Facebook lawsuit: Mom, son say pranksters setup racist, sexual profile

Are my reading skills really bad or does the complaint describe the kids' mom as his "next best friend?"

That's gotta be more embarrassing than anything they wrote on that fake Facebook account.

This is a DISGRACE! The fact kids would do this, not the lawsuit. This is taking bullying to an entire new level and it's unacceptable. Poor kid.

Aww I feel so bad for that kid!

What drives someone to create something like a Facebook page to discriminate against someone else? High school students are so worried about underclassmen being immature, but upperclassmen like this people seem to be are the most immature. I'm glad they are suing. Also, things like facek MySpace, and Facebook pages can lead to not only to not being able to keep a job or stay in sports, but it can lead to things deeper, inside a person. Internet bullying can lead to outlash by the person or people affected like, violence, and even suicide. I hope this gets resolved in favor of the plantiffs.

The other night my school had a session on cyberbullying, featuring a father from Vermont whose 13-year-old killed himself after a vicious cyberbullying attack. About 100 or so chairs were set up. Seven parents showed.

I bet if parents realize they can lose lawsuits over this, they're going to start showing up to these meetings.

While I sympathize with such victims, I don't see this as much different than the many kids who were bullied throughout my childhood. While I personally remained fairly low-key in high school, I certainly was witness to some pretty horrifying tormenting (albeit typical in most schools). That being said, everyone from 20 years ago (from both sides) I see now have all matured to pretty happy centered people.

Whether one is being bullied or is the bullier, at some point we have to rise above the inevitable immaturity that our childhood environment produces. Often it is that struggle that can force greater perspective and growth. Similarly, with different choices, that same struggle can produce a lifetime of unresolve and discontent. However whether the bully is online or on the bus, the struggle to rise from it is not an issue of a new generation. Rather, it is merely a different manifestation of the same cycle involving human nature, childhood, and growth.

While obviously laws are necessary to serve certain situations, I think it is important to note that there is a essential dichotomies created in a childhood environment whereby children have to be allowed to go through the pains and joys of youth so that the various opportunities for growth can be achieved.

I should add..on a less objective perspective..

I think we might all agree the social implications of one's mother sticking up for her teenage son to other teenager boys has far more potential for future negative repercussions and humiliation than the very facebook pages the lawsuit is arguing against.

Jack...It has been a while, but I remember high school rumors not taking more than a few periods before it was pretty much common knowledge in a high-school of a few thousand. I also remember the same being true of their truth. I don't see the window of time the facebook page was up as much different. The same people find out about it regardless. Even if the page was not privately preset (which it is by default), I hardly think it temporarily being available to foreigners on the other side of the globe changes its justifiability of it being actionable (at least from the perspective of necessary dichotomies discussed above).

This is so crazy.. The fact that the kids would do or even think to something like that is outrageous. Where are kids getting these kind of influences from? I feel that the mother is right for suing these kids. Kids can be so cruel.

Jack..I specifically note that I am speaking from the context of inevitable social dichotomies. I make no reference to how this applies to current laws. That is clearly a different discussion. Secondly, I also stated that I do not take away from the justifiability of more severe situations whereby the law coming into play clearly is in order. One of my main points was that it is a new manifestation of similar childhood intentions with which I grew up. In the same way a bully could plaster xerox copies of a horrifying rumor and have serious repercussions and home and school, the internet has created different ways to achieve the same end. In the same way that it is inevitable that there are still bullies, it is similarly inevitable, in a more technological age, that there are new ways for them to do their bullying.

One last thing to note is I take nothing away from the horrifying extreme situations you state as analogous. I merely don't think it applies to any of the points referenced in my comment. Shootings, murders, suicides, are hardly a new challenge for many schools. I am sure you are not suggesting by your analogy that their existence is a result of a shortage of lawsuits against murderers, but it is difficult to extrapolate anything else from your comparison (as it reltes to our discussion at least).

Back to the topic...My high school was more gang-ridden when I was a student in the days before the internet, than the now in a more technological age. Technology isn't creating new bullies, but merely new ways for the same sentiment to get across. In a nutshell, I think there are more proactive solutions outside of the law (barring more extreme cases like ones that you bring up). We can obviously disagree what the threshold is for the law, family, and/or school to individually get involved, but I think we can agree somewhere there is a healthy threshold for each.