Banning of access to YouTube in schools by the Victorian Government will do less than nothing to reduce bullying. It’s totally und utterly the wrong approach. Big Brother governance has never worked in situations of this nature and it never will. This action fails to address the problem where it occurs – criminal activity by a small minority that ultimately leads to penalisation of the majority for the criminals’ actions.
As a kid who was pretty nerdy at school, I know about bullying. I understand the consequences for those on the receiving end and I understand the terrible difficulty in dealing with the perpetrators. If they can be identified.
I’m surprised, too, by the statement attributed to Director of Australia’s High Tech Crime Centre, Kevin Zuccato. I’ve had the privilege of being at several events at the same time as Kevin. I’ve heard him speak with expertise, and in the short conversations I’ve had with him, he seems an incredibly smart guy. So, hearing him blame social networking sites for an increase in bullying sounds to me like he’s being advised badly.
The answer here is manifold, but here are my thoughts. First, penalise the criminals harshly. Make them face the full force of the law for activities such as assault and aggravated assault (which this case seems to be). Second, require parents to actually parent their children. Too many kids these days are allowed to run wild, with little or no discipline or structure. Now, I’m largely a libertarian and think kids should be fairly unfettered. But there’s an obvious limit and antisocial behaviour and criminality exceeds that limit
This really has absolutely nothing to do with YouTube, or MySpace or any other social networking site. It’s not social networking sites that are responsible for increased bullying in schools. If the Internet didn’t exist, there would still be bullying, just the form would be different. There wouldn’t be any fewer occurrences.
