Social media morals and ethics, do they exist?

Rutgers student Tyler Clementi jumped off the GW bridge after being exploited online.

I recently read a fabulous article by Austin Gaddis, a sophomore majoring in public relations and communication studies at the University of Alabama, entitled “Social media addicts.” http://www.cw.ua.edu/2010/10/08/social-media-addicts/ 

His article cited how social media has transformed the way we communicate and I could not agree more. Recent surveys have shown that Internet users spend more time on Facebook  than they do on any other website on the web. With 500 million users that’s an incredible statistic. While Twitter and location based social media platforms are still on the up swing, the mere fact that they are featured at the close of every major advertising commercial these days demonstrates their mainstay.

But in turn we as a social media industry must look to each other and question, where are we headed? In recent days the deaths of teenagers and college students who have been bullied via online networks is a scary fact. How can we as a community help drive a since of ethical behavior online?

My question is “how can we stop playground bullying, murder, crime, etc?” The only answer I can think of is education and parenting. These are societal issues that exists even offline. So are these kids just the victim of the next breed of criminals? Those who exist online? I certainly hope not.

Just as we hope our teachers are educating students on how to behave in the classroom, it’s time that we also start the conversation about how to behave online.

What can we do to help create the solution?