I just found about this off the Penny Arcade comic website; a teenager made an idle threat on facebook that was taken EXTREMELY seriously by authorities.
Here is Tycho's news post on the subject.
Personally, I'm torn about this. On one hand, he's a kid who said something stupid on a social networking site, and may pay for it for the next decade of his life. According to this news article, the kid made a comment about slaughtering a kindergarten class and feeding on their hearts, in response to a spat he was having with a League of Legends player. But, according to the same article, authorities found no weapons in his home, and no plans to go through with it. But regardless, he was charged with making a terrorist threat, a third-degree felony, and spent his 19th birthday in prison, with a 500,000 dollar bail for him. This is overreacting to the extreme by authorities.
On the other hand, no matter what happens to him, this kid knows that you don't make threats like that. That there are certain lines you don't cross. You don't make rape jokes, and you certainly don't make jokes about murdering a kindergarten class.
Both the kid's father and Tycho of Penny Arcade say that context is everything. While I agree to a point, what made this kid think his statement was okay in any way, shape or form? What made him think in an age when we've had the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Columbine, Heritage High School, Fayeteville shooting and the University of Central Arkansas have happened, and STILL in the public consciousness? What made him think that his supposedly sarcastic comment wouldn't be jumped all over by authorities?
While I have sympathy for the kid, I really hope he goes away. Kids are out of control, and have been for a LONG time. In order for the youngest generations to understand that their actions have consequences, somebody's got to fry.
To be honest, this kid's actions should have been nipped in the bud years ago BY HIS PARENTS! But, since they didn't society has to punish this 19 year old kid for their lack of parenting. In fact, they should also punish the parents, since they didn't do their job earlier.
And I don't care that the article says the kid is so depressed about his fate that he doesn't even dress himself; in the eyes of the law, he's an adult paying the consequences for his actions. Actions he should have known better than to do.
Again, I feel sympathy for the kid; he was "in the wrong place at the wrong time". But kids need to learn that people online are more than just words in a box and a picture of a cartoon character. They are the same people that you see walking down the street, and if you make the kind of comment IRL as he made online, he'd be suffering the same fate as he is now. The age of anonymity on the internet is over. Everyone is online, and it is MUCH easier to track you down today than it was even five years ago. People are held accountable for what they do both online and offline now, and examples need to be made. I'm sorry that this kid is that example, and I know he'll learn from it either way, but examples need to be made.
So, I leave this blogpost with something I've posted before; the Death of Civility. It's got a few Bible verses in it on how to be a better person at the end, which are good guides for how to do so, regardless of your beliefs.
Take care of yourselves, ladies and gents, and remember that you are not as anonymous as you think.
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