MTV Launches 'Over the Line' Tool to Fight Digital Bullying

The dawn of the digital era has led to many great innovations, but it has also had a seedy underbelly when it comes to teens. A new type of bullying has cropped up thanks to the veil of anonymity many Internet sites and cell phones can provide: cyberbullying. As Tonic previously reported, MTV has already taken efforts to help digital abuse with their "A Thin Line" campaign. Now, they have stepped up their efforts even more.

The network has launched a new tool called Over the Line inspired by "crowdsourcing" (another new-age term which refers to gathering unofficial data by asking a crowd or group of people for contributions that would normally be outsourced to an employee or contractor) that asks teen to share texts, sexts, Facebook messages, tweets and other forms of digital communication. Users will be able to rate submissions as "over," "on," or "under" the line to help users understand which ones should be considered digital bullying.

Jason Rzepka, vice president of public affairs for MTV, told the Wall Street Journal that the idea for the tool came from research the network did asking young people how they defined digital abuse, and the alarming statistic Tonic quoted in December: "50 percent of 14-to-24-year-olds have been the target of some form of digital abuse." Said Rzepka, “There’s this really nuanced view and shades of gray around these issues ... Young people are not going to become any less connected anytime soon, and nobody has really grown up this way before."

Even celebrities aren't immune to cyberbullying. Nude photos of High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens that could have ruined her career with Disney were famously leaked a few years ago. Miley Cyrus, whose every move on Twitter was followed by fans and bloggers like Perez Hilton, famously quit tweeting last year, and this past Monday, she slammed the Internet for being a time drain in an interview with Movieline.com.

"I just think it's kind of lame," Cyrus said about teens' current addiction to the Internet and social networking sites. "I feel like I hang out with my friends and they're so busy taking pictures of what they're doing and putting them on Facebook that they're not really enjoying what they're doing. You’re going to look back and have a million pictures, but you’re not going to be in any of them. Because you’re not having fun, you’re too busy clicking away. So I think just enjoy the moment you're in, and stop telling people about it. Just enjoy it."

Are Miley Cyrus and MTV's campaigns enough to help teens learn the true dangers of digital abuse? Only time and spreading the word about Over the Line will tell. In the meantime, Cyrus has some alternatives for kids and teens: "Don't go on the Internet, it's dangerous, it's not fun, it wastes your life, and you should be outside playing sports or something."

One things is for sure: the issue of Internet safety is in the ether and is the subject of a new film (and a new play in Chicago), Trust out later this year. A dark drama (starring Clive Owen and Catherine Keener) about the damaging effects an online sexual predator has on a young girl and her family, the movie is directed by Friends star David Schwimmer and written by Tonic columnist and best-selling author Andy Bellin.

Screengrab courtesy of AThinLine.org.