So girls are mean. What’s new? Now they will be held accountable for the actions of those they are mean to with felony charges. I don’t agree with what the girls did, but is their “cyberbullying” a possible felony?
no way in hell. man, I feel for this girl I really do. it’s constant torment with others picking on you and following you around to make fun of you. its incredibly sad. But bullying is not–nor should it be–a crime. If people are ever to grow up and learn how to handle adversity then they must start learning when the stakes are “small”. I don’t mean small to them of course, but smaller than say…your career being threatened or livelihood being taken away, or retirement funds going under, or racial discrimination or sexual harassment or any of the other things that are massive in scale. I believe that it is a bigger problem to live all of one’s life online…I said as I posted on an interwebzforum lol.
As far as I know however, stalking is actually a crime. I am not sure if one needs a restraining order first to lay the groundwork for a charge or not (especially unsure in the UK), but if they prosecute for stalking they might win.
Dangerous dangerous dangerous precedent.
"Judd said the 14-year-old was “very cold, had no emotion at all upon her arrest.”
So either she’s in tremendous shock and lost all capacity for emotion, or she’s a sociopath.
Given this statement in the article- “Judd said he arrested the 14-year-old girl after she posted online Saturday that she bullied Rebecca and she didn’t care.”, I’m going with sociopath.
And I would imagine that sociopaths bullying you is on a whole different level than the bullying that we experienced when we were children.
Personally, I think online bullying is a whole different animal from the old bullying that people think of. I would imagine that it makes it much easier to bully people online, and you would feel hounded at all times, no matter what.
[quote]magick wrote:
Personally, I think online bullying is a whole different animal from the old bullying that people think of.
[/quote]
It is different. There is an off button on the computer. Don’t have to read it. Don’t have to deal with it. Totally different than being assaulted in person.
Sure.
[quote]doogie wrote:
It is different. There is an off button on the computer. Don’t have to read it. Don’t have to deal with it. Totally different than being assaulted in person.[/quote]
Actually, no. Not sure.
If what you said was true, then you wouldn’t have “adults” getting all uppity on this very forum about what others said towards them either.
Or any forum or place on the internet for that matter.
But that’s not the case. We do very much care about what others say about us online, and this is all the more amplified if people are using actual real names and people we actually know in life are saying such things about us.
Basically the bullying in real life chases us all the way home. There is no escape.
[quote]
It is different. There is an off button on the computer. Don’t have to read it. Don’t have to deal with it. Totally different than being assaulted in person.[/quote]
Obviously.
But on the other hand, even if you don’t read it, sooner or later someone else will read it.
And once it’s online, it’s online forever, accessible from anywhere.
It moves from hard drive to hard drive, and it can’t be stopped nor controled.
Imagine an insult that can produce perpetual and ubiquitous echoes.
How long do you think you can “just ignore” it ?
A few years ago, an angry ex-boyfriend uploaded “disadvantageous” pics of one my students. A 15 yo girl.
In less than a week, those pics were on dozens of computers and phones.
She tried the “i don’t care” strategy. For a time.
After a while, it simply became unbearable, so she left the school and went to another one.
The pics and the comments followed her.
Moreover, cyberbullying and real life bullying aren’t mutually exclusive : cyberbullying and rl bullying works together. The former acting like a catalyser and multiplier for the latter.
If there is a crime called felony aggravated stalking, and these girls committed it, then I say charge them. Bullying per se is not illegal, but many of the specific forms it takes are. In those cases, it is perfectly appropriate for Johnny Law to get involved. Do I want to see cops arresting kids who call each other names during backyard football games? No. But a sustained campaign of torture which takes place over the course of weeks or months or years and ends in suicide? Yeah, I can see how some actual laws could have been broken there.
Violence is the answer, it worked for me.
[quote]kamui wrote:
This is spot on.
[quote]kamui wrote:
another example of being a dumbass. How about NOT taking naked pictures of yourself? Too easy of a solution and because it puts the blame on the “victim” it’s somehow wrong in our society of not taking personal responsibility.
i never said it was naked pictures.
i never said she took the pictures herself.
But if it was the case… everyone involved could be charged not for bullying, but for child pornography.
Which is quite illegal, unlike being a dumbass.
And even she was a dumbass, she would still be a victim, without quotation marks.
[quote]kamui wrote:
i never said it was naked pictures.
i never said she took the pictures herself.
But if it was the case… everyone involved could be charged not for bullying, but for child pornography.
Which is quite illegal, unlike being a dumbass.
And even she was a dumbass, she would still be a victim, without quotation marks. [/quote]
Good post.
[quote]kamui wrote:
i never said it was naked pictures.
i never said she took the pictures herself.
But if it was the case… everyone involved could be charged not for bullying, but for child pornography.
Which is quite illegal, unlike being a dumbass.
And even she was a dumbass, she would still be a victim, without quotation marks. [/quote]
then define “disadvantageous” for us? She must have been dressed like nazi while clubbing baby seals if it wasnt something sexual and she was forced to move.
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Violence is the answer, it worked for me. [/quote]
Agreed. Once you beat the ever living fuck out of someone’s face, it suddenly become much less important to bully you, especially because for several weeks their face bears mute witness to how bad they got shamed.
On the other hand, not an option for some people.
Also I can see both sides of this one, especially with people like kamui posting, who I’ve always respected. the thing just sucks all the way around. 
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Violence is the answer, it worked for me. [/quote]
Sure, if there’s the stereotypical single bully surrounded by his/her lackeys like the bullies of old.
But that isn’t the case anymore. EVERYONE is the bully if you’re the target.
Are you going to go and beat the crap out of every person in your class?
[quote]Aggv wrote:
[quote]kamui wrote:
i never said it was naked pictures.
i never said she took the pictures herself.
But if it was the case… everyone involved could be charged not for bullying, but for child pornography.
Which is quite illegal, unlike being a dumbass.
And even she was a dumbass, she would still be a victim, without quotation marks. [/quote]
then define “disadvantageous” for us? She must have been dressed like nazi while clubbing baby seals if it wasnt something sexual and she was forced to move. [/quote]
Now, i’m wondering if you have too much or too little imagination.
“disadvantageous” could be many things : her weight, her look, a demartologic disease, or simply a shameful situation.
An example ?
I know a boy who have been forced to eat a “saliva pie”.
a loaf of bread upon which a dozen of schoolmates had spit.
Luckily for him, they didn’t have a smartphone at hand to immortalize the moment.
You know its always struck me as funny how people go on about the innocence of children. Its too bad childhood contains some of the most brutal, insensitive, and senselessly ruthless behavior we know as human beings. Even some of us are probably guilty of some things we are not proud of. I guess growing up is the process of ironing out all that savagery.
[quote]kamui wrote:
Cyberbullying is no doubt wrong, but do you think it is deserving of a felony charges?
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
Cyberbullying is no doubt wrong, but do you think it is deserving of a felony charges?
[/quote]
They’re not charging her for bullying, but rather for stalking that led to her committing suicide.
Obviously they’ll have to prove in court that everything the girl suffered is equivalent to stalking, and that in of itself can lead to interesting development of precedent if this succeeds, but they seem to be trying to make the case that this goes beyond simple bullying.