Total Pageviews

Saturday, 7 March 2015

Bullies created a Facebook group for people who wished I was dead: Teenage victim admits online abuse made her feel suicidal Amy Louise Paul was victim of online bullying Bullies joined hate group to taunt her on Facebook It made her so upset she considered suicide Found help thanks to Childline

By LUCY WATERLOW FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 22:00 EST, 25 November 2013 | UPDATED: 23:37 EST, 25 November 2013

A teenager who considered killing herself because online bullies made her life hell has shared her story in the hope it will help other victims.
Amy Louise Paul, from Peterborough, features in a new video for counselling service Childline who helped her through her ordeal.
She said: 'When I was 13 I had a disagreement with one of my friends at school and I thought it was all sorted. Then one of my other friends said "she's made a Facebook group about you for all the people who wish I was dead already."'
Amy Louise aged 13 with her mother, Lisa: They have both praised Childline for their support after she was a victim of online bullies
Amy Louise aged 13 with her mother, Lisa: They have both praised Childline for their support after she was a victim of online bullies
She added: 'The website was shared and sent out to people to join the group and as far as I'm aware many people did.'
People joined the Facebook group and left cruel comments about the teenager.
Amy Louise said the impact of the bullying affected her happiness and wellbeing. 
'Before the cyber-bullying started I was happy but afterwards I didn't want to talk to anyone or be around anyone and I even cut myself off from my family, she said. 
 
Online abuse: The teenager felt suicidal after a hate group was set up to taunt her on Facebook
Online abuse: The teenager felt suicidal after a hate group was set up to taunt her on Facebook
'I used to love school and was always excited to be going in to learn new things but I started to dread going. And I couldn't just leave it at school because it followed me home. I'd go on the computer and I'd be worried that someone would say something about it while I was online.  It invaded everywhere.'
She said it became so upsetting, it made her question her will to live and she even contemplated suicide.
She recalls: 'I was very upset, words can't describe how upset I was. I thought everything had been taken away from me and I didn't know what to do. 
'It made me so I didn't want to wake up in the morning. I didn't want to go to school or see anybody and it made wanting to carry on living very difficult. At one point I did want to take my own life.'
When Amy Louise's mother, Lisa, 45, a shop manager, found out about the hate group set up to target her daughter she was furious but felt helpless about what could be done.
Moved on: The student is smiling again now the Facebook group has been taken down and she got the help she needed to overcome her ordeal
Moved on: The student is smiling again now the Facebook group has been taken down and she got the help she needed to overcome her ordeal
In a previous interview with the Daily Mail said said: 'The first I heard about the hate group was when I collected Amy Louise after school; she was crying uncontrollably and told me what happened.
'I was absolutely furious that the school knew and had not called to tell me what was happening. Then I discovered they had not punished the girl responsible. I had frequent meetings with them but they weren't interested, they didn't take it seriously and I think the problem is some governors don't even understand what a computer is, let alone cyber-bullying.'
She added: 'The police came 24 hours after I reported what was happening but then never got back to us.
'People sweep it under the carpet but they are playing with children's lives. My daughter was in such a terrible state.'
The bully was made to take the Facebook group down by their headteacher but Amy Louise continued to feel the impact on her confidence and because 'people were still talking about it'. 
It was Childline who eventually helped her after she reached out to them via their website.
Lisa said: 'The only people who've been really useful are ChildLine - they have been brilliant and gave us lots of good advice.'
No escape: Age 13, left, Amy Louise felt had no way to get away from the online bullies
Ordeal: Amy Louise has shared her story in the hope it will help other victims of cyber-bullying
No escape: Age 13, left, Amy Louise felt she had no way to get away from the online bullies but now she's happier, right, age 17 and urging other victims to seek help
Some adults who grew up in a world where there were no mobile phones or social network websites may struggle to comprehend the scale and impact of cyber-bullying.
But NSPCC statistics reveal that 38 per cent of young people have been affected by it. A third have received abusive emails and24 per cent have received abusive text messages.
It can lead to depression and anxiety, and in some tragic cases, teenagers have taken their own lives because they have felt unable to cope.
The NSPCC offer advice on their website to children and parents on how to deal with cyberbullying including tips on online safely and privacy settings.
Amy Louise urges anyone suffering from cyber-bullying to seek help, either by confiding in their parents or teachers or in Childline like she did. 
'Quite simply if I hadn't spoken to Childline I doubt I would still be here today,' she admits.
Now Amy-Louise has finally been able to move on from her ordeal and has even drawn some positives from it.
She said: 'It was a horrible experience but from it I learnt that I can be strong and not let people get to me. The experience made me strive to push myself and I'm off to college now to study law, politics and English. I also joined the Air Cadets and play in their band at an international level.'

Posted by at No comments:

Victims of cyberbullying fight back in lawsuits


ATLANTA –  When a Georgia middle school student reported to police and school officials that she had been bullied on Facebook, they told her there was not much they could do because the harassment occurred off campus.
So the 14-year-old girl, Alex Boston, is using a somewhat novel strategy to fight back: She's slapping her two classmates with a libel lawsuit.
As states consider or pass cyberbullying laws in reaction to high-profile cases around the country, attorneys and experts say many of the laws aren't strong enough, and lawsuits such as this one are bound to become more commonplace.
"A lot of prosecutors just don't have the energy to prosecute 13-year-olds for being mean," said Parry Aftab, an attorney and child advocate who runs stopcyberbullying.org. "Parents are all feeling very frustrated, and they just don't know what to do."
Almost every state has a law or other policy prohibiting cyberbullying, but very few cover intimidation outside of school property.
Alex, who agreed to be identified to raise awareness about cyberbullying, remembers the mean glances and harsh words from students when she arrived at her suburban Atlanta middle school. She didn't know why she was being badgered until she discovered the phony Facebook page. It was her name and information, though her profile picture was doctored to make her face appear bloated.
The page suggested Alex smoked marijuana and spoke a made-up language called "Retardish." It was also set up to appear that Alex had left obscene comments on other friends' pages, made frequent sexual references and posted a racist video. The creators also are accused of posting derogatory messages about Alex.
"I was upset that my friends would turn on me like that," she told The Associated Press. "I was crying. It was hard to go to school the next day."
Alex learned of the phony page a year ago and told her parents, who soon contacted administrators at Palmer Middle School and filed a report with Cobb County Police.
"At the time this report was taken in May 2011, we were not aware of any cyberbullying law on the books that would take her specific situation and apply it to Georgia law," said Cobb County police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce.
Police encouraged the Boston family to report the fake account to Facebook. Alex's family said despite requests to Facebook to take the page down, the company did not do so. The website was taken down around the time the lawsuit was filed a week ago.
Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes and Cobb County school officials declined comment on the case. The two students named in the lawsuit haven't hired an attorney and their parents couldn't be reached for comment.
The thorny issue of whether schools may censor students who are off campus when they attack online has led to split decisions in federal courts. Administrators and judges have wrestled over whether free speech rights allow students to say what they want when they're not at school.
Justin Layshock of western Pennsylvania was suspended after he created a MySpace parody in 2005 that said his principal smoked marijuana and hid beer behind his desk. The suspension was overturned by a federal judge, who found that school officials failed to show the student's profile disrupted school operations. The judge's decision was later upheld by an appeals court.
In West Virginia, Kara Kowalski sued school officials after she was suspended from her high school for five days in 2005 for creating a web page suggesting another student had a sexually transmitted disease. A federal appeals court upheld the suspension, dismissing Kowalski's argument that the school shouldn't punish her because she created the site at home.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear either case.
Jason Medley, of Houston, filed a defamation lawsuit in June against three of his daughter's classmates. The classmates were accused of filming themselves making false sexual remarks about his daughter and posting the video to Facebook.
The complaint was settled months later with apologies from the girls and a small donation to charity, Medley's attorney Robert Naudin said.
"The girls involved likely now understand the wrongful nature of what they did and the harm that can come of such conduct," he said. "They made a donation out of their allowances to a charitable organization that fights against cyberbullying."
In Georgia, lawmakers have given school administrators new powers to punish students if they bully others at school, but legislation that would expand the laws to include text messages and social media sites never reached a vote this year.
Seven states have added off-campus harassment to their bullying laws in recent years, though Georgia is not one of them.
"Cyberbullying really goes beyond the four walls of the school or the four corners of the campus, because if you use a cellphone, PDA or social media site, then those activities follow the child both into the school and out of the school," said House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, a Democrat from Atlanta who co-sponsored the legislation that would have expanded Georgia's bullying law. "It's important for the state to really get ahead of this. It's already happening, but it's going to be more exacerbated and more difficult the longer we go."
Alex and her family have started a petition to encourage lawmakers to strengthen Georgia's law. Her lawsuit seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages.
"At first blush, you wouldn't think it's a big deal," said Alex's attorney, Natalie Woodward. "Once you actually see the stuff that's on there, it's shocking."
___
Follow Greg Bluestein at http://www.twitter.com/bluestein and Dorie Turner at http://www.twitter.com/dorieturner.
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, 6 March 2015

FACEBOOK NOT PROTECTING IT'S USERS

What you need to know:
  • Cyber bullying can be a crime.
  • If you're being cyber bullied, there are things you can do to protect yourself.
Did you know that social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all ban cyber bullying? Or that cyber bullying can be illegal? If you have been bullied online, have seen bullying online or are worried that you may have bullied someone else online and you don’t know what to do next, you can get free, confidential legal advice from Lawmail.

What is bullying?

Bullying is behaviour that:
  • is meant to be hurtful;
  • targets a certain person or group of people;
  • happens more than once; and
  • embarrasses, threatens or intimidates the person being bullied.

What is cyber bullying?

Cyber bullying is bullying carried out online or through mobile phones.
This could include using SMS, email or social networking sites to harass or abuse someone.

Is cyber bullying a crime?

Cyber bullying can be a crime under either South Australian or national law when it involves:

Menacing, harassing or offensive use of the internet or a mobile

It is a crime to use a phone or the internet in threaten, harass or seriously offend somebody. A message or post could be considered offensive if it is likely to cause serious anger, outrage, humiliation or disgust. The maximum penalty is 3 years in jail.

Real life examples

In 2010, a 20 year old guy in QLD sent threats and hate-filled texts and Facebook messages to his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. He was found guilty of using phone and internet services in a menacing, harassing or offensive way and placed on probation with an order to attend counselling.

In 2011, a teenager in NSW made a Facebook page called “All ___ Police Are Corrupt”, which included the names of several local police officers. He was charged with harassing and offensive use of the internet.

Threats

It is a crime to intentionally frighten someone by threatening to hurt them. This can be through your phone, text message, emails or online posts. Threatening to kill someone carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
It is also a crime in South Australia to make (or encourage others to make) threats of physical harm to a person because of their race.

Real life examples

In 2006, a teenager in NSW threatened to kill two of his teachers and a girl at his school on his MySpace page. He was charged with making threats.
In 2009, a guy in WA posted a video on YouTube that showed him making threatening comments towards people of a particular ethnic and religious background. He was charged under racial hate laws.

Stalking

Stalking is when someone gets repeated attention that intimidates or frightens them. Stalking can include making unwanted phone calls, emails, text messages and messages on Facebook/Twitter etc. Stalking is a crime in South Australia if you call, message or otherwise bother somebody twice or more with the intent to harm, harass or scare them. The maximum penalty is 3 years in jail (but can be higher if the person uses a weapon or breaks a court order).

Real life example

In 2009, a guy in VIC copied pictures from a girl’s profile and posted them on adult websites, along with her name and contact details. He was found guilty of stalking and sentenced to jail.
In 2011, a teenager in WA who had befriended an American girl on Facebook began sending her threatening messages and unwanted gifts. He was arrested for stalking.

Unauthorised access

It is a crime under state and national law to log into a person’s online accounts without permission. The maximum penalty is 2 years in jail.

Defamation

It is a crime in South Australia to publish untrue information about someone in order to cause them serious harm. The maximum penalty is 3 years in jail.

Real life example

In 2009, a teenager in SA made a harassing Facebook page about a local police officer. He was found guilty of defamation and placed on a two year good behaviour bond.

Encouraging suicide

It is a crime under both South Australian and national law to cyber bully someone in a way that intentionally encourages or causes them to kill themselves. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment. 

What can happen…

Cyber bullies can also get in trouble with internet or mobile phone service providers, websites, schools and non-criminal courts.

Websites to take down comments/pictures

Most websites have ways of checking what’s being posted. Users can flag and report any nasty contents to the website administrator. Websites can remove things in your account which they find inappropriate.

Warnings or suspension from communication services or websites

Most websites and phone companies have Terms and Conditions which control what users are allowed to do. Cyber bullying can break these rules.
Websites may give warnings or remove inappropriate content themselves. They may even delete a user’s account if they discover cyber bullying. 
Phone companies can suspend or cancel a person’s phone number and phone contract if they use it to repeatedly harass others through calling or texting.
In more serious cases, the website or phone company may report illegal behaviour to the police.
- See more at: http://www.lawstuff.org.au/sa_law/topics/bullying/cyber-bullying#sthash.7aA91Xi4.dpuf
Posted by at No comments:

Lesley Karen Luscombe February 5 at 11:12pm Just wanted to say how much I love you, Uncle Terry

Lesley Karen Luscombe
February 5 at 11:12pm
Just wanted to say how much I love you, Uncle Terry! You're doing a GREAT job. I worry that Facebook won't like all your pages, though, as it's not really allowed. But I understand that you have a LOT of work to do, and SO many people to reach, in your quest to teach people that Pit Bulls are gorgeous cute meatballs that wouldn't hurt a fly. Love you, Unc! <3 And my pet Spaniel Mix, named 'Meatball' in your honour, loves you too!!! <3
Posted by at No comments:

Terry Dolt Yesterday at 6:01am · Edited · Been shagging any sheep lately Uncle Terry? Lord knows with your face (well that and being a dolt) you'd never find a woman to shag. (apparently this doesn't breach facebooks community standards)


Terry Dolt
Yesterday at 6:01am · Edited · 
Been shagging any sheep lately Uncle Terry? Lord knows with your face (well that and being a dolt) you'd never find a woman to shag.
Gary Clarke
Like ·  · 
Posted by at No comments:

Lynne Smith I'm not. It does not help their argument to leave them up. They say they are for freedom of speech - but only their speech. Everything they accuse us of - hatred, closed mindedness, ignorance - is what they are. We constantly try to talk to them. How often do we let them in here and what do they do? The insult us, name call, and then leave. It's all they know. And among themselves they love it, think its great. Give one of these posts or a link to one of their pages to someone who doesn't know about this issue, or to a government official. It really opens their eyes to the people they are protecting when they vote against BSL.


Lynne Smith
March 5 at 8:04am
She threatens to delete all haters. So let's not be haters. Let's just educate her. Be unemotional, perhaps provide minks without saying a word. Maybe she will learn something, maybe she's not interested in learning, only one way to find out.
The Dog Breed Stereotype Project
Movie · 899 Likes
The Dog Breed Stereotype Project's photo.
The Dog Breed Stereotype Project
Like · 
  • 4 people like this.
  • Anthony Michael Ridge I will have to post and then leave and take 10 breaths and 10 minutes then return, But I will do my best
    March 5 at 8:13am · Like · 2
  • Julie Wall I gave them 3 respected pit bull orgs that recommends that you do not take your pit bull to off-leash parks.
    March 5 at 8:24am · Edited · Like · 5
  • Lynne Smith Awesome Julie, you are being so matter-of-fact and calm, that's the only thing that may work with a person like her.
    March 5 at 8:26am · Like · 3
  • Lynne Smith Anthony, why not tackle the Sgt Stubby meme? Get her some links for that one.
    March 5 at 8:26am · Like · 3
  • Julia Lewis Very good comment you made, Lynne Smith.
    March 5 at 8:37am · Like · 3
  • Patricia Forbell So in other words kiss azz NO thanks I"ll pass. Besides those sociopaths will never love humans more then their ticking time bombs.
    March 5 at 12:05pm · Like · 4
  • Lynne Smith Appears to be a fake page anyway, Its okay, we've got a good batch of screen shots from the main players.
    March 5 at 12:08pm · Like · 4
  • Julie Wall Many of these pit advocates can't even accept what their own camp says about pit bulls. They lack the basic understanding dog breeding 101. They are breed blind and see dogs all as the same. Their denial runs deep that they can't tell the difference Bichon and pit bull.
    March 5 at 12:20pm · Like · 6
  • Jan Smith If it had been real, she wouldn't have only had gripper pics. She would have objected to stereotyping spaniels, retrievers, pointers, etc, too.
    March 5 at 2:38pm · Like · 3
  • Julia Lewis Good point! Why focus on pits when all those poor spaniels, retrievers, etc are being cruelly stereotyped?
    March 5 at 7:14pm · Like · 2
  • Lynne Smith Most pit people take a step back when you provide them info from pit bull groups, but not this one. Went right to the name calling and threats, said she was taking the dog anyway, and suddenly Noah, Cloey and Mary show up? Yeah, okay.
    March 5 at 10:17pm · Like · 2
  • Lynne Smith They have removed my ability to post. Why? Because I wasn't attacking them, I was offering facts from pro-pit sources, refuting their theories and defending myself. The only posts they want is people yelling at them because it fits their narrative. That's why we have to be calm when we address them - drives them nuts. Julie is doing a great job, it won't be long before she is called an idiot and banned too.
    Yesterday at 12:42am · Like · 5
  • Julia Lewis Lynne, your posts were great, very calm and informative. I was amazed that they took them down.
    Yesterday at 12:43am · Like · 2
  • Lynne Smith I'm not. It does not help their argument to leave them up. They say they are for freedom of speech - but only their speech. Everything they accuse us of - hatred, closed mindedness, ignorance - is what they are. We constantly try to talk to them. How often do we let them in here and what do they do? The insult us, name call, and then leave. It's all they know. And among themselves they love it, think its great. Give one of these posts or a link to one of their pages to someone who doesn't know about this issue, or to a government official. It really opens their eyes to the people they are protecting when they vote against BSL.
    Yesterday at 1:04am · Like · 2
  • Lesley Karen Luscombe I stuck one on them - the dead so far of 2015. Doubt it's still there. I think that page is owned by one of the usual culprits who own other angry, hateful, dumb pro-Pittie pages.
    Yesterday at 1:39am · Like
  • Lesley Karen Luscombe It's still there, amazingly. And as suspected, it IS the usual idiots posting on it. F.dog and Ohlsen for example. No point in posting; they are in denial about the deaths, even.
    Yesterday at 1:44am · Edited · Like · 1
  • Lynne Smith I think they know Lesley, they just don't care. They are directing less than educated people what to do, so any explanation they throw out seems to fly. The ring leaders understand everything we know, that's why they fight us so hard and that's why they shut us up. You can see them telling the owner of the page to ban me. Why? Because the truth is very dangerous to them.
    Yesterday at 2:02am · Like · 3
  • Lesley Karen Luscombe It's being used as a photo opportunity for maroons to post piccies of their Nanny dogs, and for kids who don't understand dogs per se and who are disillusioned with life in general, to post their sentiments and fuddled psychological alignments with the 'poor misunderstood Pitties'. Page is a douche, 100%.
    Yesterday at 2:05am · Like · 4
  • Heather Clemenceau High schoolers have so much to learn. I don't ever bother debating with minor children on Facebook. Teenagers don't yet know that it takes more than a movie (if one ever materializes) to be succesful in uni.
    6 hrs · Like
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)