Friday, March 15, 2013

It's been a busy week - Charlie Sheen's rants about a ten yr old

It's been a crazy and busy week for online abuses. Charlie Sheen used his digital pulpit to attack a prestigious private school in LA-area that his daughter used to attend. Apparently, he claims that a classmate (when they were both 9 years old) bullied his daughter. He was unhappy with how they addressed the problem and withdrew his daughter from the school last year. Now, a year later he tweets that people should deface and attack the school and even names the girl he accuses of bullying his daughter last year. While most parents of bullying targets experience frustration over the handling of bullying and cyberbullying by the school, most do not encourage provokes against the school or retaliation against a ten year old. I just shot an interview for Inside Edition on this case. They asked me if what Charlie Sheen did was itself "cyberbullying." It's not. It's stupid. It's putting students, the school's teachers and administration at risk for physical and digital attacks. It puts the ten year old he accuses of bullying in the cross-hairs of any crazies who actually follow Charlie Sheen. It will hurt his daughter far more than he knows, as well. It's a shame that we put digital weapons like twitter into the hands of adults who act like children and put the lives, safety and emotional well-being of ten year olds at risk. shame on him!