OK. By now we all heard about the mother who posed as a 16 year old boy to spy on a 13 year old neighbor girl’s activities. Apparently, this woman’s daughter and the neighbor girl were best friends, but recently had a falling out. The mother created the persona of the 16 year old boy to win the confidence of the neighbor girl, to find out what the girl may have said about her daughter online.
When the ruse was over, the mother, speaking as the 16 year old boy, whom the girl had become smitten with, began to say mean things to her. One particular insult indicated that “the world would be a better place without her”. The neighbor girl, who had suffered from depression for years, took her own life that night.
In the year since the incident, authorities conducted an investigation and concluded that no charges could be filed against the mother. Since the investigation concluded, the victim’s family has gone public with the story.
I’m not faulting the authorities, they don’t make the laws, they just enforce the asinine laws we have on the books. They are only doing their job. I am faulting the lawmakers, both federal and state, who don’t seem to have a grasp that online harassment is real and needs to be addressed with clear, well thought out laws and penalties.
I haven’t used names or locations here, because there is no need. The blogosphere (which I am NOT a part of), got a hold of this story, and has made life a living hell for the accused and her family. Through some resourceful Googling, the bloggers have posted the following information online regarding the accused:
Names
Home Address
Workplace & phone number
Photographs
Client businesses and telephone numbers
Naturally, the accused family has been shunned by the local community, and well they should be. Unfortunately, the bloggers are guilty of the very harassment that incensed them in the first place. Harassing phone calls have been made to local businesses who advertised in the mothers coupon book. Clients left en masse, and the home based business has since folded. The family (who presumably were not ALL in on the harassment) has had private information posted online to enable others to harass them. The family has been subjected to death threats. A brick was thrown through the family’s window.
Don’t get me wrong, what this mother did was beyond despicable. While I’m sure the mother did not intend to drive the young girl to suicide, that’s exactly what happened. Surely, if the two girls were such close friends, then the mother would have known the victim suffered from depression? Assuming this woman knew, was it wise to say that the world would be a better place without her?
Sometimes a community needs to step in when the law is impotent, but this kind of vigilante action has gotten out of control. The victim’s family will almost certainly see some kind justice when a civil suit is filed. It’s time to call off the dogs. The bloggers dig up dirt on people, post private information online and generally make people’s lives hell. We get it. They do it quite well. But it’s time to stop, before any more lives are lost.
