Consequences will never be the same

There is a place in this fine country where children and adults can interact — unsupervised. You might say to yourself that you would never allow your child into such a grossly negligent environment, but you probably already do.

That place is the Internet. Ever heard of it?

The Leonhardt family learned the hard way just how irresponsible it is to have an 11-year-old run wild on the Web: Their daughter Jessi has been making a name for herself on social networking sites.

Most notably, she was called out by pre-teen gossip blog Stickydrama for engaging in a pedophilic relationship with Dahvie Vanity, the lead singer for emo band Blood on the Dance Floor.

While these rumors were never verified, Jessi found herself on the receiving end of attacks from so-called “haters” — Internet users who were saying some very not-nice things about her.

This is where the story goes from crass to cruel. Instead of informing an adult of the mean comments, Jessi decided to take matters into her own hands.

She logged onto YouTube and used her webcam to film what is known as a response video — calling out all those on the Internet who had ridiculed her.

As you can imagine, the mouth of an 11-year-old is anything but clean. One of the best gems from the video: “If you can’t stop hating, you know what? I’ll pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushy.”

The video goes on for four minutes and 36 seconds, featuring some of the most foul-mouthed language and self-obsessed rambling I have heard since, well, middle school.

But the Internet is not the playground of a junior high school. It’s a virtual free-for-all, and you need some common sense to get by unscathed.

Jessi’s response video caught the attention of the infamous 4chan.org message board, a collective of Internet pranksters responsible for trying to send Justin Bieber to North Korea.

They tracked down her phone number and address, harassing the 11-year-old with creepy phone calls, spreading rumors of her suicide and even ordering pizza in her name.

Finally, Jessi’s parents were dragged into the debauchery. And what did they do? They made cameo appearances in Jessi’s subsequent videos, in which she is in hysterics and her father threatens to report the pranksters to the “cyberpolice.”

Jessi is now in protective custody, thank God. But the videos are still online and climbing in popularity daily. As the details of the situation continue to develop, there seems to be an unsettling reality rising to the surface.

Eleven-year-olds and adults just shouldn’t be playing on the same court — heck, they shouldn’t even be on the same campus. Parents should watch what their kids are doing — unless they want their child to be the next Jessi.


E-mail: danfleis@indiana.edu