I was interested to read on ODN that CBC now require people to give their full names before comments are published.  ODN has had this policy from the start of publication, and rightly so.

If you wish to comment, complain or congratulate any person or action, then your name should be attached.  This is especially important if you are attacking the morals, judgement or action of another, if you feel your words are justified, have the guts to sign your name to the complaint.  Only a coward hurls an insult and runs away.

This anonymity is causing so much heartbreak on social media. Twitter and similar comment pages are a wonderful hiding place for cowards.  They can dish out abuse, insults and downright lies that harm a person’s reputation and confidence.  This is a real concern in the school system where cyber bullying is rife.

Many of our young people are being teased, threatened and bullied, beyond reason, by cowardly people who are free to say anything they like under the cloak of social media.  How often do we read of a teenager who has taken their own life after being cyber bullied for weeks and, sometimes, months of misery.

If these letters were mailed, the sender would be liable to prosecution but the internet is a great place to hide your nasty nature.  Apparently, you can torture someone to the point where they are too miserable to live, and it is not illegal.  Why is it not???

With all the technology in the computer world, why is it that you can be anonymous while you send out poisonous letters to people who are unable to defend their reputation?  Unfortunately, it would appear that teenage girls are the worst offenders, which says very little about their sensitivity to others.  What sort of adults will they turn out to be?

I honestly do not see the necessity of using a “pen name”, it is an invitation to speak your mind and never have to own up to the insults you have hurled.  It encourages those with a mean streak to be downright vicious and walk away with a smile.

As a parent, I would be horrified to think my teenager was bullying anyone but, to do it anonymously, is a real character flaw.  If my children were still at the age of parental control, I would be monitoring their activities on the computer and cell phone so I could make sure it stopped.  As parents, it is everyone’s job to see that our kids are neither sending or on the receiving end of hate mail.  Let’s all try to end this awful means of communication, before we read of another tragedy of a child being driven to suicide.