Students debate positive Web postings

Yin Dongling, a Chinese student appearing on a talk show on Korean television, yesterday said she had to disable the comment function on her blog due to malicious comments posted by a viewer.

"The viewer, who happened to dislike what I said on air, visited my blog as frequently as he could for two consecutive weeks and posted multiple nasty comments not about me, but about my country," she said during a discussion on how to expand the Sunfull (good replies) Movement.

"I was just so frightened that I wanted to find an escape from Korea. People here are in good manners when I meet them in person, however, I can`t understand why some of them are so harsh online."

The discussion session, which was attended by college students from Korea, Japan and China, was organized by the Sunfull Movement Headquarters and a group of lawmakers participating in the movement to bring more students a step closer to spreading positive online culture.

The Sunfull Movement, a privately-funded organization launched in May last year, is led by Chung-Ang University professor Min Byoung-chul, aiming to eradicate online bullying and root out ill-intended internet postings.

So far, about 130 lawmakers from different parties have joined the movement to lead a new political culture of rational persuasion, according to the group. The lawmakers` group is headed by three lawmakers - Lee Kyung-jae of the ruling Grand National Party; Cho Bae-sook of the main opposition Democratic Party; and Byeon Woong-jeon of the Liberty Forward Party.

"When Taean of South Chungcheong Province suffered from the nation`s worst oil spill earlier in 2007, many supported and cheered up Taean citizens by posting positive comments, or sunple, on the internet," said Yang Gil-suk, a Chung-Ang University student, representing Korea. "There was an actual wave of sunple - a play of two words `sun,` as in `good` in Korean, and reply that merged to create `good replies` - that was strong enough to calm down anyone from posting negative comments."

He also pointed out that the sunfull movement also enabled Koreans to unify when giving a boost to sports players during big matches, including the World Baseball Classic and the World Cup.

To create such a positive online environment, we first need to construct a social atmosphere that could protect those who have made legitimate comments on certain issues and respect others whose opinion may differ from ours, said participants.

"We need to pay more respect to each other because conflicts could rise because of our differences in ethnicity, history, culture and values," said Li Hong, a Chinese representative attending Kyonggi University in Seoul.

Park Sin-ook of Ewha Womans University also noted that we must continuously stress the necessity of writing positive postings.

Some others said children should be educated early in school about the potential negative effect of malicious postings and why more people should focus on establishing a healthy online culture.

Last year, several top celebrities committed suicide allegedly due to libelous online rumors. Among them was actress Choi Jin-sil who took her life last December reportedly after rumors that she was involved in the suicide of another fellow celebrity who happened to be the husband of her best friend.

By Cho Ji-hyun



(sharon@heraldm.com)