Be Cyber Smart and supported or introduce Mandatory ID for any cyber user & bully pays

Voterland in this matter I think you are wrong.
We have history of talking about our true IDs here.
Not a lot about Bullying, but some.
I fell for the not revealing your true name is cowardice rubbish.
And suffered for it twice.
I advised a poster against unmasking,and was ignored, but she was harassed and badly.
My full name, address, even more,is known to GY.
But for century's writers have written under other names, for sound reasons, here at least bully's do not survive.
Many have been hurt by unneeded unmasking or saying too much on say face book.
Privacy matter even more in cieber space in my view.
Consider this, would you welcome every poster in to your home, or want them to know its address?

Cyber bullying can be devastating for some, as can any form of bullying. I don't though believe that taking anonymity away from on line interactions would reduce much of it, it's more likely that would be just more tools for the bullies to use against others.

My own impression is that bullies are often the first to complain of being bullied, it's one of the tactics used to enlist others to join in.

There may be ways to make such idea's work but given how poorly we do at making other safety nets work I have serious doubts the likelihood of such ways being implemented successfully.

I can recall threats of legal action being used regularly by a couple of former posters on this forum to try and silence other posters. Not on the basis of a credible case but in my view on the basis that many people just don't have the resources to defend themselves against such a battle and on line interactions just are not worth the risk.

I've seen plenty of other accusations of bullying by some who were in my view very prone to bullying behaviour, claims of bullying appeared to be a tactic to try and enlist support to attack someone with a dissenting view.

So while I really feel for those genuinely suffering from cyber bullying I suspect that the cure would be far worse than the cause.

R0bert

I don't understand why people don't block those that annoy them? Why tolerate people being [expletive] online when it's SO easy to remove them from your consciousness.

I'd have to agree with StG. These people who seek to bully or intimdate others through the medium of the internet, delete,and block
'em for good. Though, I suppose when you're a fragile young teen, easy said than done.

Further, I'd also have to agree with BELLY when he says any form of identifying process, should not be considered for the many reasons he stated herein. Least of all, many folk would not feel comfortable expressing their true beliefs and views if their true identity was available to all and sundry.

The ID which would help eliminate cyber bullying would not be publicly available any more than our health or drivers licence are. It would be on a government file accessible only to Police or internet crime investigators. Most of our personal details are already on government files so this would be no significant addition. Cyber bullying does not just come from putting too much on Facebook etc. It can come from work enemies who have a person's email and can drive a person to suicide. No privacy would be compromised more than it already is by what we suggest.

Two points. It is not easy to stop bullies by blocking them. Changing emails and phone numbers can sometimes be very difficult in terms of notifying all contacts.
Secondly if people are not comfortable in being identified for what they say, there is a fair chance they should not be saying it. People should stand up and identify themselves to be respected. Few people respect those who remain anonymous.
In dealing with MPs to influence government we have , over 25 years never found anyone harrassed or persecuted. All give their names to the politicians and that is respected. Governments take notice of those who are open, ignore those who hid behind anonymity.
However, we are not here talking about anyone publicly identifying themselves except for a police or crime investigation to nail the bully.

"Secondly if people are not comfortable in being identified for what they say, there is a fair chance they should not be saying it. People should stand up and identify themselves to be respected. "

That depends on how much you trust those with differing views to behave ethically and how much power they have. For some it may mean a problem in future careers if views expressed online are readily traceable by future employers.

For others dealing with government agencies in areas such as Family Law and Child Support it could make life even more difficult.

I suspect that if the government really wants to know who I am it would be relatively easy for them to track me down, at the same time I doubt that those details are currently stored in a commonly accessible database somewhere linked to a variety of departments to be checked by a simple lookup against my real world details.

There will probably be cutbacks at my work (a GOC) in the next few years while at the same time CSA requires me to at least maintain my level of income, not sure I want to have to be quiet on a range of topics in case something I say here moves me up someone's list for who could go.

Who would pay for your system? Would it be user pays? Easy to see that becoming yet another revenue stream.

We don't need more government monitoring and intrusion, governments have a habit of taking any excuse to intrude on freedom farther than is justified by the original reason.

R0bert