YouTube has set up an anti-bullying channel, the BBC reports. The channel "aims to revolutionise how young people access information on how to avoid being bullied and importantly on how to avoid being the person who does the intimidating." Here's YouTube's channel (see also "What does cyberbullying look like?"). It comes at a good time, as the story of a US cyberbullying incident that ended in a young teen's suicide (see NetFamilyNews last week) has been picked up by news media in multiple countries (see these in Google News search). National-level coverage in the US started later last week. ABC News's Good Morning America and NBC's Today Show interviewed the girl's parents, saying local police are concerned about vigilantism against the family that allegedly created the profile of a fictional boy which was reportedly central to the story. Calls for a regulatory response to this case reflect a misunderstanding of how social networking works, but national-level awareness, even indignation (not vigilantism), is an important step toward this society's working toward nationwide public education about bullying on any digital device.
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NetFamilyNews – by Anne Collier
- Powerful lessons for preventing bullying & cyberbullying
- Mobile rules in the US now too
- What are we really seeing in the social media fishbowl?
- Spoiler alert: Kid loves teaching Twitter to Dad
- At the IGF: Youth participation = greater youth e-safety
- Enabling peer protection: Knowledge is empowerment
- Millennials’ changing social media use: Survey
- Heard of Twitch? Amazon has!
Analysis & News – by Larry Magid
- High school kids show strong support for First Amendment
- UN bringing child rights into the digital age
- IGF attendees complain about censorship in Turkey while some advocate it for youth
- Internet Governance Forum topics include human rights, network neutrality and child protection
- Protecting children online needs to allow for their right to free speech
- It’s time for schools to upgrade both technology and pedagogy
- Why Google (and Facebook) should admit kids under 13
- As Ferguson struggles, Georgia teens create app to rate police departments