Online prank adds new dimension to bullying

Way back in the ancient times when I was a schoolboy, children were left to endure the humiliations of youth in relative privacy. Do something foolish and at best you would be forced to endure some teasing; at worst, you could move to another school where no-one would be any the wiser.

But the internet has changed all that. Thanks to the miracle of technology, a simple adolescent prank can turn into a dose of global, life-long misery.

Take the case of the Star Wars Kid.

Three months ago, Ghyslain Raza was just a podgy 15-year-old living in happy anonymity in Quebec. But on April 19, Ghyslain's anonymity was shattered after some friends found a video he had made and posted it to the Kazaa peer-to-peer network.

The tape shows Ghyslain in his school video studio, twirling a pole like a Star Wars light sabre as he takes on an imaginary enemy from the dark side. Unfortunately, his wheezing performance had about as much grace as Yoda dancing the Nutcracker Suite.

Within weeks of being posted, surfers around the world had begun downloading the video of the Star Wars Kid. With simple video-editing software on every desktop these days, it took little effort for a few imaginative fans to add their own special effects, and all of a sudden Ghyslain had been propelled to the status of this year's internet sensation.