Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You.

Cyber bulling/stalking is a very real problem on the internet today. People used to cyber stalk and bully even before social networking sites became as power as they are now, but now that they are more popular attacks are made easier. For example, Levinson points out the case of Laurie Drew in his book New New Media. In this case a mother took the revenge of her daughter into her own hands torturing and ridiculing another girl until she committed suicide. Neither party in this instance is completely innocent and that's because the evidence shows the proof of attacks.
My sister faced a cyber bulling type circumstance which almost wound up with the other girl getting arrested. According to my sister she had lost her state drivers license at a party and another girl picked it up and kept it. My sister found this out and confronted the girl via facebook message requesting the I.D. be returned to her immediately. The other girl responded with a nasty note saying not only would she not return the I.D. of my sister's, but she was going to use it to get herself into bars. Not only was my sister quit sure that this girl way to ugly to ever pull of using her I.D., but she was sure it was a crime too. Later my sister requested the help of a police officer that she saw in passing. The policeman told her, "This other girl is guilty of identity theft and there is clear evidence to prove that, but I don't know how far you will get if you press charges. I suggest that you report the I.D. stolen and get a new one." So my sister ended up just getting a new I.D. in addition to setting up a clever trap for the girl.  My sister had her friend hand out flyers to bars with the girl who stole her I.D. on them saying this is not the real Natalie Thrall (my sister).  This story just goes to show if you are going to commit a crime best not to leave evidence on your social networking site.

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