I have ... thoughts on this issue and the overlap with bullying, and in a local case, stalking.
Two teen girls in the next town over from us were recently purposefully run over by a sadistic piece of crap. They were riding bikes on their block, and he hit them with an SUV. One of the girls was a family friend. The family goes to our local Greek Orthodox church. We also know them from where we come from in Greece, as they are from the same island and from my wife's family's village. She was active in the church youth organization and would help run activities for younger kids, including our daughters.
The 17-year-old killer was stalking that girl because she rejected him. He had been doing it for months and had been swatting the house, harassing her, and ordering dozens of pizzas to the family's home. He also made threats. The family called the police, but restraining orders cannot be issued against minors. The father is a cop who opted to retire early due to a deal over a DUI. An uncle is the police chief in the next town over, though he is supposedly estranged from the parents of the killer. I recently read that the father had called the local police to talk to the kid to do some intervention after he was violent at home, but that's not their job; they also neglected to inform the state crisis intervention teams. He also had a history of being violent in school.
The kid was radicalized and was an Andrew Tate fan, as evidenced by his copious social media history. He was also an aspiring streamer who left a trail of shit talking, support for Tate, and a lot of content supporting Charlie Kirk and other right-wing influencers. He posted a video the day after he killed them on YouTube, and it's still up.
So, here we have a confluence of a kid with severe and violent mental illness and radicalization through social media leading to murder, and a criminal justice system unequipped and unwilling to prevent imminent harm.
So, I am torn...
Would a ban on teens having social media, content filters, or prohibitions on engagement algorithms have done anything to prevent this tragedy? I don't know. But at the same time, this incident shows the harms go way beyond mere bullying. They also show that real life and social media are linked, so pretending they are separate is bullshit.
I really resent the snowflake libertarian, head-in-the-sand obliviousness about how bad social media is.
Two teen girls in the next town over from us were recently purposefully run over by a sadistic piece of crap. They were riding bikes on their block, and he hit them with an SUV. One of the girls was a family friend. The family goes to our local Greek Orthodox church. We also know them from where we come from in Greece, as they are from the same island and from my wife's family's village. She was active in the church youth organization and would help run activities for younger kids, including our daughters.
The 17-year-old killer was stalking that girl because she rejected him. He had been doing it for months and had been swatting the house, harassing her, and ordering dozens of pizzas to the family's home. He also made threats. The family called the police, but restraining orders cannot be issued against minors. The father is a cop who opted to retire early due to a deal over a DUI. An uncle is the police chief in the next town over, though he is supposedly estranged from the parents of the killer. I recently read that the father had called the local police to talk to the kid to do some intervention after he was violent at home, but that's not their job; they also neglected to inform the state crisis intervention teams. He also had a history of being violent in school.
The kid was radicalized and was an Andrew Tate fan, as evidenced by his copious social media history. He was also an aspiring streamer who left a trail of shit talking, support for Tate, and a lot of content supporting Charlie Kirk and other right-wing influencers. He posted a video the day after he killed them on YouTube, and it's still up.
So, here we have a confluence of a kid with severe and violent mental illness and radicalization through social media leading to murder, and a criminal justice system unequipped and unwilling to prevent imminent harm.
So, I am torn...
Would a ban on teens having social media, content filters, or prohibitions on engagement algorithms have done anything to prevent this tragedy? I don't know. But at the same time, this incident shows the harms go way beyond mere bullying. They also show that real life and social media are linked, so pretending they are separate is bullshit.
I really resent the snowflake libertarian, head-in-the-sand obliviousness about how bad social media is.
