Girl Commits Suicide Over Internet Prank

[Walsingham]

More like Chaotic lawful if you ask me. *Nerd Zing*

[Guard Dog]

Sand, let me pose a hypothetical question. Suppose you are dating a girl who has begun to get on your nerves. Let's say she is clingy and needy and one day you decide it has to end. So you break up with her and it is a ugly conversation (as many break ups are) and some things are said that neither of you really mean. Now a week passes and you find out that the girl was so distrught over the break up that she comitted suicide. Are you responsable for her death?

[Walsingham]

Sand, let me pose a hypothetical question. Suppose you are dating a girl who has begun to get on your nerves. Let's say she is clingy and needy and one day you decide it has to end. So you break up with her and it is a ugly conversation (as many break ups are) and some things are said that neither of you really mean. Now a week passes and you find out that the girl was so distrught over the break up that she comitted suicide. Are you responsable for her death?

 

I would suggest tentatively that you are partly responsible, but not culpable, and that's my point in this case.

[Sand]

Sand, let me pose a hypothetical question. Suppose you are dating a girl who has begun to get on your nerves. Let's say she is clingy and needy and one day you decide it has to end. So you break up with her and it is a ugly conversation (as many break ups are) and some things are said that neither of you really mean. Now a week passes and you find out that the girl was so distrught over the break up that she comitted suicide. Are you responsable for her death?

 

PArtly to blame, yes, but she would have been an adult and not a child. Remember this guy went after a minor. Makes a world of difference here.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

PArtly to blame, yes, but she would have been an adult and not a child. Remember this guy went after a minor. Makes a world of difference here.

 

What if it was two minors in the aforementioned case, Sand? Or what if, instead of being a romantic relationship, a child had a similar falling out with a favorite nanny or teacher that resulted in their suicide? Would the adult still be responsible?

[Sand]

You are going into what ifs that are irrelevant. A simple falling out is not what happened here. This is an adult man, who specifically targeted a minor. If you are going to make hypotheticals at least have them be similar to what atually happened here.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Gah, if this was DnD cosmology Sand would be creature of pure Law, whatever that is (ie. Sand is pretty much incarnation of LN )

 

Heh, I would, most likely, be neutral evil...

[Deadly_Nightshade]

You are going into what ifs that are irrelevant. A simple falling out is not what happened here. This is an adult man, who specifically targeted a minor. If you are going to make hypotheticals at least have them be similar to what atually happened here.

 

Actually, the news story said both parents were involved, so you cannot say that it was "an adult man." You can also not say the parents "targeted" the girl, for that makes it sound as if they wanted to drive her to suicide. They were trying to protect their daughter by finding out if the girl was spreading rumors about her, and something tragic happened - nothing more and nothing less. I cannot say that I would not have recommended that the two use the particular method they choose, but their goal, in theory, was a reasonable. I believe you are trying to place blame in case where both sides are guilty on nothing more than mistakes, although the dead girl's parents should pay for the property they damaged...

[Sand]

Yeah, they should pay for the property damage, I agree.

[GreasyDogMeat]

How simultaneously depressing and retarded. Sounds like something that should be on one of those daytime soap-operas.

 

This story seems to be picking up a bit more, intervies on tv shows, bigger stories on it etc. Also, it seems that it wasn't the father of another girl, it was the mother of a teenage friend who had a falling out that set this up.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21882976/?GT1=10547

[Walsingham]

I could be wrong, but the failure to send an apology could be legal. Isn't it the case in US law that an apology is an admission of guilt? Thereby slaying good manners at one fell swoop.

[Sand]

I could be wrong, but the failure to send an apology could be legal. Isn't it the case in US law that an apology is an admission of guilt? Thereby slaying good manners at one fell swoop.

 

Yeah, sucks doesn't it. Its all legal mumbo-jumbo. For example the Catholic church gives millions of dollars to those that their sicko priests (not the good and healthy priests) sexually abused over the decades yet never once admit guilt nor even give an apology.

[Walsingham]

I'm not going to presume to say that the money isn't welcome, but a true heartfelt apology may be equally important. Surely the RCC should - of all people - understand the importancee of confession?

[Sand]

I'm not going to presume to say that the money isn't welcome, but a true heartfelt apology may be equally important. Surely the RCC should - of all people - understand the importancee of confession?

Agreed.

[Guest The Architect]

I don't agree that there should be a punishment for this, law wise I mean. I mean hell, should a man be charged or sued or whatever for continuously verbally abusing a young girl in real life or what not?

 

No. You can't sue or charge someone for verbal abuse. The only sort of punishment such an annoying thing warrants is for the culprit to be beaten up or something by someone the little kid knows.

 

Anyway, I'm pretty sure most 13 year olds and high school students go through the people pleasing, socially, emotionally insecure, multiple personality syndrome, and with some people it unfortunately carries on into adulthood, but come on, if someone's saying mean things to you, Internet or not, regardless of whether you know them or not, and you know you're not in the wrong, why would you kill yourself for?

 

You can't say she thought she was in the wrong, because she knew she wasn't mean to her friends... unless, she actually was. But then in that case, instead of killing herself, she could've learnt from her mistakes and become a better person for it. Being 13 years old, it's not like it was too late for her.

 

But then again this is coming from me. I'm no 13 year old, but then again it's not as if there's no such thing as mentally strong 13 year olds.

[Walsingham]

The problem with being 13 is (if memory serves) that you're personality is developing so quickly. You're learning, hormones have just entered the equation, and a lot of responsibility is entering your life. It's hard to have confidence in who and what you are because in many ways there's no such thing. In this instance this poor girl thought she was having probably her first romance, and as such probably invested a lot of emotional capital in it. When that investment went sour she was left very weakened.

 

I don't think she was weak to have taken a hit from this. And speulating on what other factors conspired to amke her take her own life would be an exercise in fiction.

[Gorth]

I don't agree that there should be a punishment for this, law wise I mean. I mean hell, should a man be charged or sued or whatever for continuously verbally abusing a young girl in real life or what not?

Call me old fashioned, but I stand by my opinion that it is wrong for an adult male to pretend to be a 13 year old male and date a 13 old girl on the net, whatever the excuse

[Guest The Architect]

It was actually a woman that did this, not a man.

 

While it was a pathetic thing to do, it doesn

[Sand]

An adult can figure that out pretty damn easily, Archie, but a kid? I remember back when children jumped off the monkey bars because they thought they could fly like superman.

 

Some children don't have the experience necessary to distinguish reality from fantasy, from real life to whatever is on the screen in front of them. Garbage In, Garbage Out, is the term. If the victim was an adult I would fully agree with you 100%, but she wasn't. She was only a child, only 13 years old, with all that entails. That is what makes the difference here.

[Guard Dog]

I know a 13 year old girl is far from emotionally stable even if she has no mental problems. But I just can not imagine someone can be driven to kill themselves based solely on the hurtful words of someone she never even met.

 

As to suicide in general I would not rule it out as an option if someone has a crippling or terminal disease, or is in constant physical pain that there is no hope of relieving. But that is about it. It seems a little senseless to me to do it because you're broke, your career(s) have failed, your spouse/significant other has left you, or other reasons in that vein. Those things will happen to everyone in life but the sun will rise tomorrow and who knows what it will bring.

 

I remember a story in Gainsville FL where a fired and dead broke college professor shot himself with a winning lottery ticket in his desk at home.

[Sand]

And that is the problem why people can get away with something like this, Guard Dog. People just cannot imagine that this sort of thing can happen but it can and well, it did.

[Walsingham]

And that is the problem why people can get away with something like this, Guard Dog. People just cannot imagine that this sort of thing can happen but it can and well, it did.

 

But for Pete's sake, how often does it happen? Does it really need its own law? If it did then such a law would certainly cover all bullying leading to suicide. That's going to get pretty busy.

[Sand]

Point. What is the life of one child when there is over 6 billion plus humans overpopulating the planet.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Some children don't have the experience necessary to distinguish reality from fantasy, from real life to whatever is on the screen in front of them. Garbage In, Garbage Out, is the term.

 

I don't know about other people, but the majority of the thirteen-year-olds I've met, mainly through friends who have younger siblings, recently are perfectly capable at recognizing frauds like this - and I can only think of one who might be hurt by the breakup with an "Internet boyfriend," and she has some major image issues. All the others, especially one particular fourteen-year-old girl who is already applying to a local female-only college that allows people as young as twelve, are relatively stable and sane by adult standards, and would be able, at least from what I've seen, to distinguish a false profiles from real ones. I will admit that my views might be skewed, seeing as my base are all people who either already have successful siblings or are involved in the same silver-level, or upper-bronze-level, Ballroom Dance exhibition on New Years -something that takes both dedication and practice-, and that I may not have a good grasp of what the average "tween," or whatever he hell they're being called now, is like.

[Sand]

Some children do get a good grasp of what is reality and what is fiction, some don't. Its the ones that don't that are vulnerable.