so in the physical world. So I agree if your going to be online then you need to be aware of this and decide what can be take in fun, ignored or what is malicious enough to warrant concern.

Malice online can be concerning when it influences something you are involved with virtually or in the physical real world. So bullying online is not direct physical violence, but it is when people work together to demonise, threaten or otherwise marginalise an individual through group dynamics of peer pressure or secretive cliques - actual or implied. Its just another form of aggression. Online bullying has led to many suicides so it is a very serious issue.

So I guess the internet is based on information sharing and cyber-bullying is then abuse of information by creating or shaping it to cause harm upon another individual among peers in a non-professional setting (else it might be defamation).

Online bullying has led to many suicides so it is a very serious issue.

Would the suicides not have happened were the bullying offline and not anonymous?

ren wrote:

Online bullying has led to many suicides so it is a very serious issue.

Would the suicides not have happened were the bullying offline and not anonymous?

Think about Rebecca Black's Friday song

Maybe someone can take being insulted by 1 or two people, but if they get hundreds of people insulting them then it might get to be too much

I don't think it's valid to say that they would have committed suicide regardless. The internet can be a catalyst for inflating particular views out of proportion of their actual significance

I guess, regardless of how you feel about bullying, there should be other ways of policing it than attacking internet anonymity. I think anonymity is imperative to the free exchange of ideas that many of us enjoy about the internet.

rebecca didn't kill herself... she made money from the ads on youtube and released another crap song!

I would like to make the point that voting is anonymous. One reason for this is to keep the government from targeting individuals or groups. It is significant that a government would find any means to stop the voice of the people from being heard. Anonymous postings have their bad side, but so does the Democratic and Republican National Committees, as does the Office of the President of the US or Senator. Abuse will be found in anything humans touch.

We cannot safeguard every faucet of our lives to every degree. We do our best to protect ourselves but it is just not possible.

To Ren: I can only see it being a problem when it is escalates to your offline life (Think "Mean Girls 2", if you've watched it).

But in terms of cyber-bullying like me (in America) cyber-bullying you (in the UK), yeah you really can only let that happen.

That said, there are times when I understand it can get stressful if you are an administrator on a facebook page and one of the members has the favor of half the administrators, does not violate the rules but just happens to be able to harass the heck out of the admins...then I can see how you can be cyber bullied to a point where you just have to give up on the project you have put time and effort towards.

And I TOTALLY agree with Planet of Chaos.

ren wrote:

Online bullying has led to many suicides so it is a very serious issue.

Would the suicides not have happened were the bullying offline and not anonymous?

I was just answering that you did't even understand how it's was possible to be cyber-bullied. Cyber-bullying itself would seem to work much better without anonymity, because it would then have real world implications - but I guess it can give an impression of escalation if anonymous people claiming to be strangers were joining in the bullying, making it seem like it was going viral online etc.