More often than not, the “bullied” does not tell anybody about his problem. He just keeps it to himself for he is afraid to be called a “weakling” and be further judged by other people. Being silent does not help either the “bullied” or the bully. But sometimes, it seems like there is no other recourse because when the “bullied” reports to the authorities, the bully immediately finds out or sometimes, it is just too late especially when it comes to cyberbullying. [1] That is why every step that we make to stop bullying is important.
The first step is making the “bullied” aware that he/ she is being bullied and that such act is not normal. Second, the child or the “bullied” must be informed that he/she can do something to stop it, like reporting it to the proper authorities. This second step however will not be easy if confidentiality is not secured. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the school(or any organization) provide a venue where the “bullied” can easily confide or report the bullying without fear of being known by other people.
And Facebook, one of the most popular social networks, has provided this venue. It has just recently added an anti-bullying tool to its safety features. Under the new system, a user could identify a photo, status update or other item as bullying them, then privately send a message to someone in their friend network about it.[2] According to Facebook, the "social reporting" feature is intended to get reports of bullying to the people with the best chance of stopping it. This is a big step in preventing bullying as this feature provides an immediate recourse to cyberbullying, which is more prevalent nowadays. This anti-bullying feature of Facebook coupled with the awareness campaign forwarded by www.stopbullying.gov will greatly help in decreasing the bullying incidents especially among teenagers. It is really helpful that social networking sites such as Facebook become more aware of and participate in some social issues such as this. Hopefully, this will also encourage other social networking sites to join the bandwagon and be more socially relevant. :P
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Entry # 15
Pia Augustha G. Agatep
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