Law Can’t Stop Teen From Being Cyber-Bullied
In North Carolina, a girl is being bullied online. As horrifying as the content is, police can’t do anything to help her. How far are we going to let this spin out of control until parents realize they need to do something?
If every parent used PC Pandora monitoring software, cyber-bullying could almost disappear overnight.
November 24, 2009
Law Can’t Stop Triad Teen From Being Cyber-Bullied
A teen’s photos were taken off MySpace and manipulated to include pornographic content. But there is nothing the police can do. So, what steps do you take to protect your children online?Greensboro, NC — If you click on the video linked to this story, you can hear the online video made about a local 16-year-old girl. It’s so obscene we had to block out some audio and video.
And parents, this could be your kid. It could be your child being sexually harassed and humiliated over the computer.
It can be such a traumatic problem, kids have committed suicide over it. And this online bullying has happened close to home.
Some Greensboro moms say a teen exploited their daughters’ innocent pictures off of Myspace.You would think if someone uses your child’s pictures in a sexual explicit video, the law will help you stop them right? That’s not always the case, at least not yet.
And some local moms found out the hard way.
“I’m a mom, and I’m mad. I’m very mad,” said Terry Morales when she saw someone use her daughter’s pictures in an online obscene video.
“I couldn’t believe it was happening. It was like a soap, you know like a soap opera, that it was not real,” she continued.
The pictures came from her 16-year-old’s Myspace account.
In the video, someone put her pictures to a lewd song and also added obscene material.
Mom says she knows who the culprit is and filed a police report for obscene material and pornography.
“I want this young man prosecuted. Because these girls can’t go to college with something like this.”
But the detective on this case says not so fast.
The officer wouldn’t talk on camera but told WFMY just because the girls’ pictures are placed next to male body parts in a Youtube video, that doesn’t mean you can charge someone with pornography.
The officer said laws simply haven’t caught up with this kind of bullying. But starting next week, police will have a new tool to fight this type of computer attack.
A new cyber-bullying law takes effect, allowing officers to charge someone for making such a video. But for now, police can help remove an offensive video from a site like Youtube or Facebook.
Forty-two percent of kids have been bullied while online, according to a national survey from a group called I-Safe America.
According to local detectives who investigate child crimes, one in four children has received a sexual message on the internet.
Investigators point out any picture you post on a social website, or send by email or phone can end up in the wrong hands.
“A lot of parents let their kids have or use the computer in their own room. And that’s the biggest mistake,” says Detective Ferrell with the Greensboro Police Department.
Ferrell recommends keeping your computer in a common area of your house. He also suggests posting rules by the computer about what websites your child can visit and what they can post. It’s a good idea to know who all of your child’s friends are on any social website, he said.
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