Campaign to beat Bullying in the UK
Beatbullying is a UK centric campaign to help stamp out internet or electronic bullying in the UK. On the 25th of April they are having a country wide notice, strike, fasting, or get on top of Buckingham Palace meeting to defeat cyber bullying.
The additional issues of Web 2.0, in that user supplied content does not require that it actually be the user who is supposed to be writing things. Rather a plethora of fake pages, fake profiles and faked pictures have complicated the issue, because it is easier to rap something out than it is to slow down and think about what you are doing.
On Friday the Beatbullying campaigners will hold The Big Stand - an event which asks every person in the UK to create the world’s biggest stand of defiance to show solidarity with the millions of young people being bullied. A YouGov poll published today reveals more than a million Brits would be prepared to go as far as chaining themselves to the gates of Downing Street to make their point heard. Source: LSE.co.uk
What is neat about this is that the countrywide call is being met by thousands of people according to LSE. All of whom have promised to take some action against an ever increasing problem with bullying in all of its forms. Electronic stalking really happens across all age groups, all social situations, and all classes. Bullying in general fits the same mold in the same way in that people who have their own way are otherwise abused because they don’t fit into the crowd.
While this is a normal part of childhood, with the advent of Web 2.0, many more paths are available for the bully from texting, to making false MySpace pages or Facebook pages, and having photo shopped pictures on the web at places like Flickr. The long lasting impacts from behavior like this transcend boarders and nationality. While the UK is leading the charge, there are many countries that could learn from the group, and learn how to slow the phenomena down a bit.
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