Punished for online bullying

After having called another girl a “whore” in an online chat room, a 17-year-old girl in Eastern Norway was convicted of having disturbed the peace of another. The court considered that the message could be classed as public harassment and bullying and should, therefore, not be protected under “freedom of expression”. The girl was ordered to pay a fine of NOK 4500. “We always find out who is behind this kind of harassment. People think they are anonymous online, but you always leave behind electronic tracks”, the owner of the website said.

Source: digi.no

Fights on video

A fight is in full swing in the school yard. Two students are letting each other have it, egged on by the other students. Gradually, more and more students come to watch. Many are holding their mobiles up in the air. The fight is being filmed. The videos are uploaded onto YouTube. Every day hundreds of thousands new videos are uploaded onto YouTube. Several show Norwegian students involved in fights. YouTube receives more than 250 million hits a month and videos like these are watched by thousands of viewers. It is illegal to post videos online without the consent of those involved.

Source: Dagbladet

Threatening video meant as joke

Kjenn secondary school in Lørenskog in Norway was closed immedeately when a threatening video was discovered on YouTube. The video contained threats of a school massacre, and death threats were made against six teachers.

The Norwegain National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) tracked the IP-address to a 15 year old student at the school. He immedeately confessed to making and publishing the video. The boy said in court that he had been shocked when he discovered the magnitude of his actions. He had meant it as a joke.

Source: Aftenposten

Hate site about Pop Idol participant

When the Pop Idol participant came home from the contest, she discovered that two classmates had created an online hate site about her. Among other things, visitors were encouraged to post very condescending and unfavorable comments about the Pop Idol participant.

“The comments were just unbelievable. What’s more, the website included a chat page where people could discuss everything about me. Such things are hurtful to read and completely impossible to defend yourself against. But the worst thing was that it was started by people from my own school”, says the 18-year-old, who in hindsight regrets not reporting the incident to the police. The head teacher at the school reinforces the fact that bullying is completely unacceptable. The website was removed, and the boys responsible were punished by having their conduct grades lowered.

Source: Bergens Tidende

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