Join the Anti-Bullying Movement

Like basically anything that you can search on the Internet, cyber-bullying and cyber-bullying prevention comes up with an overwhelming about of information.   I began with a news website that I frequent almost daily, CNN.com.  It turns out that Anderson Cooper 360° had a week-long series starting back on October 10, 2011 that focused on taking a stand against bullying.  There was also going to be a town hall meeting held at Rutgers marking one-year anniversary of Tyler Clementi’s suicide

Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge last September after his roommate at Rutgers University secreted taped him with another man in their shared dorm room and then posted it on the Internet.  According to ABC News, Two students are being charged with invasion of privacy after one tweeted about the video.  Clementi is another name that I have come across multiple times while doing this study.

CNN was teaming up with Facebook, Cartoon Network, and Time Inc. for the “Bullying: It Stops Here” campaign.  What especially interested me in this event is that Anderson Cooper planned on featuring Dr. Robert Faris, the sociologist whose work I discussed in my blog entry entitled “New and Improved Bullies” and the results of the study that the New York Times article was discussing.  Cooper says: “The problem of bullying is far more complex than it is often portrayed, and while there are no easy solutions, we’ve learned some things that lead me to believe that with enough attention, we can make life better for kids.”    

This article explains that  this Special Report featured celebrities like Glee’s Jane Lynch, Dr. Phil, Kelly Ripa, and Rosalind Wiseman (author of “Queen Bees and Wannabees” which inspired the movie “Mean Girls”).   

I think it is a great and interesting thing that the study by Faris is being made public by Anderson Cooper, the other sponsors, and celebrities who want to help the cause.  Getting celebrities involved can be the way to go to get people’s attention.  TheEllenShow tweeted on October 12, 2011: “Today is Unity Day.  Wear orange in support of kids who have been bullied.  I am. #bekind.”  That is a tweet I found within one minute of looking on the pages of famous people that I follow.   Ellen has almost eight million followers, so hopefully her message will influence at least one of them.

Here is the link to clips of the town hall that aired two weeks ago (since I conveniently did not read this article until now, I could not find any whole episodes). 

In addition to social media websites and news websites, I found a website by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, that has a special feature on Internet Safety –Cyber-bullying and Cyber-stalking.  This contains publications and scholarly research related to cyber-bullying.  There are articles by the U.S. Department of Education and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Federal Trade Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Harvard University.  There are also links to many websites sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Crime Prevention Council, and the U.S. Department of Health (just to name a few).  It shows that many people and organizations in our country are looking into the problem of cyber-bullying and attempting to educate the public on how to start preventing this problem.