Hoping to use its youth megaphone to counter “digital abuse,” MTV announced Thursday a multi-year initiative called A Thin Line that includes a coalition of organizations, special programming, and public-service announcements. Digital abuse includes “sexting” — sending sexually provocative texts and pictures by cell phones — as well as cyberbullying and digital dating abuse.
Other components of A Thin Line include a MTV News special report, a documentary series, a contest to imagine “high-potential digital antidotes” to digital abuse, It’s Time to Talk Day, and education in middle and high schools.
‘We Would Never Say To Someone’s Face’
A statement on the initiative’s Web site notes that “things we used to share in person — and in private — can now be broadcast to thousands, instantly.” This means, the site said, that “sometimes we type things we would never say to someone’s face,” and such harassment affects a majority of young people in the U.S.
The campaign has a wide range of partners, including Liz Claiborne, the Anti-Defamation League, Facebook, MySpace, PBS Frontline, and Wired Safety, an online safety, education and help group.
In conjunction with the Associated Press, MTV conducted a study on the subject. It found that 50 percent of 14- to 24-year-olds “have been the target of some form of digital abuse,” and young people regularly encounter digital abuse that ranges from the mild to the extreme.
The kinds of digital abuse most likely to have been encountered are spreading lies, violating a trust by forwarding an e-mail or IM without permission, and “digital disrespect,” meaning some written, online expression of meanness. More than half of those who said they had encountered these kinds of abuse say it happened more than once.
Widespread ‘Sexting’
Some of the more extreme forms of digital abuse have happened less often, but they still impact a sizable number of…