Comments on: Bebo Blamed for 13 Year Old’s Suicide

By: Lisa Collins

Lisa Collins — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:33:46 +0000

Bebo DO have some responsibilty to bear here I’m afraid. I have a friend who is a teacher who was alerted to a Bebo group basically verbally abusing her with 110 members. Working in a school of 2000 pupils knowing that every 20th pupil shares an abusive sentiment about you would unnerve any teacher. The problem with Bebo is that it relies on people actually reporting the abuse and reporting is profile based -you can’t report a group as a whole -if no one reports then nothing is done about it. This group summary (which was searchable by any member of the public not just group members) included a photograph of the teacher and clearly identified the individual in the summary wording along with a very nasty, offensive description. This group existed for 4 months + without any abuse reporting. I was suprised by Bebo’s cool respond that the people posting has simply had their profiles deleted but no other security checking measures were in place. The group summary wording clearly indenitified a particular person and included the words “child molester” and this was not independantly indentified by Bebo. Very poor control and no sentiment of apology by Bebo despite several letters of correspondance.

By: Junkyard Willie

Junkyard Willie — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:10:37 +0000

If we’re pointing fingers, why not at the parent? If a kid self-destructs over getting flamed on the Internet, someone’s parenting has seriously failed. Either he was mentally ill and his parents failed to properly medicate him, or he wasn’t and there was a serious lack of communication and supervision going on in that household. Note that she only checked up on his online activities *after* his death.

Parents are responsible for all aspects of their children’s well-being, to include online activity. Teenagers especially can be emotionally volatile, and parental involvement in their lives is crucial. Of course, many teens shun parental involvement because the parents fail to build a good relationship when they’re younger.

I guess it’s a lot easier just to say “here’s a computer, now be quiet;” or “hey he hasn’t even left the house, nothing for me to worry about.”

There was plenty of negligence surrounding Sam Leeson’s death, and very little (if any) of it was on Bebo’s part.

By: Steven

Steven — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:49:54 +0000

It’s a terrible situation. When AOL bought Bebo I poked around in their developer - apps section and they seemed to make a point of displaying my IP at one point on the pages. Presented in the context of a your not anonymous message. I know they’ve put in some effort there but I can’t find it now. If those measures were more bluster than community tool I’d say Bebo has trouble and should be held responsible in some measure.

By: Cyber Bullying On Bebo Blamed For Boys Death

Cyber Bullying On Bebo Blamed For Boys Death — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:24:20 +0000

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By: Allan

Allan — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:04:02 +0000

Obviously personal responsibility is always involved in these cases, but it seems to be the way of the world these days that SOMEONE has to be blamed.

2007 was a bad year for our kids on social networking sites, and especially Bebo, because of bullying.

We took action as parents and worked with their high school, and in another local case police were called in.

Two of the hardest things to achieve were convincing the parents of other kids that their offspring could do this, and then convincing our own not to respond in kind.

This is the crux of the matter - parental responsibility!

Thanks for a great post!

Cheers!