In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about cyberbullying, the appeal of location-based social networking, and what TMI means in the digital age.

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Cyberbullying is a Problem Many Schools Don’t Know How to Handle

Yesterday, Jan Hoffman wrote an incisive and sprawling article on cyberbullying for the New York Times. The article focuses on the various difficulties school officials face in determining the proper punishment for cyberbullying, particularly if the harassment occurs off of school property. It also features a number of specific examples of cyberbullying in schools and the pain that each event caused its victims.

Danah Boyd: Facebook Needs to Focus on “Trust and Informed Consent”

In a special column to CNN, social media researcher and privacy activist Danah Boyd explains why Facebook’s real privacy problem isn’t its complicated privacy settings, which it has improved, but rather the company’s continued inability to foster a culture of “trust and informed consent.” As Boyd explains, Facebook’s current model does not respect user’s rights.

“Changing things and then forcing users to opt out is manipulative. Instead, they should be seeking informed consent — actively working with users to help make sure that they understand what’s at stake in their choices. It is unacceptable for a company like Facebook to trick people into ‘consenting’ to make their data more visible than they might think that it is.”

Facebook Has Changed the Meaning of “Too Much Information”

Scott Duke Harris at the Mercury News has an interesting story on Internet manners and the way that Facebook and other social networking websites have changed the way people think about sharing information. Harris mainly focuses on the “TMI” dilemma, whereby people knowingly (or unknowingly) share too much information online, leading to embarrassment later.

The article offers one very interesting example for how TMI plays out on Facebook. One user posted this message as a public status update: “This goes out to any girl that ive ever been with. I got tested today for Herpes and i came out positive.”

WaPo Blogger Forced to Resign Over “Private” E-mail List Comments

Washington Post blogger David Weigel was forced to resign this past week after disparaging remarks he made about conservative politicians were made public. The catch, the remarks were posted on a on a private e-mail list for Washington D.C. journalists called Journolist. Of course, they weren’t really private at all, which is why Ezra Klein (the famed political blogger who started the list) decided to shut it down after Weigel’s resignation.

In a separate column discussing the situation, Klein wrote “insofar as the current version of Journolist has seen its archives become a weapon, and insofar as people’s careers are now at stake, it has to die.”

Marshall Kirkpatrick Explains Location-Based Social Networking

Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb has an interesting and well-written op-ed explaining why some people, including himself, use location-based social networking websites such as Gowalla and Foursquare. If you’ve ever wondered why someone would willingly share their precise global coordinates with friends — and sometimes strangers — Kirkpatrick’s article may answer your question.

When Commenters Attack: Noise to Signal Comic

Lastly, Rob Cottingham of the popular web comic Noise to Signal takes a funny look at the viciousness of some Internet commenters. Cottingham suggests that “civil behaviour ought to be the expected norm of online community, not the welcome exception.” We can definitely agree with that.