When things go wrong we naturally try to find the cause. When people do bad things we often look for somewhere to lay the blame. The advances in technology over the past 5-10 years and the worldwide phenomenon of social networking have certainly received their share of blame for the roles they have played in cyber-bullying incidents.
I have always subscribed to the notion that technology is neutral - it is neither good or bad. How people 'choose' to use the available technologies is a different story. Parents and schools are very deliberate in their efforts to teach right from wrong and both are well aware that at some stage you have to let children exercise what they have been taught in real-life contexts.
I was delighted to read the following article and hear how some students in South Korea have been using their technology to enact positive change:
A Sunshine Policy to Combat Cyberbullies
I have seen far more positive uses of technology than I have negative - it is a shame that our natural instinct seems to be to focus on the negative.
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