Web and TV giants team up to fight bullying

Facebook and Time Warner are ganging up on bullies to address a problem that torments millions of children and young adults.

The partnership calls for Facebook and Time Warner to use their clout to raise awareness about bullying and encourage people to report the abuses.

Facebook's participation reflects a growing recognition that its online social network consisting of more than 750 million people has become an outlet for harassment as well as friendship.

"We believe that by working together with parents and teachers, we can teach young people to speak up and stop bullying," said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer.

The anti-bullying campaign will be waged on the internet, TV and radio and in several major US magazines. Its message is "Stop Bullying: Speak Up", a theme Time Warner's Cartoon Network has been trumpeting since last year.

Now the message is being extended to Time Warner's CNN and in three of its magazines, People, Time and Sports Illustrated. CNN's Anderson Cooper will host a town hall meeting focused on bullying in October while the magazines will all delve into the topic during the same month.

Facebook plans to release an application this year that will broadcast a user's pledge to stop bullies. It has already introduced a feature to make it easier to report online bullies, or "cyber" bullies, four months ago as part of a White House conference that President Barack Obama held.

The White House estimates that 13 million students, one-third of the school-age population in the US, are targets of bullying. In a 2009 survey by Associated Press and MTV, half of the people from 14 to 24 years said they had been cyberbullied.

The harassment, ranging from sexual orientation to fashion tastes, can lead to emotional problems, drug abuse and, sometimes, suicide.

- AP