Little Gossip.com Encourages Internet Bullying: Kids Gossip

LittleGossip.com. is a new social networking website where students are encouraged to write gossip and rumours about other students.

Internet bullying at its worst which is sanctioned and encouraged by the creators and owners of this new so called social networking site.

This new form of a social networking site Little Gossip was launched on November 2010 it has already attracted well over 70,000 visitors.

The people using the Little Gossip site are from schools, colleges and universities. Some of the most famous schools in Britain have the worst statements about other pupils and students.

They include Eton, St Paul’s, Harrow, and Cheltenham Ladies College. But more and more schools all over the country have been added and the students are contributing their comments about other pupils.

These comments are not moderated and are allowed to be anonymous. They contain rumours that are vicious and malicious.

They speak of fellow students who have drug habits, who are gay or suspected of being gay. There are threatening and obscene comments too about students and their sex lives and more.

Then to encourage more interaction the site asks other pupils in the same school to rate these statements as true or false.

The Little Gossip site has been condemned by the National Union of Teachers in Britain. In a statement they have accused the sites creators of creating a ‘vehicle for cyber-bullying’.

Under pressure from the National Union of Teachers in Britain, report buttons were added next to posts so that users could hide offensive content. Another new devevopement is that the site has issued a statement that it can now only be accessed by adults.

This may be the official line but the so called safeguards put on the site are easy for anyone to avoid and the bullying continues.

LittleGossip.com was created in Belize in Central America. The site was launched in the UK in November and has since become extremely popular all over Britain. As is with everything on the internet it soon became well known to young people within weeks.

A spokesman for LittleGossip claims the site was created ‘to encourage deep, meaningful conversation’.

‘A major aim for us is we want to eradicate the hurtful and offensive gossip that is posted by individuals completely and give our users more moderation over content submitted.’

The LittleGossip.com site makes it easy for users to search for the schools, colleges or universities that they attend in any country around the world.

There they can read and comment on all those vicious posts about other students that are there. They can also read the comments made about themselves which is sure to cause stress, depression and all too often suicide.

For Internet bullying to be encouraged by this new site is really the internet and social networking sites at their worst.

The internet has made life for millions of users educational, fun and profitable. I

t has allowed famiies and friends to stay in touch.

But with this new site LittleGossip.com. we see the negative use of the internet.

A website where students are allowed to write gossip and rumours about other students anonymously really is not good for the internet and its users.

I will leave you with this statement:

Emma-Jane Cross, CEO of Beatbullying, said: 'This site in question is particularly worrying as it seems to have the sole purpose of identifying and victimising vulnerable young people.