The Jessi Slaughter Saga: A Parent's Guide to Internet Cyberbulling

To learn how not to handle cyberbullying and internet drama, one needs to look no further than kerligirl13, aka Jessi Slaughter.

The Jessi Slaughter Saga

"Jessi Slaughter" is the pseudonym for a young girl, who claimed to be eleven years old. This young girl was seen on webcam exposing various body parts, using 'adult' language and sexually suggestive commentary, and even decided to threaten people who were "haters" with the comment that if they couldn't realize she was happy with her life, she would, "pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushie."

"Haters" in internet speak is generally used to denote a person who claims to dislike another person, usually because they are jealous of them in some way.

The Slaughter Saga Escalates

After several of her chat and YouTube videos were shared amongst certain internet communities-such as 4chan and Tmblr-an internet smear campaign began to torment the young girl. Those participating in the campaign felt justified, since many of them believe their actions teach children a lesson in netiquette. Others simply don't care and enjoy the teasing and taunting for mere entertainment value.

The problem with these types of smear campaigns is that while they are emotionally devastating to the one being tormented, there is absolutely no emotional involvement for those doing the cyberbullying. The more the victim whines, cries, screams, or reacts, the better. For many of these people, what happens on the internet simply isn't real to them; it's all entertainment.

Jessi Slaughter Saga Goes Real Life

For Jessi, it wasn't nearly as entertaining: emails; spam; threats; remix videos making fun of her responses; pizza and packages delivered to her door; her real name, her real address, and real phone number listed on multiple websites online; an entry into Encylopedia Dramatica (not safe for work or kids); and much more.

Videos of her and her father, angry, crying and yelling, were then released, which only added fuel to the fire. In less than an hour, Jessi Slaughter became yet another infamous internet meme. You need only Google "Jessi Slaughter" to be directed to many websites all containing information about the smear. The group responsible-which has been traced back to a thread on 4chan-has even been accused of initiating a 'Google Bomb' to get the Google Trends to list "Jessi Slaughter given PCP by father" as the top search results. The reason why this was chosen is unclear, but there is obviously no truth to it.

However, the consequences of these events are likely going to be far-reaching, both online and in real life. Some of these consequences have already been seen, in that the local police have been contacted to question the parenting ability of Jessi's mother and father, especially considering an hour or so after the event exploded, Jessi was seen online again, chatting and having fun with friends in a webcam chat room. Child Protective Services has also been said to have been contacted and the parents of Jessi reported for bad parenting.

All because an eleven-year-old child didn't know how to handle herself online, and her parents weren't paying attention.

According to Gawker.com, Jessi has been placed under police protection.

Who or What is 4chan?

4chan is known for the launching of many internet memes. This web forum and image board has no moderation, anything goes, and is a completely anonymous board-IP addresses, user information, etc, are not retained by the board or its owner. As the owner of the board, who is known as 'moot', has said, The board has no memory.

Beyond that, it's simple: No eleven-year-old child is prepared to handle themselves online alone, period. In fact, in the face of a smear campaign of this magnitude, no one, adult or child, is likely prepared to handle the situation.

The best way to handle an internet smear campaign? Don't handle it at all. Log off the computer, ignore it and don't respond. Contact law enforcement to file a report, and keep your mouth shut and fingers still.

The important thing to note here is that most of this could have been avoided before it ever began if Jessi and her parents had handled the attack by not responding.

How to Handle and How NOT to Handle Cyberbullying

DON'T add fuel to the flames: Most of the time, attacks by 4chan or anonymous or other groups like them only begin because the person in question was 'running their mouth' or threatening, showing off, etc. Whether it's understandable to most people or not, the majority of these cyber-attacks happen for two reasons: 1) entertainment and 2) to teach the person a lesson/retaliation.

The yelling, threatening, crying, pleading and more that is often done to try to stop these attacks only add fuel to the fire, making the attacks more entertaining to those attacking. As long as no real-life threats are made, the cyberbullies know they are untouchable, so the more they can control your behavior, the more they will try to control your behavior. The angrier and more vocal you get, the more 'remix' videos they'll make to make fun of you or your child (adults aren't immune to internet attacks).

DO log off the computer and remove your child's access to the computer until you can become fully informed on what has taken place.

DON'T make threats: Returning threats to cyberbullies makes you no better than they are, and those threats can be used against you-both online and with law enforcement or in court.

DO walk away from the computer and contact law enforcement the moment a cyberbully situation appears. The police may not be able to do anything about it initially, but at least they will be aware of it, and should anything happen in person in real life, the history and background will be there.

DON'T give them ammunition: once the taunting and teasing begins, anything done from that point forward is ammunition to use against your child or you. Log off the computer and remove your child's access immediately.

Know What Your Children Are Doing

Computers use for children should be monitored. As the child shows responsibility and builds trust, additional trust can be extended to the child. Any pre-teen child should not be allowed to have a computer in their bedroom where they can use it unsupervised. Placing the computer in the family room where the child cannot hide what they are doing online is the best option.

Videos and Webcam Usage

Any child under the age of 18 should not have videos or images of themselves online without the parents reviewing the video and approving it. Children under thirteen are not allowed on the majority of internet sites, so letting your teen lie about their age to register for these sites is just a lesson in danger. There are reasons the age requirements are set where they are.

Older teens might be better able to handle putting up a video or using an image, but until the child is of adult age, it is the parents' responsibility to ensure the child is safe and that includes online. A parent, regardless of the child's age, should know what their child is doing online.

Internet Monitoring and Limiting Devices

The N-Router from Netgear has built-in free parental controls. Several other routers do as well. Windows Live has free parental controls that can be set on computers too. These controls can range anywhere from limiting when the child can log on to the computer at all to when the child can log on to the internet but still use the computer. Which websites the child can see can also be monitored and handled by the parent as well.

It's better to monitor internet usage by a child before there is a problem than to have to salvage the situation after the problem. All parents should learn from Jessi's situation, and perhaps something good can come out of this horrible situation.