A teen stabbing in Vancouver has caused a flurry of activity on Facebook, which has led the police to appeal for calm. The reason has been angry comments left on the memorial groups set up on Facebook for the dead 13-year old Chrisna Poeung.
While his friends were reluctant to talk to the press, they poured out their grief and anger online. Elementary schools have gone as far as blocking access to Facebook.
I was interviewed for an article on this issue for the Vancouver Sun. It struck me as hardly surprising that friends of the victim would turn to a social networking site to come together and express their grief. Sites like Facebook, with its 23 million users, are simply part of the world of youth today. The same thing happened on Facebook following the Virginia Tech shootings.
But I also wonder if the teens writing on Facebook saw this as their own private space online. But as we saw the aftermath of Virginia Tech, reporters were quick to log on and trawl the memorial spaces for comments and contacts. All you need to join Facebook is an e-mail address.
The implicit threats of retaliation in some comments should also be expected. The internet can be used as a platform for hasty, aggressive words. In a way, there is a different set of cultural norms online which means that people feel more comfortable with behaving in a way that would be unacceptable face to face.
Think of all those examples of e-mails composed in the heat of the moment which the senders later regretted. The internet offers a way of attacking someone verbally which is impersonal and you can hide behind your username or anonymity. In these circumstances, there is a lack of accountability for your actions.
Much of this online activity, too, will be taking place outside of parental supervision. Chances are the teens know more about the internet and computers than their mother or father. Lacking the basic skills, parents may simply be unaware of what their child is doing online.
The answer is not to ban teens from using the net. As one Vancouver teacher put it: “Websites are pervasive in our community and our world today, but it’s how we coach our children to respond to what they see that is more critical.”
This incident underlines the key role that the internet and other digital technologies play in the lives of young people. They live in a world of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and others. As with every technology, this offers both challenges and an opportunities. What we cannot do is close our eyes and hope they will go away.
PDF