Parents say fake online 'friend' led to girl's suicide - CNN.com

Nov 18, 2007 at 9:23 AM
7 comments

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/11/17/...

Story Highlights Family says teen was upset after "Josh" ended their friendship on MySpace "Josh" turned out to be the creation of a neighborhood family Parents want the people who made the fraudulent online profile to be prosecuted Girl's mother: Law enforcement officials say the case doesn't fit into any lawNext Article in U.S. »

1 comment

I believe that this story should be read by the entire Vox community. Should something be done? And if so, what?

7 comments

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myspace,
suicide

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Extremely sad situation. Of course, the perps should be punished. Anonymous bullying is the worse kind of all.

But it just goes to show that we can't always know the people we converse with online, and must always be vigilant, especially for our children.

Thanks for your comment. It is well balanced in my opinion.

Very sad story.

Now I've remembered that my 13 old daughter has more than 100 contacts in her Yahoo messenger. (in her classroom there are 30 kids; who are the other 70?)

Should I check that contacts? Won't she lose her trust in me? Kinda delicate.

xmangerm replied to Horia Stanescu’s comment:
Nov 18, 2007
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Well...every parent or caregiver must tread lightly for this is a delicate subject.

Very sad - but why is the girl taking her online friends so seriously? I think the internet is also too overpowering on children/teenagers today. Too easily influenced by friends and such. Even if the person is wrong to make a fake profile - someone is looking to blame the finger on someone - not sure if that's so right either.

xmangerm replied to Procrastinator’s comment:
Nov 18, 2007
Reply

The girl was upset and had some episodes of depression. And that one friend is what brought her joy. Nevertheless, equal blame distributed on all sides is my verdict.

i read this yesterday, obviously the girl already had emotional and or mental problems. she really should have been more closely watched by her parents and what was going on. kids at that age can't only rely on internet friendships or relationships to fulfill actual human in real life interactions and engagements. whether she did it then, or in a few years, the girl did what she did. she wasn't in the right mind frame, and who knows if she ever would have been. some kids don't deal with the things that come along with being a teenager very well and thats not something any of us can fix

Parents say fake online 'friend' led to girl's suicide - CNN.com

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