Last November, 13 year old Megan Meier committed suicide because of cruel harassment under a fake my-space page. Her harasser was the mother of one of her former friends. After an argument between the girls the 47 year old mother took it upon herself to create a my-space profile under the name Josh Evans. She befriended Megan online in the attempt to later hurt her emotionally. The young teenager was found hung in her closet the next day and headlines of her death were everywhere.
Recently a new victim of cyber bulling, a 16 year old boy whose name has not been disclosed, has attempted suicide. He was rushed to the emergency room after taking 60 painkillers. Police said the incident was not a cry for help but a genuine attempt on his life. The harasser in this case was a former friend pulling a "practical joke" on his buddy. The bully created a fake profile of a boy named Callum on the internet site Bebo. The bully then lured his former friend into a romantic relationship with the character. In the event explicit sexual content was exchanged online. This content was shared with the boys' friends and even teachers. The sophisticated prank went on for months and when the victim finally found out the truth he attempted to take his own life.
This story particularly hits home for me because I know someone who has been bullied in this same manner. I was friends with a group of guys I met in the dorms my freshman year. One of the guys was very socially awkward and was always kind of picked on by the other guys. One night a group of them were over at a girl friends house and singed onto her AIM account and pretended to be her. They then confronted the ‘socially awkward' friend and lured him into cyber sex. They tried to get him to say really awkward things. For six months after this they would repeat lines from the conversation in front of him, got him to admit that he had cyber sex with the girl and then announced that it was all a practical joke in front of the girl and a room full of other friends.
The sad thing is that these guys thought the whole ordeal was so funny. What if this friend of ours committed suicide? What would those boys do then? How would they ever forgive themselves? I too have said things I shouldn't in blogs or through AIM. This kind of thing is a wake up call to our generation. We never know what kind of problems people have. Practical jokes like this should not happen. Also we should never vent about the people we love online. Friends, Co-workers, family… we should keep our negative feelings or daily frustrations about them in our private journals, not on the web for all to see!
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