Response: Solutions to Cyber-Bullying

It's obvious that cyber bullying has become a huge problem in today's society.  Definite action needs to be taken, but the obvious question is what?  Punishing the bullies makes sense but hasn't been effective in containing the problem, sheltering kids from being online and keeping them blind from the problem won't be effective in the long term, and those are really the only two actions that have taken place to solve the problem.  There has to be another idea out there, something that will be effective in containing and eventually resolving this issue.

The main response, which has not really been effective, is to punish the bullies.  But it's been shown that these bullies possess some sort of mental issue and that is why punishment will not stop them from bullying. A better option would be to use counseling and testing to figure out what is causing this person to bully and try to address the situation accordingly.  I feel like you would have a better chance of preventing future bullying issues with psychology instead of punishment.

Another proposed solution has been to keep teenagers off the internet completely.  This responsibility would obviously lie with the parent or guardian of the teenager.  While doing this may prevent issues in the short term, it doesn't provide much protection for the teenager once they become old enough to think and act or themselves and/or rebel against their parent or guardian.  Blinding the kids from reality is definitely not the best move.

In my opinion, the best course of action is one that has already started, and that is to simply raise awareness of the issue and what is does both physically and psychologically to the victims.  More stories like Amanda Todd's will unfortunately still have to be told but it's definitely a start.  This combined with psychological inquiries about the bullies I think make a great combination to what will hopefully be the eventual resolution of this issue.

Response to Social Media Bill of Rights

Reading Lori Andrews' argument in favor of a "social media bill of rights" is a very interesting, thought provoking read.  The thought that employees would not be able to access any social networking page that you may have is something that's never really crossed my mind before.  I've always just assumed employer checks of social media pages was the status quo and something everyone should take into consideration when looking for a job.

I think it's interesting that this is being considered in other countries, specifically Germany.  I think that if this passes in Germany other countries will start to follow suit.  In this case I believe it would be inevitable that the United States would pass a similar law.  As always, there would be a huge public conversation in the media, people would speak out both for and against it.  It would give the news networks material to work with for a while.

While I don't think employers getting access to a potential employee's social media page is a horrible thing, Andrews' proposal is extremely thought provoking.  If an employer wasn't able to see your online profile and just judged you based on your application and interview, you may be more or less likely to get the job than if the employer was able to see the profile.  Andrews' argument that it's unfair for a job to deny you based on what they see in your social media is something I've never really considered.

With that being said, I'm still in favor of employers being able to look at a potential employee's social media.  With the security features that Facebook and Twitter have in terms of who gets to see your profile you should be able to make your profile "passable".  Also, if you're looking for a job you should definitely be responsible enough to limit the amount of incriminating pictures and posts on your social media.  This, to me, is the same as staying away from marijuana if you're looking for a job.  You should be just as aware of the fact that you'll be drug tested as the fact that your social media pages will be looked at.