Re: Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals

[Guest guest]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081204.wgtweb05/B

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" Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals "

So here we have a case that, because there is no law on the books,

people can get away with tormenting a kid to the point of suicide.

Common sense and conscience tell everyone that what this woman did was

wrong and ought to pay for her crimes. Yet everyone is too socially

inclined not to do anything about it.

Another problem with society I guess and social rules.

Administrator

[Guest guest]

I think the closest analog (pardon the pun) would be to treat this exactly in

the same

manner as someone using a telephone to do the same thing.

It's a complicated issue, because it was clearly premeditated to cause her

emotional harm:

what is not clear to me (I don't have that information, if it exists in a public

setting) is

whether or not the intention was to push her to the point of suicide. Fact of

the matter is

that you honestly can't make anyone commit suicide with your words alone,

assuming

you've not somehow managed to hypnotize them: it requires the victim to actually

choose

that course of action. AFAIK, she didn't tell the poor heartbroken girl to

commit suicide,

and no matter how vulnerable of a mental state she was in, she still had her

free will.

What this #^ & @ did was very reprehensible, but it's not really clear how to deal

with this

100% correctly with the laws that were on the books at the time. I can only

hope that the

the #^ & @ is never able to live this down and have everyone shun her for her

behavior,

because frankly, how can you be sure she won't go out of her way to do something

like

this to you or someone else in the future?

>

> Excuse me, append harassment and mental abuse.

>