I disagree vehemently. In fact, I find your entire post quite troubling and downright scary.

No one really knows if it's the right person, but even if it is, all this is doing is inviting vigilante reprisals. And if it's the wrong person, then we allowed this group to ruin this person's life because of the public thirst for revenge.

As flawed as the system is, we should let the proper judicial channels deal with this.

The problem in many of these situations is that the law enforcement agencies know jackshit about new technology. Obviously, you are correct in your concerns that Internet vigilantism as justice is a clear slippery slope. This is the inherent issue that will not go away. The best and brightest in new technological fields aren't going to be in law enforcement or in the government. They can make way more money elsewhere.

Vigilante justice such as this has arisen because lawmakers and law enforcements are taking far too long to do something about cyber bullying. Like I mentioned, online harassment is nothing new. It's like the Internet is a place of anarchy where people can do whatever they want. Not always, but in a lot of cases, yes.

If no one wants a hacker group like Anonymous to stop cyber bullies, then give politicians a shove to pass laws to stop these bullies.

Don't you always, BoMac? :wink:

what's wrong with you? how can you defend this person? he deserves whatever he gets. he should be stoned to death. something must be done to maintain 'honor'.

I find it worrying that this guy's actions are being called "bullying" and not outright criminal.

Is there something different in Canada than here where an adult spreading pictures of a 15-year-old's breasts could not be labeled as sharing child pornography?

bullying or not

the system is broken, bad guys have more rights than victims, anonymous can be the people's vehicle for justice.
criminals, bullies should be exposed for who they are, with pictures, their names, maps and pictures of their homes and work places available on the internet for everybody to see and use for whatever purpose

victims should not be the only ones that are afraid

No, this guy's alleged actions are definitely considered child pornography in Canada. What this girl endured at the hands of her peers as a result of this guy's blackmail attempt is what's being called bullying.

That's so awful. I can't believe people bullied her over what some jackass did to her, but at the same time I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Some people can be so cold-hearted.

I too am wary of vigilante justice-I understand that lawmakers and law enforcement aren't always as quick on these things as they should be and fully support trying to get tougher on this stuff, but I also know that anytime people have tried to do something with internet laws related to trying to stop bullying they've seemed to run into a lot of complications and free speech issues and all that sort of thing (and what constitutes "bullying" can differ sometimes, too). And if they did indeed target the wrong guy in this case somehow, then we've kind of got a problem on our hands here.

That said, however, if they do have the right guy, I'm not feeling too much sympathy about his life being ruined because what he did was downright disgusting.

Like the reputation of this guy if he's not the right person. Dont get me wrong, if this does turn out to be him, he should get what's coming, but proper law enforcement takes greater steps to ensure people are not wrongly accused. And yet even in those cases, it still does happen sometimes.

Either way, it's fucking sad that nobody tried to talk to this girl before she killed herself. Out of the hundreds of kids at her schools, you think at least one would have a heart to sit and have a talk with her.

What needs to happen with cyber bullying is that law enforcement should be able to have a more streamlined system to obtain warrants to do an ISP search. The key is to propose the right ideas so that you don't have police infringing on our privacy for every minor thing but that kids (and adults) who are being bullied have access to justice.

The description on her YouTube video reads:

"I'm struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me so deeply. I'm not doing this for attention. I'm doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong. I did things to myself to make pain go away, because I'd rather hurt myself then someone else. Haters are haters but please don't hate, although im sure I'll get them. I hope I can show you guys that everyone has a story, and everyones future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I'm still here aren't I?"

She drank bleach in a previous suicide attempt

Gotcha; thanks for the clarification.

A slippery slope indeed:

Fuck his reputation. Where to next? We should let our irrational emotions point the way! yay internet!

this reminds me of a really sad story i heard not long ago - many years ago there was a horrible killing in the UK where a little boy, James Bulger, was abducted by two school boys - can't remember how old they were, around 10/11 i think - anyway these two kids tortured and murdered this little boy, and were sent to prison, and released as adults with new identities, but the whole thing shocked the nation it was so horrific and people have never forgotten

now, a vicious rumour recently went round a community in the UK, and a young man was wrongly rumoured to be one of the killers, and the public made his life hell - he was totally innocent, was a case of mistaken identity, but he was subjected to horrendous attacks and bullying by the general public, and it got so out of control he ended up committing suicide...

when people take matters into their own hands it can get pretty dangerous...

Well, as I said, if Anonymous did target the wrong person, then I won't applaud them any more. But I still think that as long as lawmakers do little to stop something that needs to be, vigilantes will arise. If anyone wants vigilantes to not take matters into their hands, then get the lawmakers to. Cyberbullying isn't going away tomorrow so it is time to take action.

That's just hedging your bets though. You can't have it both ways. That would be like saying "I support capital punishment, but only when they execute the right person". It misses the point completely. The act of vigilantism is inherently inaccurate. Fact is, people are complaining that the police are doing nothing, yet they have no idea what the police are up to. The reason it takes time is so that they don't end up naming the wrong person like these amateur, knee jerk witch hunts so often do.

??? :huh: don't know how the emoticon got up there
try again

I've come late to this party....... (still catching up)

Well, we've also subdued infectious diseases.We can connect and learn from people around the world. Travel to see or see in books many natural wonders and human creativity around the world. I'm very tired so this what i could come up with right away.

You know, the Native Americans did almost all that (excpet for the wagons, i'd say) and yet because they had their own religions they were considered heathens, stupid etc and usually brutally subjugated. Talking about "bullying".

(And stop dissing Modern Art; some is quite wonderful/or thought provoking.)

Just caught up tho i'm reading from the posts of ? late Sept &through Oct here...
thanks ladyfreckles, ML, Irvine, JT, yolland and a few others for good posts or quick quips/lines. :up: