Cyberbully (2011 film)

cyberbu//y
Promotional poster
Written by	Teena Booth
Directed by	Charles Binamé
Starring	Emily Osment Kay Panabaker Kelly Rowan
Theme music composer	James Gelfand
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Jesse Prupas
Editor(s)	Simon Webb
Running time	87 minutes
Distributor	Muse Entertainment Enterprises Gaiam
Release
Original release	July 17, 2011 (2011-07-17)

Cyberbully (stylized cyberbu//y) is a television film that premiered on July 17, 2011 on ABC Family. ABC Family worked with Seventeen magazine to make the film, and hopes it will "delete digital drama". The film tells the story of a teenage girl who is bullied online.^[1] It was filmed in Montreal. The film was released on DVD February 7, 2012.

Plot

Taylor Hillridge (Emily Osment) is a teenage girl who is being raised by her single mother, Kris (Kelly Rowan), along with her younger brother, Eric (Robert Naylor), living in St. Louis, Missouri. She is close friends with two other girls, Samantha Caldone (Kay Panabaker) and Cheyenne Mortenson (Meaghan Rath). Earlier, Taylor made a seemingly innocuous comment to one of her classmates, Lindsay Fordyce (Nastassia Markiewicz), to which Lindsay took great offense.

She receives a computer for her seventeenth birthday from her mom. At first, Taylor is excited by the independence of going online without her mother always watching her. Meanwhile, her crush, Scott asks her to the dance, to which she says yes. Cheyenne is happy for her, but Samantha does not like Scott because she previously went out with his friend, who later dumped her. Taylor soon finds herself the victim of cyberbullying when she becomes a member of a social website named Cliquesters.

Things begin to go wrong when Taylor's brother, Eric, hacks into her account and posts a defamatory message about his sister, having been angry at her when she refused to let him use the laptop. Students at school write horrid comments about her and she becomes afraid to face her friends at school. Taylor also meets a guy named James online and thinks he is just being nice, but winds up spreading a rumor that Taylor slept with him and ended up giving him "the clap". Taylor gets pegged as a "slut" and "whore" as a result of the bullying. The abuse that Taylor receives from the hands of her schoolmates pushes her to a breaking point. Scott also tells Taylor that he cannot take her to the dance and Cheyenne and Samantha begin to turn their backs on Taylor.

Overcome with depression, Taylor posts a video online saying that she can no longer live with herself. Samantha sees this and quickly goes to Taylor's house and finds her trying to commit suicide by overdosing with pills, but cannot get the cap off. Taylor is then sent to a hospital. Taylor's mom learns from the incident and takes on the school system and state legislation to prevent others from going through the same problem as her daughter. Taylor's mom recommends that she go to a support group and get help. Meanwhile, Samantha finds Scott at a cafe and insults him for leaving Taylor. Taylor finds that one of her classmates, Caleb is going through the same exact thing, only he is targeted for being gay. Taylor finds support in the group and deals with the bullying much better. She finds out that her best friend Samantha is the one who created the "James" profile and set Taylor up. Samantha feels guilty and becomes a victim of cyberbullying herself. Taylor finds out about this and tells her about her support group and eventually forgives Samantha, rekindling their friendship.

In the end, Taylor, Samantha, Cheyenne, Caleb, and Scott all stand up against Lindsay. Other classmates witnessing Taylor standing up to Lindsay realize how bullying is terrible, and antagonize Lindsay for her abuse. A law is then passed against cyberbullying.

Cast

• Emily Osment as Taylor Hillridge, the main protagonist. A 17-year-old girl who gets her own laptop computer for her birthday.
• Kay Panabaker as Samantha Caldone, Taylor's best friend.
• Kelly Rowan as Kris Hillridge, Taylor's mother. She divorced her husband three months ago.
• Jon McLaren as Scott Ozsik, Taylor's crush.
• Meaghan Rath as Cheyenne Mortenson, Taylor's friend.
• Nastassia Markiewicz as Lindsay Fordyce, the main antagonist and the queen bee at Taylor's high school. She constantly harasses people online.
• Jade Hassouné as Caleb. He is a gay student at Taylor's school, and is also a victim of cyberbullying.
• Robert Naylor as Eric Hillridge, Taylor's brother.
• Caroline Redekopp as Karen Caldone, Samantha's mother.
• Ronda Louis-Jeune as Becca, Lindsay's friend.

Reception

The film received a generally positive review from Common Sense Media, who gave the film a 4 out of 5 star rating, stating "Cyberbully is a great jumping-off point for talking to teens about the very real dangers that exist online. The movie does a good job of working in most of the hot-button issues related to this topic, including the anonymity that exists online, the legal loopholes that enable cyberbullying, the social pressure on teens to partake in digital relationships, and the emotional devastation that bullying inflicts on its victims and their families."^[2]

Cyberbully gained 3.4 million views on its official release date. It was TV's number one telecost for the 8-10 p.m. time slot. It became the week's number one TV film, and the second most viewed TV film of the 2010 and 2011 season.^[3]

Promotion

ABC Family created "badges" that people could add to their profile pictures on sites like Twitter and Facebook; the badge says "[delete] digital drama!".^[4]

On July 14, 2011, ABC Family hosted a live event called "The Rally to Delete Digital Drama" in Glendale, California. The rally included appearances from Shay Mitchell, Tyler Blackburn, Daren Kagasoff, Skyler Samuels, Grey Damon, Katie Leclerc, Vanessa Marano, Emily Osment, and more. Emily Osment performed her song "Drift", as well as other songs. There was also an autograph signing and gift giveaways.^[5]

Music

Emily Osment released a song called "Drift" which was featured in the film. It was released on July 12, 2011. The movie also features "Breathe Me" by Sia. TV spots of the movie contain the song "Perfect" by Pink.

Awards and nominations

See also

• Megan Meier

References

External links

• Cyberbully at the Internet Movie Database
• "Official website". Archived from the original on 2012-03-24.