NJ College Aims To Get 'Cyber-Bullying' Anonymous Website Shut Down
MADISON, N.J. (CBS 2) -- Hot or not? Overweight, or under-dressed?
That's what posters are asking on an anonymous website catering to college students – and the website uses the subjects' names.
There's outrage on the Drew University campus over the anonymous website College ACB, where students rank fellow students – by name – on how they measure up.
"I think it's trash, actually," student Ernest Wawiorko said. "The people who are doing it are not happy with themselves."
Schools across the country, including Drew University, have dedicated pages discussing the hottest guys and girls, the biggest trolls, who's got STDs, cheaters, and more.
"Who's the ugliest, who's the biggest, who's the stupidest, and it's just a waste of time," Drew sophomore Kara Sadiang-Abay said.
At Drew University, one female student was ridiculed so much for being overweight that she tried to transfer out of the university – anything to get away.
The university said that because the website is not affiliated with the school, their hands were tied.
"Certainly if this was going on in our discussion boards, we would have the ability to know not only who was doing the posting, but to remove those posts," a school official said.
The humiliated student was counseled and stayed in school. Meanwhile, letters went out urging all students to boycott the website.
Drew University is also lobbying the state attorney general to shut College ACB down under cyber-bullying laws.
"It's been shown that bullying is associated with more suicidal thoughts, more suicidal acts," psychologist Anna Yusim said.
Yusim counsels young adults and said the answer to sites like College ACB is to rise above them.
"For them to develop a sense of self, and a sense of self-esteem that's vested within themselves, as opposed to what other people think," Yusim said.
The attorney general's office in New Jersey is aware of the website, but declined comment on their investigation.
