On Cyberbullying

In my internet law class we are currently discussing the issue of cyberbullying, and reading "Bullying Beyond the Classroom". I can't help feeling like this is something that is slowly fading away, not coming in to prominence. Cyberbullying put simply is bullying through electronic means- IE text message, IM, chatroom, etc. Here's my problem with calling this a growing concern: the primary venue's for cyberbullying are gradually ceasing to matter. According to the text the vast majority of this behavior is carried out through instant message- follow by email and chatrooms. IM is dead. Maybe not by numbers, but by popular opinion. There are 2 ways I chat with people online today- Facebook chat and Skype. The last time I fired up AIM was summer 2006. Sure, some people still use this old service, but many have moved to Facebook chat. Email, while it remains integral part of day-to-day life, is not the social messaging medium it was just a short time ago. Today, Facebook messages are much more widely used for the communication email would have been used for 5 years ago. Invitations to events, personal questions, notes, and more are sent through that service rather than traditional email. As for chatrooms? They are so irrelevant now that it isn't worth even discussing.

The point of this is that the outlets for cyberbullying are no longer as relevant or important as they recently were. Myspace is dying, and that network was much better at allowing anonymous hateful remarks than Facebook. Today everyone is using that network, and name accountability is much bigger than it was on Myspace. Very little bullying appears to occur, since there are few ways to hide your name. Also, a common factor of cyberbullying is that it is done privately, even something said privately on Facebook could easily be posted publicly and the bully could be shamed.

What I would stress is that in my opinion, anonymity is integral to cyberbullying. Without that factor, its prevalence will (and is appearing to) decline greatly. If you would be so kind, please comment if you have experienced cyberbullying, whether or not it was on Facebook.