Sadism On the Internet

No, it is not those kinky pornographic sites of which I speak. There appears, rearing its ugly head, a different trend: that of the sadistic discussion forum administration.

In my nightmare, this would be a forum which promotes itself as a fun and friendly site, while having those in charge who enjoy sabotaging their own rating system and users. The forum would promote itself as an international one but in truth would display daily derision towards other religions and cultures.

Imagine a forum whose leaders would meet to decide how to go about demeaning, intimidating, and/or destroying anyone who might show disapproval when bullied or called filthy names. These leaders of course would be “hidden” and appear to the regular user as just another participant. As a regular user, you would be left to wonder why these people are being constantly alerted for abuse violations, yet remain in the room to continue. Others seem to be booted from participation for far less.

Some of the tactics employed by these personnel would include alerting each other to disagreements so they could get their heads together and verbally abuse someone as a kind of a “gang-bang“.

Another tactic would include placing gross obscenities or tag (keyword) signals like “get this guy” (just a fun example.) Since it is their own tagging system, they don’t care. After all, it is their playground.

Still another amusing tactic is to sabotage their own site’s rating system in an attempt to lower the “reputation” of a user because the group doesn’t like them. Or they have been questioned in some way. (Difficult earth-shattering, mindbending queries such as: “why do you want to bully so many people?”)

Ah, you say, but isn’t it to be expected to be bullied and set upon on the World Wide Web? That is the kind of attitude that prevails among such sadists. It’s fun for them, so it should be fun for us. Why, the rest of the world should just take up bullying themselves and get in on all the action! Besides, it is not real life. This is one of my favorite excuses, as for many of us who are disabled, the internet frankly is a large part of our real lives. Are we not real people sitting here? Are we just imaginary friends? Or are we to assume we are nothing but targets ripe for the aiming at?

While we are at it, why don’t we just go down to the old folks’ home and roll the wheelchair-bound off a cliff?

If you should find yourself witnessing these kinds of events, yes you can ignore it. Most people do. But the unfortunate fact is that many incidents of harassment online can turn into harassment offline.

Harassing calls using Skype are made, personal information -- even about one’s children -- is tracked and displayed in shoutboxes, which is annoying enough, but we all have read much more disturbing and alarming stories. It may be you will be signed up in your stead -- and misrepresented as something you are not -- by your abuser for dating or numerous other websites which you had no intention of being a part of.

Remember that a forum administration would have access to personal information about you.

If you run into situations where you believe there is undue harassment in or caused by a forum, especially when you feel it originates with or is encouraged by the owners, do not hesitate to speak out against it. It is not right and it should not be expected. Especially not from those partially responsible for your “reputation.“ And yes, leave the forum. Leave it in droves. Blog about it. You’re entitled to your own opinion. Let the administrators worry about sponsorship -- and their own reputation on the Internet.

http://www.ncvc.org/src/main.aspx?dbID=DB_Cyberstalking814