Lara Burns- Another victim to cyber-bullying
Lara Burns, 12 years of age, from Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland has been rumored online to be another victim of Cyber-Bullying according the Facebook Memorial Page setup in her memory.
Lara Burns Should not be another victim to Cyber-Bullying
This is far too soon and should not be another death in this way.Apparently another cyber bully victim. This is too much and I cannot believe this has happened again so soon after Ciara Pugsley and Erin Gallagher. She is even being referred to as another Amanda Todd. On the page I have come across already so many instances of bullying again from people who left comments on different parts.
Recently there have been reports to suggest bullies are sometimes only slagging (as its part of being Irish) which continues as a snowball effect until there is no turning back.
Fact is, Lara is 1 too many after Erin Gallagher and Ciara Pugsley.
Ciara Pugsley with her brother Daniel
Feedback I was getting from the children in the 10-12 age group has been scary this year. I had one particular 10 yr old who had her profile on Facebook set to 42 yrs old, as that was her mothers age. Another girl, stopped to speak to a stranger on the street who asked her facebook password. When I asked them if they would be my friend, 90% of said they would only after 5 minutes of addressing them. Statistics online are outdated and the feeling I am getting on the ground, is there is less awareness than what the country think our children have.
If you like any info for parents/children, check my site http://www.PcClean.ie/InternetSafety
And soon to be launched website http://www.CyberSafetyAdvice.com
Other resources I would direct people to is,
Webwise.ie
Cybertiponline.org
Hotline.ie
Reachout.com
We are not the only country that are having issues with Cyber bullying at the moment. Australia are having worrying amounts of issues with teenagers also. In fact, I had a call from a community co-ordinator in Melbourne, contact me ask what we are doing over here to curb it and the longer we spoke the more we discovered, both our countries are in the same position. We not doing enough to educate our children and parents of safety online.
Update 13-12-12
Another tragedy in Donegal when Erin’s sister Shannon Gallagher took her own life only 6 weeks after Erin’s passing. She was thought of being talking a lot of how she missed her sister and then disappeared whilst wrapping christmas presents for her family. This is not a case of cyber-bullying, but a loss of her sister had deeply effected her. Shannon Gallagher was only 16 years of age and had been commenting on Facebook how she missed her sister.
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