myspace privacy., gone too far? Options

[pandamonium]

a girl posted a blog on myspace from washington township, a school close to mine, on that blog she posted about 17 people she hated and one of those people she said she wanted to kill. They arrested her as soon as someone saw this blog. But she went away with a warning and won't be attending school for a while.

Do you think it is right they arrested her? I mean there are probably several other people who right on their diaries or journals (online or not) about what happened in the day and say they wanna kill someone but aren't as serious. Do you think they took this too far by arresting?

(ps - I didnt know whether this was serious enough to go to debate, so move it if it is. )

[extravagantwish]

I think it is right, I mean, you can rant without using someone's name. I think that people should be more careful about what they write on their blog, but arresting is a bit extreme.

Things on the web are never private. If you post something to the web, you have no expectation of privacy. If someone needs to "vent", the prudent thing to do is write about it in a private journal that she keeps locked away in her desk drawer, or vent to her family or friends.

^I agree. The point of a blog is to have a PUBLIC journal.

[scenekidsgo__raw...]

Where else to rant but on the internet? D;

[flc]

Absolutely not..

It's her private space on the web.

It probably went against some MySpace rules, so they should have taken care of it, not the police.

[oneandonlytammie]

No reason to arrest. If the person felt threatened, then she'd most deffinetly need to be questioned or something. I say "I'm gonna kill you" all the time and I deffinetly don't mean it (or do I?Muhahaha ). I could understand if it were in school but this is outside of school. She can say whatever she wants. That goes for that cheerleader girl too. What she said was absolutely horrible, but she wasn't in school and shouldn't be punished in school. I'm sure all the people probably hating her for what she said was punishment in itself.

[xosteffanator]

The same thing happened at the highschool that i'll go it, my friend got really scared, because her brother goes there and he was on that list.
I don't think they got a aressted though, not unless she was 18.

[sprezzatura]

I would rather let MySpace do the the punishment. I mean, everybody has ranted about killing someone, but most of the time with no intention to kill him/her.
If these killing people rants are seen, MySpace should delete that specific MySpace. In BIG BOLD PRINT OF RED WORDS, saying threatening is not allowed and it would result in the deletion of MySpace.

[imnoxonesmemory]

It depends what her blog said because it could have been really detailed?! But i think that arresting her is too much. Lots of people are always saying how "omg i wanna kill her soooo bad" You know?

[*jooleeah*]

Almost the same thing happened to one of my friends.

She posted in her xanga that she hated her teacher, and wanted to punch her in the stomach. Of course, she wasn't serious and was just angry at the time, that's all. Plus, she's actually a very sweet girl and wouldn't do anything to harm anyone. Anyway, her "friend" saw this post and showed it to her teacher, who showed it to the school principal. She got in huge trouble for it- she had to go to court and was sentenced to that thing where you face the wall in complete silence (i forgot the specific word for it.). Also, she risked getting suspended or expelled from her school. Isn't that ridiculous? Blah.

[*I Shot JFK*]

I know where you are getting at but like i said its a journal/diary people need to vent those things out. thats kind of like their way of taking action. People who get teased everyday might just brush it off but online they try to release that anger, some people play sports to vent.

And i also know if she did kill that girl we would of been like oh yea she should of been arrested when they found out that she wrote that blog on myspace. But i think this went a little too far cause its her blog, her privacy.

no, sorry. wanting to rant in a journal isnt an acceptable excuse when the person has full knowledge that what they write will be published on the internet. NO ONE could reasonably assume that no one would read it... if you want a private rant, go all low tech and buy a notebook, and hide it under your mattress

It's her private space on the web.

naivety strikes!

i agree with michael. the idea of reporting myspace postings to the police seems distasteful, and over the top. but, in today's society, one cannot assume that a threat is nothing but a joke. the police have to think ahead, to cover their own asses, and to protect against a potential threat.

and has anyone considered that their may be more to this story? everyone has said that it is normal fo rpeople to say 'oh i wanna kill him' when they're pissed off, which i agree with. do we not think that the police KNOW that? and so there was something different about this instance that called for special attention?

[LiLEthiopian]

arresting someone may be a little too far but nowadays, ya never know.
some girl posted (on xanga) that all black people needed to go back to georgia and pick her cotton like they used to back in the slave days & she got kicked off our cheerleading team.

;\

that's actually quite offensive..getting kicked off the chearleading team should be nothing.