The dark side of technical progress
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AS THE widespread use of technology in modern society has taken root, so too has a new phenomenon that has become known as 'cyber bullying' or 'e-bullying'.
It uses social networking sites, web pages, emails and text messaging to intimidate and attack others.
It can vary from repeatedly contacting someone, who doesn't want to converse, through email or phone, to making explicit derogatory remarks on websites or in messages.
It has also evolved in the form of mobile phone photographs or videos being taken secretly of a person and shared on sites such as Bebo, MySpace and video portal YouTube.
Effects
Bullying can cause profound effects, such as stress, panic attacks, reduced willingness to go to school, sleep problems, depression, nervous breakdown and even attempted suicide.
An American woman faces criminal charges for allegedly perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against her 13-year-old neighbour who took her own life.
The woman, Lori Drew, from St Louis, Missouri, has been accused of helping to create an account on the site in the name of someone who didn't exist to convince troubled teenager Megan Meier she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy.
After several weeks of happy chat, Megan is believed to have hanged herself at home in October 2006, allegedly shortly after receiving a dozen or more cruel messages. One is believed to have stated the world would be better off without her.
- Louise Hogan
