Teen Insult Web Site Shut Down
Categories: Teens & tweens, In The News
Cyber bullies get the boot in Maryland. Image: Michal Zacharzewski/sxc.hu
But the nationwide site, which is based in Maryland, came under fire recently after a victim spoke up about the emotional impact of this type of peer-bashing. High schooler Alexis Shrank says she was devastated when she discovered that she had become the object of anonymous bashing on the site. "I started crying because it really did upset me at first. I really just felt like someone had punched me in the face. They said so many mean things. I didn't see any reason for it. I wasn't sure what I did. I didn't know who it was either. I had never been on that website before."
Shrank isn't the the only who has a problem with the site. The Maryland attorney general's office has managed to shut it down several times over the past five months for violations including luring advertisers with false claims and other unspecified criminal practices.
Despite all that, it keeps coming back. But last week, the site came under fire again after a former student used it to post a threat to kill students and staff at Whitman High School in Bethesda. The 17-year-old former student was arrested and the site's host, GoDaddy.com, finally pulled the plug on People's Dirt.
"The website was home to abusive, harmful and embarrassing attacks on kids. It is my hope that we have seen the last of this vicious website," Attorney General Doug Gansler said in a statement.
It used to be that in order to anonymously trash-talk a classmate, students had to break out the permanent marker and deface the walls of the school bathroom. While I am sure seeing your name on the bathroom wall is hurtful, it surely cannot compare to the pain of being insulted in an online forum for all the world to see. I am glad the site was shut down and hope it stays that way. But I fear it is just a matter of time before another one takes its place.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
livininmyownwrld 6-16-2009 @ 10:38AM
Hold on a minute. A website that is used for bullying teens is legal? How is that? If a child is caught bullying in school, he/she is suspended and or expelled for their actions. But a website can be used to trash another human being and not be held for their actions? What the hell is this world coming to?
Reply
Limoman 6-16-2009 @ 10:52AM
Well, It's just gotten out of control with all this Free speech crap..
You can't allow Kids this kind of freedom without some kind of supervision...
Everyone Has to be Accountable and not be Anonomyous..
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alphama333 6-16-2009 @ 11:35AM
Why would anyone and I do mean ANYONE would allow a site like this to go up? It's bad enough you see kids at school being bullied but, web sites where people you don't even know say crap about another kid to hurt 'em? I think parents should pay a bit more closer to what their children are doing on the computer. Yeah, I know. Can't watch 'em every second and there are libraries where these bullies can continue their work. You can mostly find some of these bullies thru IP addresses and maybe a little jail time would straighten 'em up.
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damoki 6-16-2009 @ 11:42PM
The existence of insult sites, albeit in poor taste, is likely not illegal, and as Sandy stated, another will probably rise from the ashes.
For the woman who is tired of the "free speech crap", I too ridicule those who deal in this type of garbage, and urge them to stop playing in the dirt. Yet to attach a reduction of free speech to any solution is to give in to another fear with even greater and more dangerous potential.
These "insult" sites are simply "bully" sites renamed. Bullies are missing something in their lives, like control or attention, and are trying to build themselves up by putting others down. Where might they have learned this Springeresque behavior? The lack of empathy displayed in these cruel sites is a reflection of the lack of civility within the individuals who create them, and even worse, within many who visit them.
It is too bad the targets of anonymous mud slinging cannot simply ignore this type of cowardly bad behavior.
DaMoKi
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BenLeichtling 6-19-2009 @ 6:30PM
Thanks for the article.
What did it take to pressure GoDaddy to drop the site? A joint effort by parents, students, school administrators and the Maryland Attorney General brought sufficient pressure on the GoDaddy Group and the “People’s Dirt” advertisers.
Whether protecting kids from physical bullying or cyberbullying, that pressure grouping is always necessary to stop bullies at school or online.
Every society or community limits complete free speech because of a more important value: The balance necessary to maintain the strong sense of community that enables the people to live together peacefully. Neither end of the scale – complete free speech or complete censorship and repression – yields a society worth living in. Some form of compromise, some balancing of individual and communal desires and needs is always reached in communities that move ahead amicably. For example, we agree not to yell “fire” in a crowd and not to incite people to riot.
Stopping harassment, bullying and abuse; slander and defamation; public trash-talk, threats of killing, racial slurs and claims of promiscuity is more important that total free speech.
Disclosure: I’m the author of the books and CDs “How to Stop Bullies in Their Tracks,” and “Parenting Bully-Proof Kids.” See my web site and blog at BulliesBeGone (http://.BulliesBeGone.com). Or Twitter @BulliesBeGone.
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damoki 6-20-2009 @ 1:29PM
Thanks for the effort Ben… Bullies suck!
The URL in Ben’s comment does not work… to check out his site, try this one:
http://www.bulliesbegone.com
DaMoKi