Witnessing Online Meanness and Cruelty: Complications
Have students access the student chapter Witnessing Online Meanness and Cruelty: Complications, or share it on a digital projector or digital whiteboard.
Have students watch the video and then answer the multiple choice question: What can you do to help?
Highlight to students that because you already know Jody wants you to help, there are three possible right answers and just one wrong one (Report the post).
It’s important not to worry about doing the perfect thing when you see online meanness and cruelty: it’s almost always better to just do something, so long as you know it won’t make things worse.
At the end of the video is an open text question: Was Amelia wrong to post this photo? Why or why not?
Have students write a short answer (this can be done in pairs if you like) and then share their opinion with the class.
Prompting questions:
- Should Amelia have known that the photo would be embarrassing to Jody?
- Does Amelia have a right to post a photo of herself even if it will embarrass someone else?
- If so, is it more important than Jody’s right to decide what’s done with a photo of herself?
- What duty does Amelia have to control what people say in comments on her posts?
Do not try to bring students to a consensus. Instead, point out to students that it’s easy to make a decision when it’s clear what’s right and what’s wrong (as in the first video); what’s harder is when you have to choose between two things that you think are right.
This is called a moral dilemma because we have to weigh two moral principles against one another – such as Amelia’s and Jody’s rights.
Point out that because moral dilemmas have no single “right” answer, we have to pay close attention to the specific facts of the situation.
Ask students: Would your opinion change if…
- Amelia knew that the other girls often teased Jody?
- Nobody had ever seen that photo before?
- If the photo had been taken at a place where Jody would expect to have privacy, instead of a public pool?