Editorial: No time for Facebook bullies

Being bullied on Facebook, or any other form of social media, can have disastrous consequences for young people.

Those who post comments degrading or belittling other teenagers may think they are doing it for a laugh or as payback for something said or done by the victim at school but the authors of such insults generally do not have the maturity to envisage how such postings can spiral out of control.

I know one teenage girl who felt compelled to switch high schools after just one term in Year 9. A schoolyard disagreement went ballistic on Facebook and via text, gathering a vicious momentum that propelled events way beyond the initial spat. Friends turned on the girl by posting cutting remarks and isolating her to the point where what should have been her exciting first term at high school became a miserable experience.

She switched schools and her life came right again but this is not always the outcome for teenagers who can be devastated by being singled out and picked on via social media.

The most dire outcome of such behaviour does not have to be spelt out. It has cost the lives of vulnerable teens in New Zealand and elsewhere.

And so we would urge the young and doubtlessly naive authors of the Hawke's Bay "Confessions" pages on Facebook to have a quick and radical rethink about their activities.

A lot of people have seen the comments posted on Taradale Confessions (now taken down) and its sister sites and there is little doubt as to the intent. The sites are riven with degrading comments, often of an explicit nature, about other teenagers, who are named.

They may have been posted as a misguided joke but there will almost certainly be some victims who are not laughing.

Police and mental health professionals have condemned the sites, saying such postings can have severe consequences for both victims and perpetrators.

The authors of the Hawke's Bay sites have found little support online, judging from comments at hbtoday.co.nz

Kayla Collingwood posted: "A few days ago some of them on the Taradale page were talking about their dope habits, and I warned them that the police and others could see ... Guess they will know now that I wasn't just saying that for no reason."

Mozziemum, of Melbourne, wrote: "I definitely think these kids should be prosecuted ... It's happening all around the world and kids need to learn that they can not abuse social networks. They're a means of communication not digital bullying."

Vicky Smith, of Regents Park, was more direct: "Kick their bloody arses".