MEP condemns cyber bullying on social media

A YOUNG woman filmed appearing drunk and boasting about her father’s alleged well-paying job, has found an unusual defender in MEP for Clare, Jim Higgins. Mr Higgins expressed his concern about the welfare of the girl who features in the footage, which went viral on social media sites over the last week. He branded the response to the video as “cyber bullying” and called for an end to it.
“It’s been a real online hit with various euphoric comments praising the hilarity of the video. This is cyber bullying and given the recent cyber-bullying-related suicides I, personally, have had enough. This isn’t a case of ‘teaching her some manners’ or ‘taking her down a peg or two’ as many of the online comments suggest, this video singles out a young girl and uses the internet as a machine for hatred against her,” Mr Higgins stated.
“The internet is a fast-moving and remorseless beast. The girl is clearly identifiable and this is something that both she and her family will have to live with for the rest of their lives. What kind of a person starts filming a drunk girl in a chipper after a night out?  We have no idea how this incident will affect this girl psychologically, socially or in her future career. Unlike politicians or other public figures, this girl is not trained to deal with such abuse. She did not choose a career, which would expose her to public animosity – she just chose the wrong chipper,” he went on.
“Once started, it is near impossible to stop the dissemination of such a video or the Facebook backlash. The beauty of sites such as Youtube is that anyone can contribute to the site and the result is predominately very positive, however, we need to examine traceability of uploaded videos,” he added.
Mr Higgins called for legislation in the area of online traceability to be examined.
“I think we need to ask ourselves what place we want ‘smart technology’ to have in our society. Do we want to live in a society where private people cannot speak without fear of being recorded? Do we think it is acceptable to upload videos of drunk people without their consent? Legislation regarding the traceability of such videos needs to be examined but above all, we need to deal with the issue of bullying in all forms. I have contacted Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn requesting that a national anti-bullying campaign be implemented immediately at secondary school level and for special attention to be given to cyber bullying,” he concluded.