Acting out for the videocam

But that’s not all they’re doing to up their ratings in video-sharing sites, the New York Times reports: “boys holding cell phones under the lunch table to photograph up girls’ skirts; an innocent kiss at a party posted out of context on an ex-boyfriend’s Web site; someone bursting in on friends who are in the bathroom or sleeping, drinking or smoking; students goading teachers into tantrums; assaulting homeless people.” Maybe with too much time on their hands, they upload the taped exploits to PhotoBucket, YouTube, MySpace, and other user-content sites – including “niche” ones just for this purpose like PSFights.com, according to the Times. “In response to such cyberbullying [such as the “bullying incident on Long Island last December” – see “Teens’ fight video”], Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, recently asked school districts to designate a staff Internet monitor to watch for Web-posted misbehavior among students.” Nancy Willard, author of Cyberbullying and Cyberthreats, told the Times, though it could be damaging to people and property, to teens this activity is both the game of teenage life and the exploring of identity and social relationships. Not that adults aren’t involved sometimes in a somewhat exploitative way – read the part about the fence-plowing fad, done by teenagers but started by a young film producer seeking insta-fame.