Website represents new frontier in cyberbullying, experts say

It's new, it's exciting, it's quickly growing in popularity - it's also usually anonymous and potentially dangerous.

 

Formspring.me is a nine-month-old social networking website that allows users - nearly a third of whom are 17 or younger - to ask cruel, anonymous questions or make comments such as "Go kill yourself and make the world a better place," or "Is that you in your profile picture? It looks like a dead old man."

Experts acknowledge that while cyberbullying has been going on for a while now - the deaths this year of at least three teens have been linked to it - Formspring represents a new frontier.

"This site is essentially an anonymous way for teens to bully each other, and the danger in that is it, over time, becomes overwhelming," said Missy Wall, director of Teen Contact, a Dallas-based teen hotline. "Cyber bullying isn't new, but this sort of copy-paste teenager impulsiveness causes kids to make an account to try to be popular."

But Formspring officials say that the anonymous aspect is not necessarily harmful.

Sarahjane Sacchetti, director of communications for Formspring, said the site is giving people around the world "a new way to connect and express themselves." She said about 100 million questions are answered each month.

"All of our users want to have a public platform for them to feel comfortable asking their friends questions or even asking their boss a question without the ramifications," she said.

Alexis Montes De Oca, the father of a 16-year-old Formspring user in Grapevine, Texas, said that he is concerned about what can happen when the users are not known to each other.

"With all the abuse and harassing that can go on, it can pose a real danger," De Oca said. "Kids are not always aware of the implications of their opinions. Sometimes these opinions are not shared lightly, and they do not know the effect they can have on somebody else."

Formspring is not always anonymous, though, and it's not always used in a nefarious fashion. Company officials say it's intended to give its 12 million regular users - more than 50 million people visit the site each month - the opportunity to "do what comes naturally: ask questions and give answers about anything and everything."

And some prominent individuals and companies, such as Marvel Comics executive editor Tom Brevoort and Red Bull energy drink, use the site to promote their businesses and strengthen their relationships with their audiences and supporters.

Many North Texas teens who use Formspring say they initially joined the site to stay connected with friends. But the comments eventually became more grave and hostile.

"When I made the account, everyone was being nice," said Elizabeth Kirby, a 17-year-old rising senior at Grapevine High School. "But then I began to get messages telling me I was fat and that I liked food and I would respond, but in a classy way. It ended up getting to the point where I was horrified to check my Formspring because I would always get a mean question on it."

Kirby said her own self-confidence helps keep her from being devastated by the comments, but she knows that's not always the case for others.

"I have a relative amount of confidence, so I am able to ignore it, but people like my sister are crushed when people say those things," Kirby said. "The other day, someone called her an ugly, fat elephant on Facebook. She felt terrible."

Comments of that type are not surprising to cyberbullying experts, who say that online aggression can begin as young as 7 years old.

"The things that kids say to each other are beyond cruel," said Parry Aftab, founder of StopCyberbullying.org in Newark, N.J. "Kids actually get together in groups and decide which phrases would be the most hurtful to their intended victim. I've seen everything from 'You're sleeping with your sister' to 'Your mom wanted to abort you' and of course, 'You're fat, ugly, stupid, etc.' "

Kirby said she ended up blocking anonymous questions on her account to avoid harassment. Although many Formspring users accept anonymous questions, they have the option of blocking those when they set up their accounts. They can also block specific people or delete unwanted questions before they are made public.

Austin Keeler, 18, a recent graduate of St. Mark's School of Texas, said he is aware of the negative comments on Formspring, but he plans to continue using the site because it adds to his social networking experience.

"Obviously there are some bad things, but for the most part, it is good, addictive fun," Keeler said. "I know a lot of people who have a lot of bad things out there, but for the most part, the people who read it know those things aren't true. They are just wild accusations.

"Still, if push comes to shove, you can just delete your account."
Sacchetti hopes it won't come to that for most Form-spring users. She said the company will work with law enforcement and has the ability to trace a user's IP address if comments become too threatening or if a legal issue arises.

"We also have stricter policies for 13- to 17-year-olds," Sacchetti said. "For them, we have more private logins and settings for anonymity, where only logged-in users can ask anonymous questions."

Teenagers' Formspring accounts are automatically given "protected" status, which prevents them from being viewed or found by search engines. And, Sacchetti said, youngsters must grant access to users they want to share content with.

But any teenager can override those restrictions by selecting other readily available profile settings - and many often do.

The cyberbullying problem - and how to rectify it - may not be limited to young people, though. Anne Collier, co-director of ConnectSafely.org, said that while schools can play a large part in educating children about Internet safety, parents have a more significant role.

"We can't blame it all on children," said Collier, whose Web-based forum studies the impact of social websites. "If we as adults slander each other openly, it is learned behavior. This is a community effort. We have to be role models for our children."

Andrea Lair-Kirby, Elizabeth's mother, agreed and added that parents should know as much as possible about how their children are using the Internet and how that use is affecting them.

"Talk to your child and make them understand what they are doing," Lair-Kirby said. "Parents are often thinking, 'Well, not my child,' thinking it won't happen to them or that their kids aren't doing it. But they need to know it can happen and how to deal with it by talking to your child."

By Daniela Bermea and Rebecca Ryan, The Dallas Morning News 
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Superheroes 'poor role models for boys'

 

There are too many 'macho' images, the researchers say

 

Modern-day superheroes promote a macho, violent stereotype for young boys, according to a US psychologist's study.

They differ greatly from superheroes of yesterday, who had a more vulnerable side, an American Psychological Association meeting was told.

The only alternative male role model in modern media was the "slacker" who shirked responsibility, the study said.

Professor Sharon Lamb surveyed 674 boys aged four to 18 to find out what they read and watched on TV and in films.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity”

End Quote Professor Sharon Lamb Study leader

 

With her team at the University of Massachusetts, she then analysed the types of male role models the boys were exposed to.

It showed two main types of man - the aggressive superhero or the slacker who does not even try.
"There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday," said Professor Lamb.

"Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity.

"When not in superhero costume, these men exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns."

Boys could look up to and learn from comic book heroes of the past because outside of their costumes, they were "real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities".

She said the other option for boys was to be a slacker.
"Slackers are funny, but slackers are not what boys should strive to be; slackers don't like school and they shirk responsibility.

"We wonder if the messages boys get about saving face through glorified slacking could be affecting their performance in school."

In a second presentation, Dr Carlos Santos, from Arizona State University, examined 426 middle school boys' ability to resist being emotionally stoic, autonomous and physically tough - stereotyped images of masculinity.

He found that being able to resist macho images - especially aggression and autonomy - declines as boys transition into adolescence and this decline puts their mental health at risk.

"Helping boys resist these behaviours early on seems to be a critical step toward improving their health and the quality of their social relationships."

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U.S. show of force in Asian waters a threat to China: magazine

The U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington leaves for joint naval and air drills with South Korea at a naval port in Busan, South Korea, July 25, 2010. South Korea and the United States on Sunday began their large-scale joint military drills off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula as scheduled. (Xinhua/Yonhap)

BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Recent and planned dangerous moves of the United States in Northeast and Southeast Asia are manifestation of Washington's Cold War mentality and pose a threat to the security of China and the whole region, said the Globe magazine in a commentary.


The United States and South Korea has recently held military exercises in the Sea of Japan. The Pentagon announced that the two countries will also hold new war games in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea. Furthermore, Washington has also indicated that it will stick its nose into the South China Sea, claiming that territorial disputes in the region has a bearing on U.S. national interests.

The U.S.-South Korean joint exercises at the end of July were no ordinary war games, said the signed article by Ju Wen. They were unprecedented in the past three decades both in terms of scale and weaponry. The resources involved were said to be enough for launching a full-scale war, it said.

With the participation of 8,000 troops, the games involved aircraft carrier USS George Washington and some other 20 warships as well as about 200 aircraft, including cutting-edge F-22 fighters.

The U.S. sabre-rattling raised the ire and drew protests from countries in the region. But Washington refused to change course and seemed determined to even expand the scope of its war games in Asian waters, said the magazine.

Pentagon said last week that U.S. and South Korean militaries were planning a new series of exercises, to be conducted in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea simultaneously in following weeks. Moreover, the Pentagon said there would be more joint exercises that could last months.

While flexing muscles in the waters of Northeast Asia, Washington also showed a growing interest in the South China Sea and tried to come between China and her neighbors, said the magazine.

In a July speech in Hanoi, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed the United States takes as a "national interest" in resolving South China Sea disputes.

She also told Vietnamese leaders that Washington hopes to upgrade its ties with Hanoi to a new level and sees its relationship with Vietnam "part of strategy aimed at enhancing American engagement in Asia and in particular Southeast Asia."

The United States proposed a nuclear cooperation deal with Vietnam and most recently, conducted controversial joint naval training exercises in the South China Sea, involving USS John S. McCain and USS George Washington.

Washington said its recent military maneuvers in Asian waters were for peaceful purposes. But that contradicts the facts, said the magazine.

The U.S.-South Korean war games were said to be aimed at preventing a repeat of incidents like the sinking of South Korea's Cheonan warship and maintaining peace of the Korean Peninsula. However, the war games were more than enough to intimidate the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said the magazine. They were actually a show of force against China, it said.

USS George Washington, which is said to be involved in the upcoming war games in the Yellow Sea, has a reconnaissance range that covers the entire North China region, thus posing a direct military threat to China, said the magazine.

The real intention of the U.S. maneuvers in the waters of Northeast Asia, the commentary said, is to consolidate the U.S.-South Korea and U.S.-Japan military alliance and boost U.S. military presence in the region, and therefore intimidate and contain China.

Washington's intention to contain China becomes clearer as it tries to interfere in the South China Sea disputes and strengthen its military presence in Southeast Asia, said the magazine.

To a larger extent, the U.S. moves reflect the Obama administration's ambition to return to Asia to seek dominance of regional affairs.

Barack Obama claimed in Tokyo last year that he was the first U.S. president with an "Asia-Pacific orientation." Clinton said in Hawaii early this year that the future of America is closely linked to that of the Asia Pacific and that the future of the Asia Pacific depends on the United States.

Unfortunately, Washington's desire to return to Asia does not mean that it will bring in investments or technology, which is much needed to promote the region's prosperity. Instead, the objective is to reinforce its dominance in the Asia Pacific, said the magazine.

In addition to more troops in Afghanistan, the U.S. military is transforming Guam into its new strategic strike center that could cover large areas of the Asia Pacific. It redeployed 60 percent of its nuclear submarine fleet to the Pacific and has been consolidating its bases in Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. The recent war games demonstrated an intention to expand the sphere of U.S. military influence into the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea, said the magazine.

Although war games are not actual wars, the clattering of U.S. war machine in Asian waters remind people in the region of the notorious "gunboat policy" of Western powers in the colonial era.

The unpleasant noise naturally leads to regional tension and risks military confrontation, said the magazine.
In today's world, whose theme is multipolarization, globalization and common development, no country or region can succeed in seeking global dominance through military power. The Iraq and Afghan wars serve as good examples, it said.

Both the United States and China are important countries in the world. They are tasked to safeguard world peace. Peaceful coexistence, mutual benefit and common prosperity are therefore the only choice for the two countries and peoples, said the magazine.

China lags far behind the United States in terms of overall economic and military powers, and has neither the intention nor capability to threaten the United States, it said.

Instead of posing any threat, China's rapid development is benefitting the United States. China's growing economic strength has helped the United States recover from the latest financial crisis.

Washington should discard its Cold War mentality and gunboat policy, and return peace to the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea, said the magazine.  

By Editor: Fang Yang

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