Oct 4, 2010

MTV Unleashes an iPhone App to Combat Bullying

http://mashable.com/2010/10/04/mtv-over-the-line-bullying-app/
MTVs new iOS app Over the Line? wont defeat bullies through hand-to-hand combat in high school parking lots, but it can help teens learn how far is too far especially in the unruly and confusing digital frontier.Over the Line [iTunes link] is built on the existing web and Facebook app of the same name. If youre familiar with public confession sites like Nerve Dating Confessions, FML or Texts From Last Night it will look familiar to you, but its not just wanton voyeurism.Each teen user is invited to share a story about being bullied, harassed or otherwise disrespected by peers, and other users can vote whether their peers were over the line, under it, or hanging around right on it that is, whether it was bullying and harassment, acceptable behavior or just pushing the limits. Hopefully it will encourage young people to think critically about what theyre doing to their friends.MTV decided to launch the app during National Bullying Prevention month, which is also home to Dan Savages It Gets Better YouTube video project. Between this and the numerous inspiring videos out there, celebs and companies like MTV are hoping to discourage teens from committing suicide or taking other drastic action in response to bullying.The submissions cover a wide range of topics and kinds of bullying (and there are quite a few that are just random at best) but weve included a few examples of posts involving social networking or cyberbullying.Chris (15): there is a guy who keeps on taunting me because i am gay and it is getting over the limit. He sends fake messages to people pretending to be me, telling people i want to have gay sex with them and it is getting on my nervesAnonymous: I sent a text message to a friend telling her how good of a friend she was and how much i loved her, and she forwarded it to half of the people in our highschool telling them that i was a lesbian. None of the girls at my school talk to me anymore.Casidy (17): the guy i lost my virginity to secretly taped us on his webcam and i wasnt told until a couple months later when all of his friends asked me how i felt to be the mini pornstar of our small town school.Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mikdamMore About: abuse, App, apple, application, bullying, cyberbulling, digital abuse, facebook, facebook platform, fml, iOS, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, mtv, national bullying prevention month, nerve dating confessions, social good, texts from last nightFor more Social Good coverage:Follow Mashable Social Good on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Social Good channelDownload our free apps for iPhone and iPad
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