Who are today’s victims of online shame and cyberbullying? Potentially, any one of us. Anger your ex, and your nude photos could show up on MyEx.com, a website dedicated to the practice of revenge porn. Bad tipper? You could be dubbed a cheapskate on your local deliveryman’s Tumblr page. Cut off a fellow mom at the drop-off line at school, and you could find yourself trashed on Facebook later that morning.
Danielle Keats Citron, author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace, estimates that 30 to 40 percent of us will experience digital shame at some point in our lifetime. “You never escape it,” Citron, a law professor at the University of Maryland, told the New York Times. “When you post something really damaging, reputationally damaging, about someone online, it’s searchable and seeable. And you can’t erase it.”
And don’t think you can somehow keep yourself from being victimized by keeping a low profile. Countless bystanders have been thrust into the Internet’s hot public glare without even knowing it. Imagine going to the hospital for urgent medical care and finding out that your nurse had snapped and texted photos of your private parts to her colleagues for a laugh. Or that paramedics whisking you away in an ambulance were engaged in a cruel competition, taking incriminating shots while you lay unconscious.
Across the country, no one is immune
According to new research by Website Builder Expert Nevada was the worst state for cyberbullying. Despite having legislation in place that classes cyberbullying as a crime, Nevada still ranked third highest in percentage of hostile comments and had the second highest percentage of people who made a claim of online harassment.
This means that Nevada’s internet trolls are living dangerously outside of the law, flagrantly flouting it in order to wreak havoc online.
Across the land and clear over to the northeast is Vermont as the second rated place for digital cruelty and in third place the Sunshine State of Florida is where virtual hate resides.
The friendliest states
Having a chill in the air doesn’t mean you have a cold heart.
Long-hailed as one of the nicest states, New Hampshire does not disappoint, ranking as America’s online best friend. It is the state with the lowest percentage of hostile comments and is fifth lowest for the percentage of people who have claimed online harassment.
They even have a law against cyberbullying proving them to be the epitome of an online ally.
North and South Dakota come in second and third place.
Read the complete report and find out where your state ranks on cyberbullying.
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