silver_fire_lizard

Melissa, I'm a fan. I've loved all your work with the Harry Potter fandom, and it's meant a lot to me over the years. I said hi to you this summer at LeakyCon, but I'm sure you talk to loads fans so I'm probably not very memorable (it's the thought that counts!). I'm sorry that you've had to go through this mess, but I'm inspired by your commitment to advocate.

I'm currently a grad student in school psychology, and one of my big interests is in cyber bullying and online etiquette. There are practically no intervention methods in schools right now teaching kids online skills, which I think is shocking because online communication is such a huge part of the typical American child's social life. The internet can be a great place; as a 15-year-old, I worked on a Harry Potter forum board and made tons of friends. However, it can be absolutely horrible, and I think children need to be given protective skills so they can cope when something like this happens...and of course, we need to teach children at a young age how not to be a jerk on the internet. Your case is a little different because there is obviously some mental issues that need to be addressed, but what would you (as someone with personal experience) suggest as ways to implement interventions for today's youth?

Thank you so much for the response! You definitely put into words what I would like to happen in the next few years (and then some - I loved that you mentioned Sam Pepper because that was horrible). As a student doing research, I see a lot of articles published about the negative effects of cyber bullying. It's still a relatively new area of study. They talk about the statistics and horror stories, mostly. In comparison, there is so little research being done about how to intervene...or even the positive effects of online friendships (though, this failure to create prevention strategies reflects quite a few already existing problems with the education/mental health system). I personally think this has a lot to do with the age gap. I know my parents would not have had any idea how to address these problems if they had happened to me as a child...and my father was a computer programmer! Our generation has really paved the way for online communication because we've suffered through the whole "trial by fire" as children. And maybe, if we can spare the upcoming generation just a little bit of that same pain, we can create truly positive fandom communities.

I know that you are a board member of the HPA. Do you know if this is an area of interest? I'm a little ignorant of the day-to-day workings of the alliance (but that will change soon because I'm working with a group to start a chapter in our hometown). I'm just curious if there are steps being done right now to implement some of the things you talked about.

Haha, no problem! I got super excited when I saw you were doing a reddit, so I had to take a moment to take off my "fandom" hat and put on my "psychology" hat.