Image taken from radiohillsdale.com
Warning: The following video clips and some of the subsequent links contain explicit content, and it is advised that this particular blog entry be read at parental discretion.
It seems that I am now finding a lot of things to write about in this blog. While this is quite a disturbing tale, I feel it needs to be shared here as an example of how cyber bullying can go too far, and how incorrect procedures in counteracting cyber bullying can easily backfire.
The following video clip was featured in an online news update that came up when I logged onto my computer yesterday. This is a video of a very distraught girl and her parents pleading for the people who have been spreading rumours about the girl online and pranking their house to stop what they are doing:
At first glance, I felt a lot of sympathy towards 11 year old Jessi Slaughter (not her real name). That is, of course, until I did some more research and saw the video that actually started the whole tirade:
After yet further research, I had found out the reason why Jessi posted this video was because rumours were spread about her on a pre-teen social website called "Sticky Drama". The rumours were apparently started by members of the site, who spread the word that Jessi was in a relationship with the lead singer of an emo band (NineMSN).
After reading and viewing the responses to these rumours, Jessi decided to teach those "haters" a lesson by posting the above video. This was picked up by sites such as 4chan and Tumblr (Chen and News.com.au), and became distributed widely. In response to this "hate the haters" video, people began spreading Jessi's personal details online, including her phone number and address (Chen and NineMSN). People who accessed these details began to send prank messages to her home, ranging from pizza orders, to death threats (Chen, NineMSN and Stryker). One prankster even tried to call their house and posed as a police officer, saying that one of the "haters" that Jessi's video was addressed to had mysteriously disappeared (News.com.au). This was apparently when Jessi's parents were alerted to what exactly was happening (Momlogic).The most recent news that I could find is that Jessi is now in protective custody, until the people responsible for spreading her personal details online have been found (Chen, NineMSN, and Stryker).
The more I am finding out about the case, the more I come to realise how disturbing this case is - on SO many levels. How an act of childish pranks has escalated into a full police investigation defies all logic. Yet the more I read about this case, the more I come to realise that there were also plenty of measures people could have taken to prevent this situation from occurring. While many people seem to be pointing fingers and taking sides as to who is to blame for all of this (read the comments on the links posted at the end!), I would like to step back and present the facts in a more neutral perspective here, in order help the reader see how each member in this case could have done things a bit differently to prevent Jessi's current demise. It is to be remembered that in all cases of media coverage, only part of the full picture is revealed to us, and it is important that the reader keeps this in mind as he/she reads what I have to say on the matter.
Firstly, let us look at what Jessi herself could have done to avoid the situation. This is obviously a no-brainer: She should not have uploaded that video to begin with. By retaliating against her online attackers by producing this video, not only was she leaving herself open to further ridicule, but she herself had become one of the four types of cyber bullies out there, namely, the "Vengeful Angel" type of cyber bully. She felt that what she was doing was completely justifiable; in her eyes, she was trying to correct a wrong that had originally been done to her. The "Vengeful Angel" type of cyber bully cannot see that what he/she is doing is actually an act of cyber bullying, hence why she is so adamant in her defense video that it is the "HATERS" that have caused these problems for her, and not herself.
While it is true that these "haters" did indeed instigate the cyber bullying, she should not have tried to play fire with fire. A much better approach to the situation would have been to block them from her "Sticky Drama" account, as is explained in one of my previous posts. This post gives the reader other useful and productive ways of dealing with the situation, rather than trying to fight back with the same venom your online abusers are using.
Given the fact that Jessi is only 11 years old, and has not had much experience in the "real" world, it is highly likely that she did not realise these options were available to her. Because we do not know exactly what was going on in her head at the time she decided to post her response video, we should try not to judge her for poor decision making, despite what we think of her frankly obnoxious behaviour in the clip. She is simply a girl who has made a very foolish choice, and there is no doubt now that she is starting to feel the consequences of her actions.
I now draw my attention to Jessi's parents, who are also an interesting case to study. Through an interview with Momlogic, Jessi mother reveals that Jessi was given her own computer and web cam to use in her bedroom for her own private use. As the interview progresses, it is clear that her mother has not known - and still does not know - what her daughter gets up to online. Furthermore, Mrs Slaughter has been quoted frequently online to say that she has not seen the video that Jessi had posted, and does not WANT to see it (Chen and Momlogic). While I can appreciate Mrs Slaughter wishing to respect her daughter's privacy, living in denial and ignorance is not going to help her or her family pull through this tragedy. As a mother, she has every right to know what her daughter gets up to online and with whom she chats with. Proper ways of keeping the communication lines open with your children have been previously looked into in this post. Had BOTH Mr and Mrs Slaughter taken an interest into what their daughter was doing online, they could have easily prevented the situation before it even happened.
What is interesting is how the parents themselves get involved in the plea video. To me, it is as though they themselves have joined in to become "Vengeful Angels" themselves. Again, they would not see themselves in that light (much like Jessi would not be able to), but their behaviour matches the characteristics of this type of cyber bully like a glove. Again, we should not judge either Jessi or the parents for something that was said as a "spur of the moment" outburst. It is clear from the video that Mr and Mrs Slaughter indeed love their daughter and they were doing the best that they knew how to protect her from those that were spreading falsehoods about her. Perhaps they also didn't know about the more constructive measures one can take to combat cyber bullying? As mentioned earlier, we are dealing with only one side of the story here, as it has been presented to us, and we cannot know what was going on their minds at the time the video was made.
The last thing I wish to look at is the various websites that were involved in spreading the rumours and personal details (not to mention Jessi's response video). According to Adrian Chen, "Sticky Drama" - the website where all of these rumours began - is a "a crowd-sourced gossip website " for pre-teens ('How the Internet Beat Up an 11 Year Old Girl'). I have never heard of "Sticky Drama" until the Jessi Slaughter incident, but the nature and purpose behind this website makes me question why further measures are not taken to ensure that websites dedicated to gossip are not set up? Why has there been a website set up for people to gossip about other people and tell lies about? And furthermore, why are pre-teens encouraged to join such a website? While I have heard of Tumblr - one of the websites that spread the video around - I had not heard of 4Chan which, according to Chen, seems to be a pretty dangerous site where users can channel into other websites and use the information to spread viral messages about other people, which might not necessarily be true. Again, why are such websites set up for these purposes? I actually plan on writing a future post about such websites and why they can be dangerous places to visit, but that is for another time.
In short, there is a LOT of information we don't know about the case, with a lot of different angles people can analyse the situation from. The lack of maturity from Jessi, to the lack of parental responsibility of the parents, to the lack of common decency from "Sticky Drama", 4Chan and Tumblr users - all of these factors and more have contributed to this rather sticky mess. It is clear that Jessi Slaughter is far from being the innocent victim, and readers are free to choose to believe that she gets everything that is coming to her. However, regardless of how foolish her actions were, it is my opinion that NOBODY - yet alone an 11 year old girl - should have to live in fear of their life. My thoughts are with her and her family at this time, and hope they will be able to pull themselves out from their dilemma. I also hope that this post will help its readers learn from the mistakes others have chosen to make, and learn to deal with cyber bullying safely, productively, and responsibly.
Reference List:
Chen, Adrian. "11-Year-Old Viral Video Star Placed Under Police Protection After Death Threats (Updated)" Gawker.com. Web. 20 July 2010. http://gawker.com/5590166/
------------- "The Art of Trolling: Inside a 4chan Smear Campaign," Gawker.com. Web. 20 July 2010. http://gawker.com/5589721/the-art-of-trolling-inside-a-4chan-smear-campaign?skyline=true&s=i
------------- "How the Internet Beat Up an 11 Year Old Girl." Gawker.com. Web. 20 July 2010. http://gawker.com/5589103/how-the-internet-beat-up-an-11+year+old-girl?skyline=true&s=i
"EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Mom Defends 11-Year-Old YouTube Sensation Jessi Slaughter." Momlogic.com. Web. 20 July 2010.
"Jessi Slaughter has killed herself? The latest rumour in an unsavoury tale of trolling." News.com.au. Web. 20 July 2010. http://www.news.com.au/technology/jessi-slaughter-has-killed-herself-the-latest-rumour-in-an-unsavoury-tale-of-trolling/story-e6frfro0-1225894080075
Stryker, Cole. "The Jessi Slaughter Scandal - An Unbalanced 11-Year-Old Girl's Ongoing Fight With Internet Trolls." Urlesque.com. Web. 20 July 2010. http://www.urlesque.com/2010/07/19/jessi-slaughter/
"Viral Girl Under Police Protection". NineMSN News. Web. 19 July 2010. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/7931577/viral-video-girl-under-police-protection
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