A teenager is subjected to bullying online via a social networking site. This is quite a hard-hitting film as it must happen a lot for teenagers in the current society.
As I write this review at the age of 26 years I am very pleased that I missed the whole social network sites while still at school as I can only imagine them adding an awful offline scene. The worst we had was MSN which was more just chatting than photos etc and this was by the end of school more anyway so wasn’t too bad. Don’t forget that this film is based in a US high school so not something I really know very much about, but I think somethings will be the same in the UK.
Anyway Taylor was monitored very closely by her mother when it came to using the computer but when she got a laptop for her 17th birthday she joined a site which is pretty much a more in your face version of Facebook. This does not seem too bad at first and she starts talking to her high school crush, until her account is hacked and updated with an awful update causing everyone to call her names and really start laying into her. Which is made a lot worse by a mystery boy from another school.
I think this would be a good film for teenagers to watch to help them understand that even though they say something online that can actually hurt the person it is aimed at, just as much as actually saying it to their faces. Probably even worse now that a lot of talking is done via mobile phones and online. Do they actually talk to each other properly anymore?
The film really does become very hard-hitting and has a few twists and turns with who is behind everything just showing that you can be anything you want to be when it comes to sitting behind a computer/smart phone. It was very good to see how much Taylor’s mother was trying to help her and sort everything out for her. It brought them closer together and really made Taylor realize that her mother will always try to protect her. It even got her younger brother thinking about it all as well.
So I think the messages in this while it’s nowhere near perfect are clear enough to see and it certainly serves a point when it comes to highlighting a still growing problem, considering this film was released 3 years ago now.
