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Friday 2008-06-06 - Murderers and Liars Hide Behind Anonymity Online
Written by Dragon
On many forums, chatrooms, and other virtual communities, anonymity has been considered an important feature for users. This anonymity has allowed Internet users to publish statements that can be read by millions of people with little concern who they will hurt. Even though the Internet was created for transferring programs and scholarly information, the truth of information on the Internet is corrupted by the same feature that many users hold to strongly.
In some cases, information online is false because it is written by imposters. Although it is intended to be harmless in many cases, these imposters can sway the public opinion of the people they are impersonating. For example, in Salt Lake City, after the shooting of a law enforcement officer, an imposter of alleged shooter Curtis Allgier created a page on MySpace.com, currently the most popular virtual community for teenagers. On the page, the Allgier imposter described his hometown as "White Nation." News paper reporters found the site and referenced it in their story about the accused neo-Nazi. The MySpace page was eventually taken down after the Anti-Defamation League stepped in, but a correction regarding the false web page was never published (Spencer, 2007). Regardless of what Allgier actually did, the public opinion of him was already set by MySpace. In another event, imposters of Aaron White wrote sexual threats toward a friend of Daniel Cicciaro. After leaving a party one night, Cicciaro chased after White (Hornig, 2008). While trying to protect his son, White's father shot and killed Cicciaro during the course of the confrontation (Vitello, 2006) proving that a chat room joke can indirectly murder a teenager.
Embellishment and utter fantasy is also sometimes portrayed as truth online initial, such as in the story of Kaycee Nicole Swenson. Kaycee struggled with leukemia and posted online about her progress with the disease for more than 2 years. Debbie Swenson, Kaycee's "mother," eventually posted that Kaycee had died. The community rallied, posting condolences and memorials, but there were some people who suspected something fishy. Many members defended Debbie until she finally admitted that Kaycee was a figment of her imagination. The host of the website took it offline immediately after finding out the truth and the virtual community was thrown into chaos. Members regrouped on other websites to discuss the future of their community and rules for interaction. Obviously in this case, determining if a person is authentic is more about consistency of character than physical verification, and although Debbie meant no harm (Jordan, 2005), the veil of anonymity allowed the Debbie to deceive a large virtual community for years.
School bullies can take advantage of anonymity online too. In the worst cases of this type, the bullying doesn't stop until the target has committed suicide. In 2003, Ryan Halligan, a 13-year-old boy in Vermont was the target of harassment. In addition to being bullied at school, online his peers posted false accusations that Ryan was gay. The weight of those accusations was so heavy on Ryan that he committed suicide (Koloff, 2008). Three years after the Halligan incident, tragedy struck the Meier home in Missouri. After the suicide of 13 year-old Megan, parents Tina and Rob Meier discovered that their daughter had been prompted to kill herself by a boy named Josh, whom she met on MySpace.com. Nearly six weeks after their friendship began, Josh turned against Megan and started writing hate-filled messages online. After Josh wrote “the world would be a better place without you,” Megan, already troubled by severe depression, hung herself. The awful truth was that Megan's former friend was actually the creation of a high school rival's mother, Lori Drew. Drew found pleasure in harassing the young, impressionable girl. Although there were no laws that were broken (Hewitt, Morrissey & Grout, 2007), Dr. Moisy Shopper made a clear statement against this harmful anonymous act stating "this is a case of adults abusing a vulnerable child and causing psychological abuse (Malone, 2007)."
Although, some people say that there is no real impact for the teasing done online, the truth is that cyberbullies and imposters have access to such a large audience that the effects can be devastating. Thankfully, seven states have adopted cyberbully laws and five more states in the US are in the process (Koloff, 2008). Hopefully the the horrible truth of these situations will make people think more ethically when using the anonymous features of the Internet.
Murderers and Liars Hide Behind Anonymity Online - written by Nathaniel "Dragon" Bird for English 1101 with Professor Flores, April 9, 2008.
Work Cited
Hewitt, B., Morrissey, S., & Grout, P. (2007, December 3). Did a Cruel Hoax Lead to SUICIDE?. People, 68(23), 135-136. Retrieved March 31, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.
Hornig, J. (2008, April 1). 20/20 Friday: Teenage Tragedy. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from ABC News Web site: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=4559990&page=1
Jordan, J. (2005, Spring). A VIRTUAL DEATH AND A REAL DILEMMA: Identity, Trust, and Community in Cyberspace. Southern Communication Journal, 70(3), 200-218. Retrieved March 31, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.
Koloff, A. States push for cyberbully controls. (2008, Feb 7). USA Today, p. News, Pg. 03a. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from Academic Search Complete database.
Malone, R. (2007, December). Online harassment: A hoax, a suicide — a journalistic dilemma. St. Louis Journalism Review, 37(301), 13-13. Retrieved March 31, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.
Spencer, J. (2007, October). Found in (My) Space. American Journalism Review, 29(5), 36-39. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from Academic Search Complete database.
Vitello, P. (2006, August 12). In 2 L.I. Neighborhoods, Feeling of Security Is Lost After Killing. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from New York Times Web site: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/12/nyregion/12fight.html