Indeed, this is becoming a very serious and potentially deadly issue.  In 2006, the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier made headlines since she had been the victim of cyberbullying on MySpace.  The perpetrator ended up being an adult neighbor who was pretending to be a teenage boy.

On the flipside, students were suspended for bullying their principal through Facebook by calling him a “Grinch of School Spirit” and making sexually explicit, derogatory comments about him. 

The proposed legislation was actually inspired by Megan and has been dubbed the “Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act.”  Since people from all walks of life can now be hurt electronically (often anonymously), this legislation seems like a good idea, but the committee members felt that it could lead to a breach of free speech.

The bill aimed to specify “serious, repeated hostile communications made with the intent to harm” and one would think that this falls under the category of harassment, which is not permitted, regardless of one’s right to express themselves freely.

Without any legislation in place, the rules are very murky on this issue, which makes it hard to hold anyone accountable for their actions and how they might be harming someone else.

Since no action was taken on the proposed bill, the future of cyberbullying remains in question. 

image: Flickr Creative Commons

Apparently, businesses are looking at what kids are saying about a variety of things including movies, music and video games in order to come up with better marketing strategies.

This is especially scary since this software puts children’s personal information at risk.  Truly, the potential threat of software like this is huge. 

The company has defended themselves saying that they do not record the children’s names and addresses although they do know their ages. 

The software developer, EchoMetrix Inc. says that parent’s can opt out of having their children’s data shared by checking off a box, but it’s unclear how obvious this option is. 

For more information about this story and to learn more about the companies that do not share chat messages, click here.

image: Michal Zacharzewski, SXC