Bullying can take many forms, and since the evolution of the web, it has even become a problem online, with many bullying campaigns being fought through social networks and beyond.

We’ve all seen it happen, and some of us may even have been unfortunate enough to have experienced it ourselves one or more times in our youth.

For some of the global population, the horror can even continue into the stretch of taxpaying careerdom.

Emotionally Damaging

Bullying, be it the punches, the slaps in the face, the wedgies, the name-calling, the locker-room antagonism, all of it is hurtful and emotionally damaging.

All of it falls under that deeply impactful term, one that can remain clearly fixed in one’s memory for a rather long time, even well after the physical abuse and vehement rhetoric has passed. 

And now, with many schoolyard antics being very widely replaced by far more technologically convenient alternatives like email, text messaging, and online social networking, the problems associated with adolescent thuggery have quite easily and very rapidly spread to many corners of the lives of young people. 

In some cases, even adults are getting “brow-beaten” by a steady onslaught of hate-laced digital bits.

Beatbullying YouTube Channel

So when I ready today a piece of news explaining how some engineers at YouTube had taken it upon themselves to assemble a channel with the exclusive purpose of helping average individuals find solutions to and respite from attacks by cyber bullies , I figured, “Alright, sounds pretty logical.” 

And then I wondered, “How long ‘til the effort gets compromised, and notice of adverse and negatively unintentional effects begin to crop up?” To which I more or less concluded: “Better to do something than nothing.”

Okay, I’ll be honest. When I first read of the creation of this YouTube channel, dubbed ‘Beatbullying’, what I really thought, “this isn’t going to work.” 

A Coalition Of Video Postings

An anti-bully coalition of video postings, while, ideally speaking, could be a force for good, naturally must carry a great deal of baggage. And baggage, though potentially valuable to the right set of eyes and ears, isn’t something one would be wise to publicly disclose.

Sure, doing so may in some way be “honorable”, or whatever you wish to call it. But in a venue as open as YouTube, the ideal is simply nonexistent.

In a closed, monitored setting, perhaps an online network specially assembled to fight cyber-bullying could be a benefit and an effective mechanism against troubles dealt down the line. 

But YouTube isn’t closed. (Nor should it be; thus we have something of a conundrum.) And though it is in fact monitored in a very basic and vague way, sensitive topics such as this require added attention. Attention that YouTube likely cannot provide.

Furthermore, one could argue that such efforts to coddle the “sensitive” topic of bullying and the damage it inflicts to youth around the world is nonsensical anyway.

And that the best way to cut the number of attacks is to instill confidence in victims by way of a “tough-love” tactic, instructing them as to the general ignorance of the perpetrators of physical or verbal violence, and offering options on how best to exploit such weaknesses to put a stop to tormentors’ actions.

Unfortunately, such lessons are effectively nullified in this day and age. Why? They don’t account for the anonymity afforded through new technologies that are now in the hands of millions of young people around the globe. 

Bullying From Remote Locations

Bullies are now very capable of offering unending abuse from the safety of remote locations, and only through the discovery of the identities of electronic devices can authorities really begin to put a meaningful stop to such shenanigans.

Mind you, such “data mining” runs into numerous gray legal barriers, the lawful/unlawful circumvention of which is still very much a controversial issue.

All in all, we now have on our hands a major rats nest to deal with, and, frankly, if one is to take a mere glance at the issue of cyber-bullying today, one can exhausted view YouTube’s effort to combat the problem as something “worth trying”, so to speak. 

That the problem of cyber-bullying is so big, that something YouTube puts together might just, by some stretch of the imagination, work as a some sort of miracle drug.

And if the establishment of the new Beatbullying YouTube channel happens to create a positive impact, for whatever reason, so be it, right?

What do you think of this new development? Is it good? Bad? Will it turn ugly? Let us know how you feel. Offer your comments below.

Paul Glazowski is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com

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