The Education Institute of Scotland (EIS) is a teaching union. They receive around 60 complaints a year from teachers who are suffering some form of online bullying or abuse of students. It happens a lot that teachers are victims of such abuse.
The Union wants the social networking sites to be responsible for the content of the site. Insulting messages in online spaces can cause a lot of emotional damage. The site holders are now liable for this kind of messages. The EIS promised to support teachers who want to pursue a complaint under the new legislation.
The site holders argue that the big volume of content of the site makes it impossible to check all the published items. They have clear terms of use and the users can inform the site holders when there is a potential problematic comment, so they can remove those items.
I think it is good that the site holders are liable for the insulting messages, because they are are the only people who can remove the messages. If the site holders know that they are liable for abuse or bullying, they will be more careful and they will check what kind of messages appears on their site. The problem is even more problematic. Not only teachters suffer from online abuse, it is a big problem nowadays and it causes a lot of emotional damage. We should think first before posting something on the internet. People who post insulting messages have to be punished.
Tine Depotter
www.journalonline.co.uk/News/1008810.aspx
I agree with Tine, as the site holders are indeed the only persons who can remove messages, they are liable for the damages caused by insulting messages. Maybe they have recruit more people so they can remove the insulting messages.
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