How can social communities prevent cyber-bullying ?

http://paulocoelhoblog.com

So this week was in the the newspapers the story the girl who committed suicide because she was pushed to do this by a grown up woman who asked her to do this via Myspace. The girl committed suicide and this story make us think twice about the social communities : how far can we go? What shall we do in order to allow these social communities to connect people instead of separating them? Please give me your opinion on this issue.

Here's a fragment of this story (Reuteurs)

Woman cleared of felonies in MySpace suicide case

(...)

Drew and others created the fake MySpace persona of a 16-year-old boy to woo Meier for several weeks, then abruptly ended the relationship and said the world would be better off without her.
Meier hanged herself in October 2006, just hours after she had read those final messages.

(...)

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Paulo
• Coelho
• Social
• Community
• Myspace
• Murder
• Suicide

[Nautilus1972]

@usnk 75% of all communication is non-verbal. I don't even like phones, you're only getting 25% of the information you'd be getting from a face to face conversation.

[Nautilus1972]

@Christiansoldiering Look at your Youtube user name and ask yourself why that might be.

[Christiansoldiering]

I have one who likes following me around, pretending to be someone else but frequently robs my own identity - parodying me. Mimicking almost precisely what I have just said. Then it progresses on to more sick sneering, mimicry or plain lies. This sad individual knows my home city, my name and the type of sites I go to. They have now emerged again on Christmas day, posting 2.47 minutes after I posted. They revel in confusion, mockery, and intimidation, yet are to timid to be ‘real’ themselves.

[trescoolxox]

Ultimately, there is nothing we can do to stop people from pretending; Because in the end, it's what we do that defines who we are. The best we can do is put faith in the people around us, because although it can be the most tragic ending like Megan, it can also be the most rewarding feeling in the world. We must put faith in humanity because we are all interdependent on one another.

[trescoolxox]

People forget that we can hide who we really are anywhere. We can hide who we are on the internet, but also in real life. When we show our feelings, we are putting trust in the people around us, that they won't hurt us. In this case, Megan wore her heart on her sleeve for a fake persona. Who can she trust now?

[Andragonfly]

When we talk to somebody face to face, we can see and feel this person's reactions to what we are saying. On the net, it's not even like on the phone, where we can feel by the silence or tone of the voice of our interlocutor whether he or she is upset by what we say. The net is impersonal and we have no way to realize if we are saying the wrong things. But some people don't care: they enjoy the anonymity and the power to bully others. Pity for those who are the victims of a bully. :(

[usnk]

There should be atleast a warning to use your own logic before accepting any friendship, the person could be a cheat and might be with more than one profile with different names.People should avoid involving emotionally because as in Brida wicca tell her that peope tend to lie more when they are hidden themself. same way when one write on a social network he/she is all hidden. No face, no eyes, no voice not even handwriting. What is the credibility?