Recently in Florida, a group of teenagers lured a fellow cheerleader to a home and brutally attacked her and then taped and posted it to the web. I am not ignorant of the fact that girls can and do fight, and sometimes more violently than boys. However, the introduction of technology as an added humiliation or gratification component, depending on your role in the fight, is a phenomenon I don’t think the world expected.

A Baltimore public school teacher was attacked in her classroom by a female student. Unbeknownst to the teacher, other students taped the attack on their cell phones and posted it on YouTube. A teenage girl committed suicide because she thought a friend from cyberspace had a bad perception of her. This negative behavior is not limited to teenagers with hormones raging. A New York socialite has also posted rants to her soon-to-be ex on the Internet.

The use of technology has gone astray. Anonymously, society is rewarding this negative behavior by watching these clips over and over again. If young women are interested in filmmaking, aren’t there other avenues we can show them to help with their self-expression? Girl Scouts USA and Dove have launched a campaign for girls and self-esteem, trying to inspire young leaders of tomorrow.

In 1993, and again in 2001, AAUW published research entitled Hostile Hallways, examining bullying, teasing, and sexual harassment in schools. ABC’s Primetime has a series entitled “What Would You Do?” that asks what you would do if you saw someone being harassed or attacked in public. So the next time someone forwards you a link to see mean girls gone wild, this is one time you don’t want to be counted. DON’T CLICK. Just think, if it was my child, what would I do?