New York museum debuts interactive anti-bullying video today

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WIRE REPORT

NEW YORK

The recent wave of highly covered teen suicides has brought national attention to an increasingly serious and sometimes fatal social phenomenon — bullying. The incidences of young people taking their own lives as a result of harassment regarding their sexuality, gender, religion, and other characteristic traits is on the rise, fueled by social networking sites.

In response to the bullying epidemic, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s museum in Los Angeles and its New York Museum of Tolerance have produced a powerful, interactive video which is showcased in its Point of View Diner. The diner is a cyber cafe that screens scenarios portraying contemporary social issues.

The Museum of Tolerance offered a preview of the interactive video to the media this afternoon, followed by a showing to New York high school students.

The video presents the targeting of a new student at a high school who is bullied and subjected to innuendos about her sexual identity. The audience’s own experiences and views about bullying are challenged. The video allows the audience to be interactive, answering questions about bullying and gives each the opportunity to interview the characters in the scenario.

The Museum of Tolerance produced the video in response to scores of requests for help from educators across the country.