Bullying on Facebook

[Cosmo]

What do you think? Does Facebook do enough to prevent bullying, should it do more? Should it even be expected to be involved? I think this discussion should revolve around the entire issue of cyber bullying on Facebook.

[Sea Monkey]

I think more should be done about Facebook bullying. There's an option to report any bullying, harrassment, images etc, but Facebook themselves do not do enough. It's very rare that somebody gets warned and/or removed from Facebook when somebody reports bullying..It's as though Facebook just sit there and watch it happen.

[TigerTank77]

I think people should learn to overcome it with their own strength.

I'm not saying bullying isn't an issue, but if we keep coddling people and solving their problems for them, instead of teaching them to stand up for themselves and dealing with it on their own terms, then we're going to rob them of vital skills they will need later on in life.

Basically, for really serious issues, the tools should be there, but minor things should not warrant the banhammer.

[Aletheia*]

I don't think Facebook does enough, and I think a could example of that would be a previous thread here in Debates, about the man who was jailed for 'trolling' a dead teenagers memorial page, and causing issues. Facebook did nothing, while the parents and friends of this young teen were forced to take action in their own hands.

[dr2005]

I think Facebook could do a fair bit more about this, but doesn't want to for fear of infringing on people's freedoms or alienating its users. (Funny how they'll add random useless features without any qualms though...) There should certainly be scope for people challenging bullies head-on and overcoming them, but that's much harder on the Internet than in real life (particularly if there are a number of people involved against one person) and if people take advantage of the relative anonymity of the Internet to do that then they should be taken to task accordingly.

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by dr2005

I think Facebook could do a fair bit more about this, but doesn't want to for fear of infringing on people's freedoms or alienating its users. (Funny how they'll add random useless features without any qualms though...) There should certainly be scope for people challenging bullies head-on and overcoming them, but that's much harder on the Internet than in real life (particularly if there are a number of people involved against one person) and if people take advantage of the relative anonymity of the Internet to do that then they should be taken to task accordingly.

I think you're right. They probably want to help but don't know how much they can do. I think the answer is quite simple if you're a teenager who's been on the receiving end of some of the bullying that goes on, but the problem is that people working on Facebook aren't, so they have no idea what it's like or what needs to be done.

[Rainbow Dash]

I've never actually reported anyone for bullying so I don't know how likely Facebook are to get involved. I've reported a racially offensive Page once before which got taken down.

I don't know what to think. At the end of the day there is a block button (easily located) which more people should use. A girl from school bullied me and she tried to start bullying me on Bebo but I blocked her straight away.

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by Mudkip

I've never actually reported anyone for bullying so I don't know how likely Facebook are to get involved. I've reported a racially offensive Page once before which got taken down.

I don't know what to think. At the end of the day there is a block button (easily located) which more people should use. A girl from school bullied me and she tried to start bullying me on Bebo but I blocked her straight away.

I think the problem is that blocking them only stops you seeing what they're saying. They can still keep saying it for everyone else to see.

[Guile]

Originally Posted by Cosmo

I think the problem is that blocking them only stops you seeing what they're saying. They can still keep saying it for everyone else to see.

Agreed, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

[Kate*]

I think you're going to have this problem with cyberbullying regardless of the website it's on. The sites walk a fine line between not enough control and too much. There is a block feature which should be used (this kind of thing is what it's for). I do agree with Ben to a degree though, there are going to be people who say inappropriate or mean things no matter what you do and we need to empower kids so they don't let it get to them. If every single incident of bullying (or preceived bullying) was reported the system would back up and bigger/worse events may not get taken care of. There's also the issue of severity, who decides what's considered "bullying" and what isn't and how does Facebook decide what the punishment should be, if any is needed at all? That's why there's an age limit for an account and the block feature. I figure if people are bored enough to say bad stuff about me, they can say whatever they want, but I don't have to read it or deal with them because they probably aren't going to stop. (I've never been cyberbullied, I'm just saying that that's how I would react).

[Cabron]

It's pretty easy to place the blame on the website instead of the people doing the bullying in the first place. I have a hard time seeing the higher-ups who control Facebook sitting in a room discussing the rude comments made by an overly hormonal teenager on another overly hormonal teenager's profile. When you have an account on any social networking site, you run the risk of people abusing you on there. It doesn't mean it's right, it's just what happens. If it's that big of a problem, deactivate your account and get someone to help you out (like a teacher, parent, counselor, etc). Simple as that, really.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

I think people should try to deal with the "cyber-bullying" (assuming it is that and not one-time petty name-calling) instead of immediately hoping some higher-up from FaceBook will come down and rescue them. There's always a block feature so you don't see what is said and that in most cases should be good enough. If the bullying goes to extremes, then there should be measures put in place for that and only that level of bullying.

To give an over-simplified example, if Tod posts on Jimmy's page, "you're a dick, you're a dick" for a month, Jimmy shouldn't try to report that to the facebook higher-ups. It can be annoying for Jimmy but all he has to do is lift his lazy finger and block Tod's comments. FaceBook tries to make itself as realistic as possible, so in line with that, people should be able to handle such issues by themselves. On the other hand, if Jennifer posts nude and humiliating pictures of Samantha, along with racist, deflamatory remarks on Samantha's page, there should be tools in place for Samantha to use.

I think FaceBook is hesitant to start rescuing people from the jaws of cyber-bullying as they first have to set criteria for when they are to intervene as well as what constitutes "cyber-bullying". There was a thread on TH in the bully section about what constitutes bullying and there was no consistent answer. As a result, people could report what they think is cyber-bullying but FaceBook says otherwise. Also, should FaceBook consider the age of the bully and receiver?

There is also a question of do they intervene even if the receiver of the comments does not indicate they are affected? Eventually a line will be crossed when they should intervene no matter what but setting these and other lines is difficult. Furthermore, if FaceBook does delete a bully's page, what stops the bully from starting all up again? I'm sure some bullies would stop but in other cases, FaceBook ends up playing Whack-A-Mole: Bully Version and constantly missing the bully as he/she evades.

The quickest and most effective method though is for the receiver to call it quits and cancel their account.

[Iridescence]

Facebook is lagging MAJOR protection against bullying. I don't think they do anything in general to prevent bullying (besides a block or whatever but that could hardly do anything if it was a big problem)
I hear too much about teens committing suicide after too many cases of bullying mostly on social networking sites or other digital networks.
Bottom line, they could step up their protect a bit.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by NeonxNinjas

Facebook is lagging MAJOR protection against bullying. I don't think they do anything in general to prevent bullying (besides a block or whatever but that could hardly do anything if it was a big problem)
I hear too much about teens committing suicide after too many cases of bullying mostly on social networking sites or other digital networks.
Bottom line, they could step up their protect a bit.

Fair enough, FaceBook isn't 100% bully-proof. However, each time I read or hear people who issue complaints, like you're doing, I often call them whistle-blowers. The reason is they issue a complaint but don't suggest any possible practical solutions, so your voice gets lost as it doesn't contribute in attempting to solve the issue.

[Cosmo]

I think you should be able to report photos for bullying. Facebook has to check them first to see if that's true anyway so there's no real risk of you just reporting all images that you don't like. More work for them but I don't think that's an issue.

[Marguerite]

I tend to be cynical over this whole cyber bullying thing. Not to be insensitive but I think people just need to grow some balls when it comes to issues like this.

People say cyber bullying is worse than actual bullying because it doesn't 'stay in the school yard'. I disagree- you can't just click exit in the school yard and make it all go away. Of course, that's a different issue.

I think if someone is calling you mean names over facebook block them and be done with it. However, sometimes I agree it can be really cruel and severe. To take a recent example from on here, writing crude things to the parents of dead children on memorial walls. Or, to take an example from my own life, I had a friend a few years ago who was 'outed' (so to speak) by a former friend of ours who posted an update about my friends sexual orientation. Things got really bad for them because everyone basically found out, including that guys family.

The problem I have with a term like 'cyber bullying' is that if someone is harassing you and making your life hell, it goes way beyond bullying and calling it 'cyber bullying' trivialises it. However if someone is calling you a bitch or a loser you should probably just get over it.

Sorry, I know I've gone way off topic. To answer the original question, I don't think there is much facebook can do. Millions of people use facebook, they can't be expected to fix every little instance of bullying on the website. Fair enough with hate groups and the like (about specific people) but if we're talking about comments/messages, then I don't know what anyone expects facebook to do.

[PutYourHeartsUp]

I think people need to take responsibility for their own life. I see so many people sitting back and expecting facebook to get rid of the bullying on their page when they haven't even deleted the "bullies" on their facebook! There's a block button for a reason.

In my experience, facebook is quite fast deleting things considered "bullying."

[thebigmole]

Here's what I don't get about bullying on Facebook, if you set your privacy settings to friends only where's the problem. You just don't friend people who you know don't like you, and you defriend someone who starts making rude comments, it's that easy. Or maybe it's not, could someone explain if it's not that easy.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by thebigmole

Here's what I don't get about bullying on Facebook, if you set your privacy settings to friends only where's the problem. You just don't friend people who you know don't like you, and you defriend someone who starts making rude comments, it's that easy. Or maybe it's not, could someone explain if it's not that easy.

This is something I generally don't understand about cyber-bullying in general. People have the ability to click, "block", "defriend" or whatever the button may be and presto, the rude comments are no longer seen. Perhaps some people truly think if they respond by saying, "please stop, you're hurting my feelings", the person is going to think, "uh oh, I've saddened him/her, I better stop and apologize". If it's a bully, that's not going to work, a 8 year-old would probably know that. Again, it's something I don't understand so I'm in the same boat as you.

[BruceLeeDemarcus]

Facebook does not do enough. My sister bullies people all the time on it. Nobody ever does anything. I think its wrong. People are emotionally hurt on Facebook each day. People need to do something about it.

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by BruceLeeDemarcus

Facebook does not do enough. My sister bullies people all the time on it. Nobody ever does anything. I think its wrong. People are emotionally hurt on Facebook each day. People need to do something about it.

If you see something like that happening, especially if it's your sister, then you have a responsibility to step in.

[Briana]

I have been bullied on FB and told to literally die...They are on my block list and will remain there forever and a day.

I don't see what people want from FB, to stop the bullying? Like, what would they do different? They already have block systems. What more do they need to have?

As for people not understanding why victims don't take advantage of the block button/delete... it is sometimes mental. They have to keep seeing it, because by then, they are believing what ever the bully may be saying. The brain wont let them hit the delete button. I saw it on Dr. Phil, about how the brain works when someone is going through the victim stage of bullying.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by BruceLeeDemarcus

Facebook does not do enough. My sister bullies people all the time on it. Nobody ever does anything. I think its wrong. People are emotionally hurt on Facebook each day. People need to do something about it.

In some cases, the person receiving the bullying may be unable to quickly talk with the bully. However, you have the ability to talk to your sister, whether it's walking down the hallway to her room or e-mailing her if she's not at home. Listen your own advice and do something about your sister's actions.

[Nostalgia]

Facebook does have a CEOP report button which you can install/download. But I don't think facebook does do enough. Then again that being said facebook has millions of users and unfortunately it would be very hard to moderate the millions of users on facebook and all the comments, I would hope that if bullying does occur on facebook the person who is being bullied by people on facebook would report them to facebook, the school/college/uni or the police and file a harassment complaint against the people doing the bullying.

[MegaMadness]

I'm not sure what facebook can do and what people expect it to do about bullying. I mean there's the report button and the option to delete stuff off your profile etc if people are posting mean comments, and the option to delete people people off your account and even not accept them as friends in the first place if you think they might try to bully you etc. That in my opinion is enough. Facebook has better more important things to do then do something about things that can be easily sorted out by yourself whether its you confronting the bully, telling a teacher, police if its bad enough etc, deleting the person and their commentsor whatever. And I also dread to imagine how horribly misused and so much time wasted over a report bullying here button- it would be abused, by stupid one off coments, things not meant to be hurtful but are to the reader or a fight between friends that could be fixed in a few hours or a joke gone wrong or silly things like that - most people just think anything is bullying these days.