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.
I agree that banning YouTube is unlikely to solve any problems with bullying.
In my limited reading on the topic, however, it is my understanding that no consistent correlation has been established between the severity of punishment and its effects as a deterrent to criminal behavior.
Put more simply, increasing the severity of punishment doesn’t seem to improve behavior.
Increasing the certainty of punishment (the likelihood of being caught and punished) does, however, seem to have an effect.
Similarly, the idea of requiring parental behavior is nebulous at best. An easy thing to say, but something very difficult to implement.
In short, suggestions of parental behavior and severity of punishment are cathartic, but perhaps not effective.
I do not, however, know what the solution would be. I can only guess that this is the sort of problem for which no obvious, easy, and effective solution exists (although many solutions may exist that have any two of those).
@Steve - I’ll happily agree with you on the certainty of punishment over severity (although I’m all for severe punishment of perpetrators for assault and humiliation of disabled kids). And the parenting thing is my view, as opposed to something that has any practicality. I know that that next couple of years will see some big clashes with my now 9-year-old daughter as she seeks to find where the boundaries are.
My take is simply that if these kids were brought up respecting others, perhaps they would be less likely to behave as they have. Respect is taught and learned and in my view, takes place primarily at home. I don’t purport to be perfect, but I think I’m doing okay with my daughter (with a large helping hand from my wife).
But yes, this has zero to do with social networking.