Mar 3, 2009 6:52 pm US/Eastern
Long Island Teen Suing Facebook For Millions
Attorney: Users Said She Had AIDS, Was An IV Drug User And Had "Inappropriate Conduct With Animals"
CBS 2 HD Has Tips On How You Can Protect Yourself Online
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW ROCHELLE (CBS) ―
A Long Island teenager is suing Facebook and her former high school classmates for $3 million.
CBS 2 HD has learned a lot more on the cyber bullying lawsuit, and what teens can do right now to protect themselves.
Mark Altschul said Tuesday his client was ostracized in school, when four classmates posted outrageous things about her on Facebook.
"These other children accused her of being an IV drug user, accused her of having AIDS, having other sexually transmitted diseases," Altschul said. "They accused her of having inappropriate conduct with animals."
Facebook sees no merit to the suit, and some internet law experts say Facebook will not be liable, because the Communications Decency Act provides immunity to social networks for what their users do on their site.
At the Ursuline School in New Rochelle, members of the internet safety group Teenangels, said cyber bullying is an epidemic.
"Statistics are showing that about 85 percent of kids and teens in America have been cyber bullied before, and in some areas it's even higher than that," "Casi" told CBS 2 HD.
Anyone can post just about anything about you online. The key is to find the information, and report it to the Web site immediately.
"It's really just important to get it done as quickly as possible the moment you notice it," "Gianna" said.
You should periodically Google your name, and the best way to monitor whether anyone's posting personal information about you, is to set up Google alerts.
"You supply Google with a piece of information: your name, your address, your phone number, your screen name and Google e-mails you whenever that piece of information comes up in a search," Casi said.
The Teenangels helped CBS 2 HD set-up its own Google alerts. It took less than a minute and it's free.
The teen angels also said if you have something pulled off Facebook or any other social networking site, ask the site to "preserve the data," so you'll have a record of it in case police need to investigate.
The Teenangels said most kids won't tell their parents they're being cyber bullied, because they're afraid of having their computer privileges taken away, so it's key for parents to talk about the issue before it happens and assure their kids they won't over react.
To learn more about cyber safety, please click
here,
here and
here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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