PA- Cyber Bullies Attack Social Networking Sites

9-19-2008 Pennsylvania:

If you take a closer look at myspace, facebook, and other social networking websites you'll find vicious words like slut and sex offender, written by students in our area describing their classmates and teachers!

We've also learned how hateful messages like that can lead to tragedy, after the much publicized suicide of California teenager Megan Meier and Vermont's young Ryan Halligan.

Serena Martin who attends Philadelphia University says she's familiar with cyber bullying. "It gets back to school and everyone goes against each other because of what people say on MySpace or Facebook and like they'll get into fights and teachers never took charge."

They're hands were tied because it happened OFF school property. Times however have changed. A new Pennsylvania law signed by Governor Rendell over the summer requires all schools in the state to put a cyber bullying disciplinary code in place by January. It allows for detention and even expulsion.

That's a relief to many superintendents and students through the area who are hoping to curb the cruelty. You can see their reaction in our video report.

Technology attorney Dorothy Bollinger wants to remind students and parents that sometimes, school discipline just can't go far enough. Bollinger says, "Sometimes it really involves getting an attorney involved because it's so harmful to the child. You would have to file a lawsuit of defamation, extortion, or harassment."

So we're giving generation tech a heads up! Be careful what you write because it could send you to the principal's office… or worse.

And, one more note. If you've been a victim of online harassment and those hateful messages are still out there in Google searches. You can eliminate them from searches by going to sites like reputationdevender.com or defendmyname.com. That will certainly help you when you enter the work force, since you really don't want your boss's Google search to turn up some nasty false information!

Good luck, stay safe on the web, and try to be nice to one another! ..News Source.. by CBS2