SPECIAL REPORT DAY 2: Caught in a web where moral codes don’t apply

For Irish teens, their ‘virtual’ world is as real as the rest of their lives. But has the unsupervised freedom we afford them online created a monster we can’t control, asks Claire O’Sullivan

THE web is the ‘real’ world for teenagers. It’s where they communicate with friends and make friends, it’s where they create allegiances, form and express opinions, ‘meet up’, and it’s where they forge their identity.

The web is a phenomenal communications device, so despite the urge to control cyberbullying, it is not realistic to shut down sites if they’re not criminally negligent. A similar site will pop up within days.