Gossiping on an online chat room or on a social media platform may seem harmless enough, but it could land you in hot water – up to six months jail time if you’re found guilty of defamation.
And what if your hateful post was the one that finally pushed someone over the edge to commit suicide? Cyber bullying is an ever-growing problem among our youth. Facebook, Twitter, chat rooms, Whatsapp – the list is endless.
Content on a current chat room, allegedly frequented by Allen Glen High School pupils, is full of posts like, “Where the biaaaatch noooow #white girl alert# just because you’re an abortion that climbed out the jar does not give u the right to air other ppls lives out! Watch your back because ima put u back in that jaru crawled out from.”
According to Captain Johan Pretorius from the Child Protection Unit in Roodepoort, chat rooms bring about assault and intimidation. “I also recently read about suicide due to social media comment”, said Pretorius, of the ever-increasing problem.
The South African Depression and Anxiety Group’s website states in the last 15 years suicide by children aged 10 to 14 has doubled. Regardless of your age you are to be prosecuted for committing a crime, Pretorius explained. “It has a serious psychological impact and once it is on the internet, you can never remove it.”
Distributing false information falls under crimen injuria. Crimen injuria is the practice where one unlawfully and intentionally impairs the dignity of another person. Pretorius said a child younger than 18 will not get a criminal record for violation in cyber space but they have to attend a six month programme monitored by counsellors.
The seemingly innocent social media forum more than likely contributes to this statistic. Content from the chat room named Allen Glen High School pupils reads very defamatory: “(name) is the stupidest guy you will ever meet he can fail corrections to proove(sic) how dumb he is the only he never fails is a drug test.”
Allen Glen High School teachers were not aware of this chat room, but according to Pretorius, the school has to address the matter if the posts were made during school hours.
Allen Glen teacher Belinda Schoombie said the school investigated the matter. “We were appalled by the content being posted on the Allen Glen section of this site. We had also received a complaint from a parent regarding the content of a particular chat room site.”
According to Schoombie the school’s IT Manager contacted the domain of the chat room to request its operator to immediately remove Allen Glen High from the site. “The domain’s representative advised him that this was not possible without legal instruction.” The school has since contacted a legal firm that specialises in cyber-related issues for guidance on a way forward in order to protect the good name of the learner body, the staff and the school.
“The school would like to advise that this site has nothing to do with Allen Glen High and that currently, or historically, the school has never engaged in any form of social media communication outside of its official D6 School Communicator”, Schooembie emphasised.
Other schools that were mentioned on the site with chat rooms dedicated to them are Roosevelt High, Westbury High and Greenside High. None of the schools were aware of the chat rooms.
Roosevelt High and Greenside High are still to respond and Westbury High did not want to comment.
