Dr. Phil Testimony

@FosterBoys -- 2 questions Doc:
1. You said that "it is impossible to un-ring the cyber bell". What about that company you featured on your show that, for a price, will monitor and eliminate all negative comments about a person on the web?
2. You said that "the bullies don't understand the gravity of what they're doing". Really? Are you positing that they don't know how hurtful they're being or that they don't understand the legal consequences of their actions? Please clarify.

My Response:Your questions are really 1. That photo, text, lie or rumor that is posted online and spread around grows and grows like the sounds of the bell spread out farther & farther. But once done they can never be taken back & affect that person for the rest of their life. It may be funny for someone at the time, but not for the person being persecuted. It may change their self image, cause depression and end in suicide. It follows them forever like the sounds of the bell.

Bullies very rarely care about the gravity or consequences of what they're doing or they wouldn't do it. Empathy, the ability to walk in another's shoes, doesn't develop in teenagers until later years, so being a bully, either alone or in a group to someone, places them above others and inflates ego's; but in the process destroys others' lives at the risk of civil or criminal liability. Some bullies never grow up and foster that same attitude on their children-now who's liable?