1. Bullying + Invasion of Privacy = TROUBLE!
By: Cherie
I’m Ashleigh Gilberson and I am 13 years old. I just moved to
London from New York. I like it here except for one thing. I have a
story and it starts like this.
One year ago…
Last year on my birthday I finally turned 13 (a teenager!)
That meant I could get Facebook. I’d always wanted Facebook since
I was little. All my friends lied to get on Facebook but my mom said
that I had to turn 13 before I could a Facebook account.
That day, I made myself a Facebook account and started to
play with it. I wanted to add my best friend Olivia Spelton. I didn’t
know if she had Facebook or not, but I guessed she did, because
she was already 13 and a half. I searched her name and it came up.
I sent her a request and almost immediately she accepted
me. I squealed with excitement and started to chat with her.
I wrote: Hi! Remember wat day it is 2day? She typed back: Duh it’s
Tuesday. Is there anything wrong with ur brain? What? Olivia was always nice and
never said anything mean, even to her enemies.
Wats wrong? I typed. Why r u so mad? Olivia said she wasn’t mad but
then typed: I HATE U!!!
Ouch! That hurt really badly. I still couldn’t believe what I just
saw.
I turned of the computer and went to bed. I was so sad that I
didn’t even get up for dinner. I kept thinking isn’t it against the
child rights law to cyber bully? Then I started to cry.
The next day I couldn’t get up because I was crying the whole
night and I really didn’t want to go to school.
I go to Oakland’s Secondary School so it takes 30 minuets
just to walk to school. My mom dragged me out of bed and got me
dressed. I was so scared that Olivia would bully me at school that I
even pretended I was sick. It didn’t work though.
When I got to school, I saw Olivia and she smiled at me and
said hi. I avoided her the whole day and whenever she looked at
me, I looked away. I was afraid she’d start calling me names again.
The bullying online continued for weeks and I kept avoiding
Olivia. Finally one day, Olivia went up to me and asked “What did I
do wrong?” Olivia seemed nice enough so I told her everything.
“What!?” She exclaimed. “You know I would never say
something like that! Besides, I don’t even have Facebook.”
“You don’t?” I asked. I still wasn’t 100% convinced.
“Of course I don’t! I don’t even have time for Facebook”

2. “Then who was the person bullying me online? And why was
that person using your name?” I added.
“I don’t know,” said Olivia, “but I am going to solve this
mystery once and for all!” she shouted with enthusiasm.
I grinned. That's what the Olivia I knew sounded like.
That day after school, Olivia came to my house and I turned
on the computer. The person that was bullying me wasn’t online
yet. So I decided to check my email.
“Ash-leigh-Gil-ber-son-atgmail.com” I typed. Then something
terrible happened.
“What in the world? I can’t get on!” I screamed. Olivia came
running in.
“What's wrong? Oh no!” Olivia cried when she saw that
someone hacked my account.
I didn’t know what to do, so I ran out of the room crying.
Olivia got really mad and I heard her muttering something to
herself and she started typing.
I didn’t really care what she was doing so I went to the living
room and sat down quietly.
Before I knew it, I heard someone coming.
“It’s Ok, I took care of it,” someone said.
I turned to look at whom it was, and it was Olivia.
“Took care of what?” I asked quietly.
“The person that hacked your account. I searched Google on
what to do if someone hacked your account and I followed it.” Olivia
said softly.
I was really happy to have a friend like Olivia. Then I
remembered something.
“You still need to prove that you’re not the person that bullied
me on Facebook,” I said sharply.
“Yeah, Yeah whatever,” replied Olivia rolling her eyes.
Olivia and I went into my bedroom, turned on the computer
and logged into Facebook.
We waited and waited. Finally, “Olivia” logged on.
I looked at the real Olivia and she looked back at me.
Then the fake Olivia started to type.
Ugg, I don't get u! ur soooooo ugly and u won’t even try 2 fix it.
I looked at Olivia.
“Sorry I accused you,” I said apologetically.
Olivia smiled and said, “It’s Ok. I know it’s hard when people
bully you. Especially when you don’t know who it is,” Olivia then
said bravely, “Now all we have to do is to figure out who it is.”
Before Olivia could do anything, I stopped her.
“No, I don’t want to know who it is. I’ll just report the pretend
Olivia to Facebook and forget about it,” I said.
“But-” Protested Olivia.

3. “No buts.” I said. “I’m already happy enough that its not
you.”
Olivia smiled. “Yeah, let's just forget about all this,” and we
both laughed.
So, that’s my story. Looking back, it really doesn't seem like a
big deal. I should be grateful that it wasn’t my best friend bullying
me. That would be horrible. Even though we didn’t “solve” this
“mystery” I still was really happy. I now know that there are lots of
children around the world who don’t even know that computers
exist, and I should be thankful that I have a computer. I shouldn’t
be scared of bullies. All I have to do is ignore the people that bully
me and just continue my life. So, that was the end of the story.
(Not very pleasant right?)
The End