Found this whilst wandering...I know it doesn't happen here too often, but the implications.
"Only The Idiots in DC could come up with this.
http://futurestorm.blogspot.com/2009/05/hr-1966-offend-someone-online-go-to.html
At a time when freedom of speech is already under attack like never before, a shocking new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would make it a felony to offend someone online.
A felony.
Under this new law you would not just be slapped on the wrist and have to pay a fine.
You would go to big boy prison.
While most free speech activists have been watching the recent "hate crimes" bill, this much more insidious piece of legislation has received almost no notice whatsoever.
Just take a look at what H.R. 1966 actually says.....
Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
Whoa.
So if you offend someone on Facebook you could go to federal prison for two years?
Yup.
If your blog insults someone and causes them to feel bad you could go to prison for two years?
Yeppers.
If you are in a bad mood one day and you send fire off an angry tweet on Twitter that you maybe should not have you could go to prison for two years over it?
Yes indeed.
Are you starting to get the picture yet?
Talk about an attempt to chill free speech.
So if someone reads something that you have written and it makes them feel bad they can take it to the feds and have them come get you?
That is a very, very frightening thought.
The reality is that the government is increasingly trying to control even the very small details of our lives. They are even increasingly trying to control what we say and what we think.
Freedom of speech is one of the cornerstones of a free society. If we are not free to express ourselves without the fear that someone will be offended, then what freedom will we really have left?
The reality is that if we do not stand up to this, the United States of America will quickly become overrun with politically-correct "commissars" who are eager to throw anyone who disagrees with them in jail for "hate crimes" and "thought crimes".
Things are already out of control in the United Kingdom. Did you know that there are actually undercover officers in some areas of the U.K. that sit in bars and restaurants listening for anyone who might say something offensive or racist?
You may laugh, but the United States is quickly heading down that road.
The full text of H.R. 1966 is below.....
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http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1966:
Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act (Introduced in House)
HR 1966 IH
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1966
To amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to cyberbullying.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 2, 2009
Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California (for herself, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Mr. BRALEY of Iowa, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HARE, Mr. HIGGINS, Mr. CLAY, Mr. SARBANES, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. COURTNEY, and Mr. KIRK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to cyberbullying.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Four out of five of United States children aged 2 to 17 live in a home where either they or their parents access the Internet.
(2) Youth who create Internet content and use social networking sites are more likely to be targets of cyberbullying.
(3) Electronic communications provide anonymity to the perpetrator and the potential for widespread public distribution, potentially making them severely dangerous and cruel to youth.
(4) Online victimizations are associated with emotional distress and other psychological problems, including depression.
(5) Cyberbullying can cause psychological harm, including depression; negatively impact academic performance, safety, and the well-being of children in school; force children to change schools; and in some cases lead to extreme violent behavior, including murder and suicide.
(6) Sixty percent of mental health professionals who responded to the Survey of Internet Mental Health Issues report having treated at least one patient with a problematic Internet experience in the previous five years; 54 percent of these clients were 18 years of age or younger.
SEC. 3. CYBERBULLYING.
(a) In General- Chapter 41 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
Sec. 881. Cyberbullying
(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
(b) As used in this section–
(1) the term 'communication' means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; and
(2) the term `electronic means' means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.'.
(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 41 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new item "
Mike
Well, at least Duck will be making some new friends.
Don't drop the soap, buddy!
Gee, we have become a nation of whimps. "he said something nasty to me and I didn't like it". That is the type of guy who was raised as a girl and not a boy. Heck that is even more wussy than that. America has been neutured.
Quote from: metrologygeek on 05-07-2009 -- 17:31:36
Well, at least Duck will be making some new friends.
I laughed...I'm a bad person...
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
The teacher looks around the room and says, "Who here has ever broken a bone? Raise your hand if you have." Several hands go up.
"Now, who here still experiences pain from that break? Keep your hand up if you do." Every hand drops.
"Who here experiences pain from something that was said to you during the past week?" Every person in the room raises a hand. "During the past month?" A few hands drop. "Past year?" A few more drop. The teacher continues, "Five years ago? Ten years? When you were in high school? How about something somebody said to you before age 5?" The teacher looks around the room to see that a number of people still have their hands in the air.
"Now then," says the teacher, "about that sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me nonsense..."
A little history about this Bill hr 1966:
Megan Meier, an American teenager from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri who committed suicide at the age of 13 years, 11 months. Her suicide was attributed to cyber-bullying through the social networking website MySpace. The account through which the bullying took place purportedly belonged to a 16-year-old male named "Josh Evans." However, Lori Drew, age 39, the mother of a former friend of Meier, later admitted creating the MySpace account with her daughter and Ashley Grills, Lori Drew's 18 year old employee. Several people contributed to running the faked account, including Drew.
Witnesses testified that the women intended to use Meier's e-mails with "Josh" to get information about her and later humiliate her.
Soon after opening an account on MySpace, Meier received a message from Lori Drew, using a fabricated account attributed to a 16-year-old boy, Josh Evans. Meier and Josh became online friends, but never met in person or spoke. Meier thought he was attractive. Meier began to exchange messages with this person, and was described by family as having had her "spirits lifted". This person claimed to have just moved to the nearby city of O'Fallon, was home schooled, and did not yet have a phone number.
On October 15, 2006, the tone of the messages changed, with Drew saying (via the account) "I don't know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I've heard that you are not very nice to your friends". Similar messages were sent; some of Megan's messages were shared with others; and bulletins were posted about her. After telling her mother, Tina Meier, about the increasing number of hurtful messages, the two got into an argument over the vulgar language Meier used in response to the messages and the fact that she did not log off when her mother told her to. After the argument, Meier ran upstairs to her room. According to Meier's father Ronald Meier, and a neighbor who had discussed the hoax with Drew, the last message sent by the Evans account read: "Everybody in O'Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a sh!tty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you." Meier responded with a message reading "You're the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over." She was found twenty minutes later, hanging by the neck in a closet. Despite attempts to revive her, she was pronounced dead the following day.
Drew was convicted in November of 2008 of three counts of accessing computers without authorization. Besides up to three years in prison, she could face a $300,000 fine at sentencing set for May 18, 2009. Ashley Grills was given immunity is return for her testimony against Drew.
Drew was not directly charged with causing Megan's death.
Perhaps it would have been more appropriate for Missouri authorities to charge Drew with harassment. Police there, however, have said they didn't file any charges against Drew in part because there was no applicable state law.
The trial was held in Los Angeles because the servers of the social networking site are in the area.
freedom of speech does not allow you to yell fire in a crowded theater.
The Megan Meier story is a tragedy and the people that instigated the situation should be punished especially considering it was the former friend's mother, but you can't make a new law every time something bad happens.
The people that should feel the worst isn't the woman who was convicted it is probably the parents of Megan. What where they doing? They should have taken a more active role in their daughters life. I mean really the problem with the story is everything revolves around the parents the petty mother who made the account and the ignorant parents of the victim.
I personally am a libertarian, but if they want to make a stupid law then maybe they should make one requiring a license to have a child. That way stupid irresponsible people can't have kids. Plus it would help overpopulation...Al Gore could be the face of the bill. Not only would it prevent people like him, but would help the environment...Hooray for staying GREEN. That's funny.
I am not going to insult you because this is a public forum and thats just not nice. However can you seriously think that this is the parents fault? That is extremly harsh man!! No parent can ever know what there kid is doing 24 hours a day. I know I did a lot of stuff when I was a kid that my parents never found out about. Maybe the parents should have paid a little more attention but that physco lady should never have sent her those messages she is the one to blame not the parents.
"An Australian woman will spend the next two years in a Kuwaiti jail after being convicted of assaulting the country's ruling Emir. Forty-three-year-old Nasrah Al Shamery was accused in December of insulting the Emir of the oil rich gulf nation during an airport altercation."
Sometimes I think we forget how wonderful the United States is.
Quote from: jimmyc on 06-01-2009 -- 14:57:59
freedom of speech does not allow you to yell fire in a crowded theater.
Judging from some of the movies lately, fire may be bad, but bombing is ok...
Looks I did a lot of things that my parents never found out about when I was 13, but there are signs and symptoms of severe depression that can be seen. I mean according to your name you were in the Marines so I know you went to the same boring Suicide Training Classes I took. This is shoplifting or sneaking out.
I mean I know if it was my kid I would feel guilty as hell. I can't even comprehend the amount of grief I would go through, but I do know I would feel like it was my fault no matter what anyone said. This was a 13 year old girl it's their responsibility to look after her and I believe that they failed. I know that if it was my daughter I would believe that I was a failure as a parent.
Quote from: Kalrock on 06-03-2009 -- 08:42:23
Looks I did a lot of things that my parents never found out about when I was 13, but there are signs and symptoms of severe depression that can be seen. I mean according to your name you were in the Marines so I know you went to the same boring Suicide Training Classes I took. This is shoplifting or sneaking out.
I mean I know if it was my kid I would feel guilty as hell. I can't even comprehend the amount of grief I would go through, but I do know I would feel like it was my fault no matter what anyone said. This was a 13 year old girl it's their responsibility to look after her and I believe that they failed. I know that if it was my daughter I would believe that I was a failure as a parent.
I don't know if you have any teenagers of your own, but it's a little difficult to seperate signs of depression from the usual teenage angst. Also, teens tend to put on a pretty good front to their parental units. Hell, even I got away with stuff that would have given my folks heart attacks.
Today it's even easier with tech savvy kids and tech challenged parents.
In this particular case, the woman that harrassed that kid should have done time. Blaming the parents in this case is like blaming the parents of an abducted kid, parents are regular folks, not psych majors.
The lady who was harassing the girl did go to jail, but you can't tell me you wouldn't feel like it wasn't your fault if that was your kid. My kids aren't teens yet, but I still know if this was my kid I would blame myself.
I would completly blame myself. I just would never lay the blame at someone's feet. Someone recently killed themselves at my son's school because she was being "bullied" and thats terrible I am sure her parents blame themselves.
Quote from: Kalrock on 06-03-2009 -- 10:50:41
The lady who was harassing the girl did go to jail, but you can't tell me you wouldn't feel like it wasn't your fault if that was your kid. My kids aren't teens yet, but I still know if this was my kid I would blame myself.
I could tell you that, whether you believe me is another thing. If it was my kid, I wouldn't be faulting myself for the actions of some screwed up adult, I'd be trying to get justice.
People have limitations, this girls parents didn't fail, their kid was targeted by a sick individual. There's a difference between feeling like you could have done more and blaming yourself for failure. You can't protect your kids from everything.
Quote from: Kalrock on 06-03-2009 -- 08:42:23
Looks I did a lot of things that my parents never found out about when I was 13, but there are signs and symptoms of severe depression that can be seen. I mean according to your name you were in the Marines so I know you went to the same boring Suicide Training Classes I took. This is shoplifting or sneaking out.
since you went to the "boring suicide classes", you should know that depressed people don't all have the same symptoms. the obvious "your fellow Marine is crying and giving away all his stuff" is rarely the way it works. when i was stationed in VA, A Marine who know one thought was depressed shot himself on the side of the road on his way home on leave. should have stayed awake during those safety stand downs. p.s. as the parent of 3 teens, you can't know everything they are doing or feeling no matter how involved you are with your kids
Quote from: jimmyc on 06-04-2009 -- 08:29:13
since you went to the "boring suicide classes", you should know that depressed people don't all have the same symptoms. the obvious "your fellow Marine is crying and giving away all his stuff" is rarely the way it works. when i was stationed in VA, A Marine who know one thought was depressed shot himself on the side of the road on his way home on leave. should have stayed awake during those safety stand downs. p.s. as the parent of 3 teens, you can't know everything they are doing or feeling no matter how involved you are with your kids
I understand that not every case of depression is apparent, but my main point in all of this is that I would blame myself for my child's death if they committed suicide. I would probably blame myself no matter how they died. I would always feel like there could have been something more I could have done.
Overall I really wish these kinds of things didn't happen to kids. It really does bother me when bad things happen to children and I hope that everyone out their with kids never has to go through something like this.