Suicide Bating

I don't always recommend a Facebook page, but I feel it would be a disservice not to share this one.

There's a new Facebook page called Suicide Bating Prevention, and if you don't know what Suicide Bating is, let me tell you.

Suicide Bating is when someone (or a group of someones) continually harass an individual, until they become so depressed that they kill themselves.

We foolishly allow society to write this all off under the cute name of "bullying".

We ignore bullying and refuse to see it for what it is.

Bullying can be a combination of the following:

1. Physical Assault
2. Slander/Harassment/Mental Abuse
3. Stalking
4. Hacking

Yet we allow police enforcement to look the other way.

We say it's "kids being kids" and we put the blame on the victim.

We laugh at hate shrines on the internet, and call them "satire" and devote t-shirts and buttons to every website that slams random people on the internet, even laughing when a site posts a photo of a teenager, detailing a list of ways he or she can and "should" kill themselves.

We teach our children to name-call, and we glorify hateful people, by casting them as "the hero" in movies, TV shows and books. And I'm not talking about any violent pictures here, I mean shows like Sex in the City and Gossip Girl, which glorify women who spend their days judging people at random and exhibiting acts of misandry by having these characters treat men like dirt. And children's cartoons like Total Drama Island, Jem and 6Teen, which all promote intolerance, hatred of people based on differences, and in the case of Total Drama, physical bullying. And again, the characters doing the bullying, are the "good" guys.

We insist that there's something "wrong" with the victim, and we ignore their pleas for help, by spitting in his/her face, and saying they need to "just deal" with it.

When it's an adult victim? When adults bully other adults? We just say "not everyone is your friend" and then act surprised when another suicide happens.

Suicide Bating is something I'm too familiar with.

I was bullied as a child, but when I became homeschooled and then grew up, I figured that this was all water under the bridge. I figured this was part of my past now, and I didn't give bullying another thought.

Then a couple of years ago, a group of complete strangers started cyber stalking me. A hate shrine was posted about me, my inbox was flooded, my accounts were hacked and my family was harassed, all because I posted a 3 minute CGI video of Miku Hatsune in pink, dancing. For real.

I lost out on job opportunities and I didn't know a moment's peace. I seriously thought about ending it.

Then I cracked open my YouTube email, and I got a long email from a 10 year old named Susan. She was going through almost the same level of harassment I was, and needed help.

Susan wasn't alone. I nearly lost two friends to Suicide Bating that same year. All of us reported our cyber stalkers and hackers to the FBI, the police, anybody in law enforcement with an open ear.

Nobody helped.

The only reason why one of my stalkers is behind bars right now, is because he helped hack the FBI. But until they were attacked, my case was closed, and I was told that because I posted ANYTHING online ~ even in the form of a job application ~ that I "had better" understand that everything of me posted online is "permanent" and essentially by having an online presence at all, I left myself open to attacks. In short, if you post your real name online, people you have never met "have the right" to express their First Amendment rights to harass you. If you die by suicide because of it, it's your own fault for not being able to handle "the real world".

Something has to change.

I initially started a Facebook page, only to address harassment related to the freeware MikuMikuDance, which is what I used when I made my "evil" video of the girl dancing. I figured this was the root of the bullying problem for me and for the people on YouTube I was associated with. It's a small page, and I viewed it as a small step.

But soon I started adding all types of bullying articles to the page, to show people how widespread the problem is, and that most of the worst "bullying" is coming from adults ~ NOT kids. The page now has articles about many forms of bullying, even school related.

But no story cut me to the core like the story of Kathie Yount.

Her lovely son was a victim of Suicide bating.

As posted in this article, a group of people he did not know, bullied him non-stop. One day, as he stood on a ledge, not only did he have to deal with his own trauma, he looked down to see a sea of adults, cheering him on to jump. They laughed and heckled him as he lay dying.

Not a single police officer stepped in to do anything.

Not one soul has been taken into custody.

Nothing has been done.

It's time to change that.

Kathie has started her Facebook page, to warn others about Suicide Bating. If you must "Like" any page in the world today, please make it her page.

I want to see the world change.