Jessi Slaughter, or How I Learned to Hate the Internet

Hawk Teflon

Hawk Teflon

Veteran
I'm not sure how familiar you are with the story of "Jessi Slaughter" (that's not her real name apparently). I've watched this story unfold over the past few days, and it's been quite the ride. Finally someone has both original videos (not "remixed") on the same page with an interview from her mom. Start here:

http://www.momlogic.com/2010/07/exc...ughter_jessica_leonhardt_dianne_leonhardt.php

Well, Richard, I believe THAT kid needs a spanking! I'm sure you can imagine all of the trolls feeding off of what her dad was saying (backtraced, reporting to the cyber police, consequences will never be the same), but he was caught in a fit of rage and apparently just said whatever he could.

It's sad to see that this happened. (1) The parents should have been aware of what was going on with their daughter. (2) 4chan needs to be mod'ed. Seriously. I know that they have the /b/ page (where this got out of hand), and it's a "no rules" type of place. But that seems like the greymarket area of the internet. You know, the part that makes you feel dirty and you know that someone should shut it down, but it's still alive. Some guys on /b/ got ahold of all of her information (address, phone numbers, etc) and posted over there to troll.

Was she right? No. She shouldn't be spouting off on the internet like that if she's not ready to be troll fodder. Were her parents right? No. They should have been watching what their child was doing. Was 4chan right in exposing this? Absolutely not. There was nothing right in this situation.

It's things like this that ruin peoples lives, and it's done to be funny. Not funny to the victim, but to others.

Her mother stated it the best: "People think this is funny, but they don't realize the damage they're doing."
 
I hadn't heard of this until now, but the idea of an 11 y/o with an unsupervised computer and a webcam in their room scares me.
 
Mike Harvey said:
I hadn't heard of this until now, but the idea of an 11 y/o with an unsupervised computer and a webcam in their room scares me.
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I haven't looked at this yet either but that right there is the problem. Of course webcams are mostly built in now so most parents may not even know they're there.

Bottom line: All your child's internet use should be heavily monitored.

MAH
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
I haven't looked at this yet either but that right there is the problem. Of course webcams are mostly built in now so most parents may not even know they're there.

Bottom line: All your child's internet use should be heavily monitored.

MAH
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That's for sure. It's a VERY different world then the one I grew-up in! This is just wrong on so many levels....crazy, just crazy... and the kid's have no idea what they are doing when they post this kind of stuff.

I'm SO glad my girls are pretty much grown now...
 
Hawk Teflon said:
It's things like this that ruin peoples lives, and it's done to be funny. Not funny to the victim, but to others.

Her mother stated it the best: "People think this is funny, but they don't realize the damage they're doing."
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I would submit that perpetuating viral videos of people saying dumb things, and having bash-sessions over them, is not far removed and probably leads to similar behavior in more instances than anyone hears about.

Not singling you out by any means; simply observing in general.
 
David Jimerson said:
I would submit that perpetuating viral videos of people saying dumb things, and having bash-sessions over them, is not far removed and probably leads to similar behavior in more instances than anyone hears about.

Not singling you out by any means; simply observing in general.
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I don't follow.
 
It's a little bit frightening that there is apparently no shortage of parents who won't bother tracking what their kids are up to, even under their own roof.

Sheesh.
 
Hawk Teflon said:
...about "being far removed." Far removed from what? Sorry, I should have been more specific.
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Well, take in point the sprinkler rainbow lady. The video goes viral; people have gleeful bash-sessions over it.

Then, someone comes along and says "hey, this lady lives HERE!" and then posts a picture of the house. Then people find the house, and start harassing the lady, thinking it's "OK" because, well, she's just so danged dumb and deserves it. It's really not hard to imagine.

It wouldn't be very different from what happened here, just a bit less extreme.
 
I wouldn't harass Sprinkler Lady.

Although if I had her address I might mail her a holiday card and an 8th-grade physics text with the appropriate pages high-lighted.
 
Whether or not you would personally isn't the point (though it's hard to see how mailing such a thing to her wouldn't be harassment). It's that the bashing encourages, and in some people's minds, justifies, the harassment.

This little girl's case is extreme, but it's of a piece, and no doubt followed the same roadmap.

Just something to think about during the next pile-on.
 
David Jimerson said:
Well, take in point the sprinkler rainbow lady. The video goes viral; people have gleeful bash-sessions over it.

Then, someone comes along and says "hey, this lady lives HERE!" and then posts a picture of the house. Then people find the house, and start harassing the lady, thinking it's "OK" because, well, she's just so danged dumb and deserves it. It's really not hard to imagine.

It wouldn't be very different from what happened here, just a bit less extreme.
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Yeah, that's a good point. But there is a little difference in the torture of an 11 year old that's cocky, and that of a grown woman. I'm not saying either deserve it, but at least a grown up can defend herself.
 
I think you'd have real difficulty finding law-enforcement who would agree that mailing someone a standard science textbook qualifies as 'harassment.'

I think there's social value in the public ridicule of the ignorant. It encourages the ignorant to educate themselves just a tiny bit - or, failing that, at least keeping their ignorance to themselves and not getting any on others.

Which is a different matter from harassing a minor child and her family, making crank or threatening calls, pounding on their door, making them fear for their safety, etc, no matter how stupidly irresponsible her parents may have been.
 
Well, I normally stay out of stuff like this, but let's be clear on something:

I think there's social value in the public ridicule of the ignorant. It encourages the ignorant to educate themselves just a tiny bit
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DVXUser is not here to engage in, or support, or enable, the ridiculing of ANYONE. We are here to educate. If someone doesn't know something, they can come here to ask. And while we may have answered the question a million times already and the answer may be "search", still, the appropriate and accepted responses here will never include ridiculing the asker.

Have we slipped up in the past? Sure. But we're back on track and trying to ensure that we don't engage in such in the future.

This is a community for helping and supporting, not bashing and ridiculing.

May not have anything to do with the topic at hand, but -- just want folks to be aware that when the dogpile starts, we're gonna shut it down and say "take it elsewhere." We support, we educate, we share, we build up. That's what we do here. That's what this place is for.
 
I'm certain, by that, Mark Twain didn't mean "teach others" by ridiculing and belittling them. If he did, I don't see his definition of "noble" as being worth much.
 
One doesn't accomplish anything worthwhile in a teaching environment by ridiculing one's students.

The concept behind the public ridicule is to motivate people to make an effort to educate themselves or to seek improved education.

Considering the application of mockery and ridicule to anti-drug and anti-tobacco campaigns, the principle might be sufficiently well-entrenched to try it on anti-ignorance, too.
 
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