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Bebo beats cyberbullies to the punch

Candace Lombardi
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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Candace Lombardi

Bebo is looking to take some of the rejection out of rock music.

The music social networking site announced a new feature on Thursday that allows Web page owners to pre-vet all posts to their pages. The change enables owners to preview all responses, and delete or permit them based on their own discretion. They can also delete previous posts they do not like and ban specific posters altogether.

The reasoning behind this is to "combat bullying" and prevent "derogatory comments," Bebo said.

(Since when was the rock world "friendly?")

Songs on Bebo are ranked by the number of playlists the song has been added to, not its comments, so the democratic system the company touted in July still seems to be intact. Bebo bands will still rise and fall democratically based on their popularity, not on recommendations.

The move seems to be part of Bebo's pledge to join the cyberbullying task force, a program set up by the U.K.'s Department of Education and Skills to work on providing safer online environments for young people.

While the change is probably healthier for those who frequent the site, it kind of takes away the site's credibility as a landing spot for bombastic music aficionados similar to Jack Black's character in "High Fidelity."

After all, the new tool gives band members the power to delete any comments criticizing their music, not just offensive posts.