Thank you to denu for the link to this thread.

I am posting on here because it is a subject on which I have extremely strong feelings. I have chatted with many subs who have been subjected to r/l and on-line bullying in the name of D/s play-and it makes me see red. If there's one thing in this world I can't stand-it's bullying. It's tantamount to abuse and indeed that's what many of you delightful subbies have experienced. Sharing with others can be cathartic but is traumatic at the same time. I bow to those of you brave enough to reveal your anguish and pain and extend *hugs* to you all.

At denu's instigation I will add a poem I wrote on this subject some years back:

A lie too far.

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Young girl sits alone in the depths of the night
Young face lit up by the flickering light.
She has her computer and she lives on-line,
her life in suspension with no sense of time.

Now three in the morning the ebb-tide of her soul,
Her mind is fragmented, long time since it's been whole
She looked in at the internet, looking for a cure
For the angst of her teen years, the web sites proved a lure.

She signed into the chatrooms who'd opened up their door
It was easy as she lied to them, said she was twenty-four.
To get in and to flirt was all that really mattered.
She'd been dazzled; she'd been charmed; she'd been deceived and flattered.

Her man had been quite clever and knew just what to say,
He'd thrown open wide his arms and then begged her to stay.
He seemed so real and witty, so pleasant and so kind
While stealing at her will, her soul while messing with her mind.

Young girl sits alone tears dried upon her face.
Her skin is cold and pale for she's gone now from this place.
The pressures he placed on her young mind proving far too much
Oh-how hypnotic his words were-how subtle was his touch.

She could not live without him. She could not tell him no.
So she made up her mind she would give up and go.
She's logged off from life now. The pain has gone away.
Her mind broke like the dawn at the begining of that day.


In support and friendship,

Ed.