Networked Communications - Ethics for the Information Age - page 142

The Google search engine keeps a database of many billions of Web pages. A soft-
ware algorithm ranks the quality of these pages. The algorithm invokes a kind of voting
mechanism. If Web page A links to Web page B, then page B gets a vote. However, all
votes do not have the same weight. If Web page A is itself getting a lot of votes, then page
A's link to page B gives its vote more weight than a link to B from an unpopular page.
When a user makes a query to Google, the search engine first finds the pages that
closely match the query. It then considers their quality (as measured by the voting
algorithm) to determine how to rank the relevant pages.
3.8.5 Cyberbullying
In November 2002, Ghyslain Raza, a chubby high school student living in Quebec,
Canada, borrowed a videotape and used one of the high school's video cameras to film
himself swinging a golf ball retriever like a light saber, a la Darth Maul in Star Wars
Episode I . A few months later, the owner of the videotape discovered the content and
shared it with some friends. After one of them digitized the scene and made it available
on the Internet, millions of people downloaded the file in the first two weeks [90].
Ghyslain was nicknamed “the Star Wars kid,” endured prolonged harassment from other
students, and eventually dropped out of school [91]. By 2006 the video had been viewed
more than 900 million times [92].
Cyberbullying is the use of the Internet or the phone system to inflict psychological
harm on another person. Frequently, a group of persons gangs up to cyberbully the
victim. Examples of cyberbullying include
. Repeatedly texting or emailing hurtful messages to another person
. Spreading lies about another person
. Tricking someone into revealing highly personal information
. “Outing” or revealing someone's secrets online
. Posting embarrassing photographs or videos of other people without their consent
. Impersonating someone else online in order to damage that person's reputation
. Threatening or creating significant fear in another person
Surveys have revealed that cyberbullying is common among teenagers. Cox Com-
munications surveyed 655 American teenagers in 2009, and 19 percent reported that
they had been cyberbullied online, via cell phone, or through both media. Ten percent
of the teenagers admitted to cyberbullying someone else. When asked why they had cy-
berbullied someone else, the most common responses were “they deserved it” and “to
get back at someone” [66].
In some instances cyberbullying has led to the suicide of the victim, as in the case
of 13-year-old Megan Meier. According to her mother, “Megan had a lifelong struggle
with weight and self-esteem” [93]. She had talked about suicide in third grade, and ever
since then she had been seeing a therapist [93]. Megan's spirits soared when she met a
16-year-old boy named Josh Evans on MySpace. They flirted online for four weeks but
never met in person. Then Josh seemed to sour on their relationship. One day he let her