imposter Facebook account

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A young relative of mine (age 11) has been the victim of a prank. Apparently some schoolmate started a Facebook account in her name, and posted a very unflattering picture of her. He or she then friended about 50 of her friends, who all thought it was her.

Nothing more than that, but the relative is very hurt by all this. She isn't even on Facebook (too young) but she found out about it from friends who are and who friended her.

I see Facebook has a way to contact them to report an imposter account -- anyone have any experience with doing this? Will they remove the account? Any way to learn who did this?

If this happened to either one of my girls, I would take the following steps:

1) Notify Facebook and the other child's parents immediately.

If results (a very public apology) and consequences for the bully are not instantaneous I would

2) Notify the school. Schools are taking this more seriously now. I might notify the school anyway -- there should be swift and devastating consequences for the boy.

If that doesn't get me satisfication I would actually consider

3) Notify the police. What you describe is actually a form of identity theft and arguably harassment. There may be nothing police can do but I would think a sympathetic officer would at least show up at the door in uniform and ask to speak to the boy. Just in case parents were blowing it off.

As for consequence, I'd probably demand the parents force the boy to make a public and humilating apology in person and online, including asking them to pay for a 30-day ad on Facebook that both shames the boy and makes things good.

What a horrible and nasty thing.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'm less concerned with Facebook and more concerned with scaring the shit out of the school and parents of the bully. I would raise holy hell with the school - police reports, lawyers, the whole deal. I've never contacted a lawyer or filed a police report in my life, but if this was my 11 year old kid I would not take this lightly or be polite. Kids commit suicide over this kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

Well, the drama is over. I am learning a lot through watching what my relative is going through with this incident.

They live in California, which has some kind of cyberbullying law recently put into place.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/09/local/la-me-new-laws-20110709

Seems like the school is the right place to go, if you can't just contact the parents.

If anyone is interested in this topic, I found a good resource here --

http://www.theonlinemom.com/news.asp?id=87

[Anonymous]

This is my nightmare!

I'm so glad that in this case, the school came through with an effective response.

The little shit mean girls who bullied my kid haven't yet graduated from prank calling, but clearly my own 11 year-old's absence from Facebook is not necessarily enough to protect her.

[Anonymous]

OP again -- no the school hasn't done anything yet -- it is the weekend! But it appears the drama is at least temporarily over. My relatives, the parents, have managed to tell all the kids in the group to just block this person and stop escalating the situation; and they will take it to the next level on Monday if need be.

It is interesting how fast this stuff spins out of control, or so it appears to me. In my day (years ago!) kids wrote nasty comments on the bathroom walls. It would take a few days for everyone to see it... and ONLY people in that physical location could see it. It was nasty, but very specific to that location. And it could be taken down immediately by anyone. You didn't need to petition some far away entity, or threaten criminal action, to get it gone -- well, you'd need to ask the principal I suppose, but why woudln't she agree immediately?

Yes -- I have learned that your child not having a Facebook account is absolutely no protection, if her whole crowd is into it, and it happens to her.

[Anonymous]

I feel sorry for the bullied kids. But in some ways I feel sorrier for the bullies. They could have a rough road in life if they don't get a handle on this.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious (and I don't know anything about the law here) - why is the school responsible for addressing this? Presumably kids are not posting during school - so why isn't if a police matter? Schools need to address bullying - but does that extend to bullying outside of school? For example - if a kid was walking down the street some Saturday, and a schoolmate walked up and punched him, that's a matter for the cops, not the school. Why is this any different?

[Anonymous]

Take screen shoots of everything!

Why schools should know: This comes up a lot. The social connection is through school. Some schools get involved. Some do not. Almost all (if not all) schools are taking the lead on educating students about good (and legal) online behavior. Also schools can notify parents, say there's been activity and that parents should speak to their children about their online activities.

[Anonymous]

The example you gave: The school should know because the school is responsible for any fallout behavior that could take place at school. Whether it's an assault or online acts of aggression.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I think the reason schools are having to get involved is because the social connection is usually through the school, and because the behavior (making an imposter account) isn't illegal so you can't go through the courts unless you can prove that the imposter account caused you financial harm. If you get schools involved the schools can have policies in place to suspend the students. The rationale being given in California is here:

http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/anti-bullying-law-expanded-social-networking-sites-11464

According to the state education code, students who engage in bullying or cyber-bullying face possible suspension and expulsion. Stephanie Papas, a bullying specialist with the California Department of Education, said it's up to administrators to determine if behavior is "materially disrupting the learning environment," even if that bullying is happening outside of school.

However, I think creating an imposter account should just be illegal. What if two kids don't even attend the same school? What if a homeschooled kid, or a kid already suspended from school, or a 19 year old kid not enrolled in school, created an imposter account? In those cases no principal could have the power to expel because the child isn't even in aschool.

Imposter accounts should just be illegal -- they are identity theft, even if the imposter doesn't really try to bully the child but just posts annoying crap, it shouldn't be allowed.

[Anonymous]

Also -- schools have enough to deal with. They shouldn't have to deal with stuff like what's going on with facebook. I agree that right now they have to, because you can't let bullying go on... but seems like this should better be handled by Facebook and the court system and new laws prohibiting identity theft (and harrassment/bullying outside of school.)

[Anonymous]

Things may start to change more quickly if victims become so fed up that they take justice into their own hands and kill the bully rather than committing suicide. Like Bernard Goetz.

[Anonymous]

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/04/facebook-sometimes-slow-to-remove-offensive-content-fake-profiles104.html

Axten adds that Facebook takes its community standards and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities very seriously, and reacts quickly. But Williams says efforts to report the page resulted in one dead-end after another. She even recalls a message from Facebook saying it no longer accepts a form the site directed her to.

The fake profile briefly disappeared from time to time only to reappear, sometimes under the names of other middle-schoolers. The impostor's friends included teens Williams says were expelled for alleged gang activity. The angry mother pored through the school directory calling students and parents, and Cassidy texted her real friends, to no avail. Neither local police nor the Georgia Bureau of Investigation could do anything. The authorities told Cassidy's mother they could only act if the site hindered the victim's professional reputation or ability to earn income. "The laws aren't in place to protect middle school kids," she says.

[Anonymous]

But OP said they didn't know who created the fake account. So who do you report/charge/punish/kill?

I am so sorry for your niece, OP. I was the victim of organized bullying in school (long before FB). It's so humiliating, it makes you never want to go back to school again. I never considered suicide, but I can certainly understand the impulse.

I wonder if there's a way to offset the emotional damage with some positive/you're great/we love you kind of thing? A party or just a letter/card writing campaign where the girl's friends let her know they're on her side?

Probably impossible to put together. I've probably been watching too many Hallmark movies. But I hope she bounces back. I'm glad everyone is taking it so seriously.

[Anonymous]

Schools have to address social networks, if not with disciplinary action but definitely with workshops and instruction on the risks of doing idiotic things on Facebook.
College admissions officers look at it.