The Dangers of the Internet: The Story of Jessi Slaughter
This post is over 16 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
One month ago, a young girl posted an intriguing video on YouTube. The video showed this girl and her father, the girl crying and her father enraged. In his fury, the father sputtered out nonsensical phrases like “I’ve backtraced your emails and the cyberpolice are on their way,” “You dun goofed,” and “Consequences will never be the same.” The interesting thing about this circumstance, however, was that the father was not yelling at his daughter, and his daughter was not crying because of her father’s scolding. The father was yelling at the webcam, directing his anger at the viewers, and the girl was crying about what had happened to her as a result of previous events. How did this all happen? You’re about to find out.Meet Jessi Slaughter, an ordinary eleven-year-old girl who wishes to be anything but ordinary. Being involved with a band called Blood on the Dance Floor, Jessi Slaughter flaunts her slight advantage in popularity, and feels like she has the right to insult the general population by threatening them over YouTube. And that’s exactly what she did.On a fine morning, Jessi Slaughter got on her computer and started recording a video. She was addressing haters and trolls – people who say negative things about something for the sole purpose of a feeling of self empowerment and enraging others. Generally, people combat haters by either saying “Stop” (which usually doesn’t work) or “I don’t care what you think” (which also usually doesn’t work, but tends to be slightly more effective than telling them to stop). Jessi Slaughter, on the other hand, chose to say “I’ll pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushie.”Now we change the scene to a place called 4Chan. If you have any friends obsessed with the internet, you have most likely heard of it, but may not know what it is. 4Chan started out as an image board, a website that people can use to communicate with one another and share pictures. However, as the 4Chan community grew, things started to get out of hand. 4Chan is now popular for its disturbed participants, stupid memes, and occasional outbursts of child pornography, among other creepy things.The most important thing about 4Chan, however, is how powerful it is as a group. A majority of the people that go on 4Chan are people that are not a part of the real world and do not actively participate in society. As a result, these people have tons of time on their hands to do whatever they wish. “Whatever they wish” can range anywhere from masturbating while watching bestiality porn to utterly destroying the life of an eleven-year-old girl with poor judgment.Remember the “pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushie” video I referred to earlier? 4Chan got a hold of it and passed it around from member to member. Thousands of people watched it and saw a small girl threatening to do something that she would never actually be able to do. One thing I forgot to mention is that many people on 4Chan are pathetic in real life. To make up for how weak they are, they act like vicious monsters when they are behind the safety of the electronic barrier we call the internet. The 4Channers decided that it would be funny to take what this girl was saying seriously and fight back.Jessi Slaughter began receiving more hate mail than she had ever received before. 4Chan found out her home address, phone number, and information about her parents. The harassment went on for a few days and became more severe; people started making death threats and the releasing Photoshopped pornographic pictures of Jessi Slaughter. Eventually, the police department decided it would be best to (attempt to) take control of this situation, and put Jessi Slaughter under police protection. Three days later, Jessi Slaughter was released from police protection and did an interview for Good Morning America. Following suite, other news broadcasts, such as CBS, also did segments about Jessi Slaughter and how her life took a drastic turn.The depressing part is, it didn’t stop there. Shortly after posting her breakdown video of her dad screaming into the camera, Jessi went into her video chat room and appeared perfectly fine, even saying “any type of fame I’ll take.” She continued making more threats to the haters, and started fueling people’s ideas of her having a sexual relationship with the lead singer of Blood on the Dance Floor. On August 2 and August 4, she was heard on Tinychat while she was arguing with her dad; there is a distinct slapping noise, and Jessi threatens that she will curb stomp her father.Time to start pointing fingers. Who’s at fault? Most people say that Jessi Slaughter is responsible for all the trouble she’s caused. I say her parents are mostly to blame.First, we have to keep in mind that Jessi Slaughter is still a preteen. She was eleven years old when a majority of this happened, and recently turned twelve on July 27, 2010 (according to one of her online profiles). This is usually the age when kids start going to middle school. In the United States, an individual must be eighteen years or older to be considered an adult; until then, the actions of the child is the responsibility of his or her parents. Furthermore, science has proven that the brain does not even finish fully developing until someone is in their early to mid-20s. What’s the point of blaming someone who is around half that age?Next, according to an interview by a website called Mom Logic, Jessi Slaughter’s mother did not even know about what Jessi was doing online. Jessi’s mother claims that she has not yet watched any of her daughter’s videos – that means, Jessi’s mother has never seen her daughter announcing that she’ll “pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushie,” even though millions of other people worldwide have seen this video. I dunno if it’s just me, but that sounds a little bit ignorant.Finally, aside from being ignorant, her parents have not made a reasonable attempt to take control of this situation. Jessi is twelve years old now, and is under the full authority of her parents. With over 40 years of life experience each, her parents should know how to handle a situation like this (and so should anyone with a brain). Are her videos causing the problem? Take away her webcam and microphone. Is she still chatting with strangers? Get an internet filter and block chat websites she uses most frequently like Tinychat and Xat. Is she still causing trouble? Move the computer to the family room or kitchen where her online activity can easily be seen, or just don’t let her use a computer all together. As you can see, it’s not very hard to control a child.So what have we learned from Jessi Slaughter? Simply put, make sure children know how to stay safe on the internet and realize how dangerous it can be. Never allow them to give out any personal information without getting permission first. Closely monitor their internet activity and start asking questions if something suspicious shows up. And most importantly, if you sense trouble approaching, act immediately.
But they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this picture isn’t any different. I’ll share 199 of the 1000 words associated with that picture:As I got ready to mow the lawn today, it was sunny and warm. If you know me, you know that I hate the sun and I hate hot weather, but I had to mow the lawn anyway because it was getting long, and if I waited any longer, it would start clumping up and it would be even harder to mow later.About halfway through the backyard, large storm clouds started rolling in. The sun was completely blocked, so I felt a little better knowing that I was no longer being cooked alive and no longer absorbing skin cancer.But, the storm clouds got bigger and bigger, and it got darker and darker. Small raindrops started to fall, and my hair and shoulders began to get moist. Trying to finish quicker, I pushed the lawn mower, urging it to run faster.About five minutes before I finished, the raindrops got larger and the rain became heavier. I pushed the lawn mower ahead harder and harder, trying to finish as quickly as possible.About five minutes after I finished, it stopped raining.The worst part is that this is the second time this has happened to me this summer. Quote(s) of the DayYou know those bots that instant message you advertising dating websites? They’re getting smarter.(12:40:06 PM) malaespreexq305: heey!
As you can see from the picture, I’m busy at work stacking my pieces and sending lines to my opponent. This screenshot was taken by my opponent, who had a glitch on his side – he couldn’t see any of his pieces. That meant, even if I sent lines to him, he would never get them, because lines only flood after the next piece is dropped. Because of the glitch, we effectively were put in a never-ending Tetris match.Fortunately, my opponent was a good sport and said that because it was his side that had the glitch, he would close his browser window to forfeit the match and give me the victory. I decided that I would post his screenshot on my blog and tell the story to show how appreciative I was for his generosity. What I’m ReadingAfter reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and being satisfied with it, I decided to read Gladwell’s other books. Earlier today, I finished reading The Tipping Point, a book about the the top of the mountain – the point that something reaches and becomes an epidemic.
The book goes on to describe three key things, among others, that turn something into an epidemic: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context.The Law of the Few states that there are a handful of very special people that can set off an epidemic because of their social status, may it be because they are extremely popular or extremely convincing.The Stickiness Factor states that in order for something to become an epidemic, it must stick to the general population. Without it being sticky, or memorable, it will never last an extended period of time in a successful state. Finally, the Power of Context states that in order for something to have a maximum effect, it must take place at the right time. The environment has a more significant effect than many believe it does, and could be the difference between an epidemic and a failure.Similar to Blink, The Tipping Point brings insight to some interesting and intriguing topics that could be put to positive use in real life. However, the writing itself from an entertainment viewpoint isn’t as good as Blink was; although some good anecdotes were included in The Tipping Point, I feel it wasn’t as attention-holding as Blink. What I’m WatchingBy recommendation of a few different people, I watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry earlier today. The movie stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and Jessica Biel.The two main characters, Chuck and Larry, are best friends and are firefighters in New York who have been partners at work for a long time. The main conflict of the movie is introduced when Larry tries to change his beneficiaries after his wife’s death, but is denied because over a year has passed since his wife’s death. After saving his partner Chuck’s life, Larry knows that Chuck owes him. Larry devises a plan to form a same-gender union with Chuck so Chuck can become his beneficiary. However, something that seemed simple turned out complicated when the state government began sending out investigators after suspecting that neither Chuck nor Larry were homosexual and were only united for benefits.After watching Brüno two days ago and getting enough homosexual jokes to last me a long time, I was discouraged before I started watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. However, as I got several minutes into the movie, I knew that it wasn’t as crude as Brüno was. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry quickly became comedic and interesting, and I enjoyed the entire movie. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good movie – the great natural personalities of Adam Sandler and Kevin James make the whole movie hilarious. 