Bebo Blamed for 13 Year Old’s Suicide
Bebo, AOL’s most recent acquisition in the social networking space, has been laid to blame for a suicide of Sam Leeson, a 13 year old student from Tredworth, Gloucestershire (UK). Yet again, this is another instance of people not taking responsibility and laying blame into a social network provider.
Before I go into my typical tirade on topics like this, I want to share that it is terrible that young people can be so easily exploited and manipulated online when in actuality, they needed the proper attention and support from those close to them. It is a tragedy that anyone commits suicide, let alone, on social networks because of cyberbullying. My wishes are with the family and his friends during this difficult time.
As far as liability, since Bebo is now exclusively owned by the United States under AOL, it is bound by US laws (both good and bad). One of the provisions that the US offers is immunity from damage between users on a network. That is, if someone taunted someone else, even maliciously, the provider is immune from all legal and civil liabilities. For an example of this, look up Zeran v. America Online to see how the Communications Decency Act, Section 230 was applied.
I don’t hold Bebo liable, unless…
- It is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Bebo demonstrated negligence in handle abuse reports;
- It is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the user (Leeson) had adequately reported such harassing situations three or more times;
- It is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Bebo fails to maintain records regarding abuse reports.
The Internet has proven many new legal challenges as it has evolved. First, with defamation and free-speech, to copyright and tangible goods on an intangible medium, to now liability in the even of death and emotional damage online.
Time and time again, legislators believe that we should regulate the Internet to the degree we regulate television and radio. I disagree with these beliefs because the Internet was founded with a democratic, equal and free intentions and anything interfering with that is breaching on the civil liberties that the Internet grants all people. As we move forward, you will observe that legislators will make reference to the Sam Leeson and Megan Meier suicides on the Internet in order to pass restrictive (and unequivocally, ineffective) laws and acts that will allegedly provide for safety and the ultimate good-will of the Internet itself. Be aware.
As we technologically move forward, we must not forget our principles that got us here, principles such as the freedom to think, express ourselves and the right to challenge the status quo (among additional digital civil liberties that came as a result.) We must not allow service providers to be held liable in the event of damage between their users. We must do everything reasonable to help educate and manage user activity.
Here is a parallel example of Bebo’s liability is this example:
- Jane is driving a Chevrolet Impala, doing the speed limit on a road,
- John is driving a Chevrolet Impala, doing the speed limit on a road,
- Both end up colliding into each other by running a stop sign. John and Jane both die on the scene. Investigators determine both were equally as wrong in the accident. Family members determined to seek liability sit down and look at who else they can lay blame in the catastrophic event.
- Chevrolet is then sued by both families for the amount of $200 million in an effort to make the company install special sensors that watch for stop signs and stops the vehicle automatically.
- Who do you think is liable?
In my perspective, no one should be held liable, as both parties were negligent in managing their own behavior. There is nothing Chevrolet could have done to prevent such circumstances from taking place. The same calculation needs to take place with Bebo. It is my belief that whomever presides over the case needs to remove the fact that the suicide took place over the Internet and then charge the offending parties with Verbal Assault (the equivalent, thereof) and Manslaughter since their actions directly lead to the immediate and premature death of Leeson.
While Bebo is based now in the United States, I wonder how UK regulators will determine liability. Bebo, as you might know has a very strong UK demographic compared to MySpace with a very strong US demographic.
What do you think? Who should be liable, if anyone?
Obviously personal responsibility is always involved in these cases, but it seems to be the way of the world these days that SOMEONE has to be blamed.
2007 was a bad year for our kids on social networking sites, and especially Bebo, because of bullying.
We took action as parents and worked with their high school, and in another local case police were called in.
Two of the hardest things to achieve were convincing the parents of other kids that their offspring could do this, and then convincing our own not to respond in kind.
This is the crux of the matter - parental responsibility!
Thanks for a great post!
Cheers!
It’s a terrible situation. When AOL bought Bebo I poked around in their developer - apps section and they seemed to make a point of displaying my IP at one point on the pages. Presented in the context of a your not anonymous message. I know they’ve put in some effort there but I can’t find it now. If those measures were more bluster than community tool I’d say Bebo has trouble and should be held responsible in some measure.
If we’re pointing fingers, why not at the parent? If a kid self-destructs over getting flamed on the Internet, someone’s parenting has seriously failed. Either he was mentally ill and his parents failed to properly medicate him, or he wasn’t and there was a serious lack of communication and supervision going on in that household. Note that she only checked up on his online activities *after* his death.
Parents are responsible for all aspects of their children’s well-being, to include online activity. Teenagers especially can be emotionally volatile, and parental involvement in their lives is crucial. Of course, many teens shun parental involvement because the parents fail to build a good relationship when they’re younger.
I guess it’s a lot easier just to say “here’s a computer, now be quiet;” or “hey he hasn’t even left the house, nothing for me to worry about.”
There was plenty of negligence surrounding Sam Leeson’s death, and very little (if any) of it was on Bebo’s part.
Bebo DO have some responsibilty to bear here I’m afraid. I have a friend who is a teacher who was alerted to a Bebo group basically verbally abusing her with 110 members. Working in a school of 2000 pupils knowing that every 20th pupil shares an abusive sentiment about you would unnerve any teacher. The problem with Bebo is that it relies on people actually reporting the abuse and reporting is profile based -you can’t report a group as a whole -if no one reports then nothing is done about it. This group summary (which was searchable by any member of the public not just group members) included a photograph of the teacher and clearly identified the individual in the summary wording along with a very nasty, offensive description. This group existed for 4 months + without any abuse reporting. I was suprised by Bebo’s cool respond that the people posting has simply had their profiles deleted but no other security checking measures were in place. The group summary wording clearly indenitified a particular person and included the words “child molester” and this was not independantly indentified by Bebo. Very poor control and no sentiment of apology by Bebo despite several letters of correspondance.