TV Jots

ABC Family Movie Tackles Online Meanies

Basic cable’s ABC Family premieres the original movie Cyberbully on July 17 at 8pm ET. Part of the network’s summer-long Delete Digital Drama collaboration with Seventeen magazine, the film stars Emily Osment (Hannah Montana) as the increasingly distressed bullied party, high school student Taylor Hillridge.

Seventeen-year-old Taylor becomes a tortured victim of online bullying when she uses her new computer to attempt making friends on the Internet. Yet, instead of achieving the desired results, which include helping her deal with typical teenage anguish and her parents’ recent divorce, Taylor’s foray into the Wild Wild Web leads to unexpected betrayal, emotional pain, and further social isolation.

The cast of Cyberbully contains plenty of familiar television talent. Performers include Kay Panabaker, last seen on canceled ABC superhero series No Ordinary Family, as Taylor’s best friend Samantha Caldone; The O.C. veteran Kelly Rowan as Taylor’s mother Kris; and Being Human regular Meaghan Rath as Cheyenne Mortenson.

Star Osment recently provided some insight into the main theme of Cyberbully during a group interview with reporters. Her words make it clear she finds the subject matter very important, and she has sensible advice for young people who find themselves the target of meanspirited online behavior.

When asked about her personal experience with bullying — especially given her status as a celebrity, the type of person online haters love to hate on most — Osment replied she discussed the issue with her own mother, a sixth-grade teacher, and Cyberbully producer Joe Rice:

I spoke with [my mother] for a long time about what she sees in her school, and it’s frightening. It’s very sad. And I spoke with Joe Rice a very long time when I read the script, and I loved it for many reasons. One was because I knew this was a character that has an arc. She starts at one place and she drags through this mud a little bit, and then she comes out somewhere else. To play a role like that is an opportunity I haven’t had before, and I was jumping at the opportunity.

Plus, this is a campaign that needs to have more publicity surrounding it. Cyberbullying is a topic that is very hot right now. I know that Michelle Obama has a campaign that she is doing on it. Seventeen magazine obviously is doing a huge campaign right now with Delete Digital Drama. With this StompOutBullying.org that I’m an ambassador for, there is just so much we’re doing.

Osment also feels Cyberbully is not just a movie for teens or kids, and she believes parents should watch it with their children.

If you’re having trouble at home with a kid who’s being bullied and you don’t know how to help them, Kelly Rowan does an excellent job of playing this mother who is caught between a divorce and her job and two kids. And she’s so stressed, which a lot of mothers in America sadly are, but she does a great job of showing how she doesn’t really know how to help in the beginning and then she becomes supermom.

As for what young victims of bullying can do to avoid continuing harassment, Osment offers a few on-target suggestions:

If you’re being bullied, the best thing to do is to hit ‘Delete.’ That’s truly as simple as it is. If you’re seeing negative things online, try and get yourself away from it. And if you can’t get away from it, then you take yourself offline.

We’re very lucky we live in a generation where we have the opportunities that we do with electronics and technology, and we can use it anywhere we want pretty much. But this is our chance to sort of change the direction in which we’re going with the Internet and make it turn right a little bit, and we’ll be a little bit happier.