Free Speech Gone Awry

I have read two news items in recent days about a website that is the internet equivalent of a bathroom wall. It's called peoplesdirt and it's a forum board where teens, mainly in Montgomery County, MD, have been posting horribly disparaging remarks about each other.

This is where free speech becomes an issue in the hands of teens. Is posting scandalous comments about classmates' sexual antics, sexual preferences, drug, use, etc an acceptable use of the rights given to us by the founding fathers? Evidently it is. Efforts to permanently block peoplesdirt have failed. Schools have prevented students from accessing the site on school computers, but the efforts of parents to have the site shut down have failed.

Peopledirt administrator and co-founder Alfredo Castillo feels his site fills an important need for teens to anonymously express their feelings. In an interview in the Washington Post he states, "We understand that a lot of it might be false. . . . We have to allow people who know these individuals to judge what is right [and] what is not." Not according to one boy who was the target of some postings on the site. He said that many people who read the remarks assumed they were true and he was made an outcast.

Castillo ardently defends his site, especially since it was a posting on peoplesdirt that led to the arrest of a teen in Tennessee who threatened to kill students at Walt Whitman HS in Montgomery County. He states that his site prevented the shooting. Castillo said he cooperated with investigators, providing the IP address of the poster. Interestingly, the post hasn't been removed. Why? According to Castillo, no one has asked him to take it down. Also interesting is that there is no evidence in the interview with Castillo or in any of the stories about the threat to indicate that peoplesdirt notified the police of the threat. It seems that families of Whitman students did.

Even if peoplesdirt gets shut down, something else will replace it. Similar sites exist for college students and adults. As parents, we do need to be aware that sites like this are intriguing to our kids and discuss them. Our children need to know that words can hurt and that they should not engage in this type of gossip. They should also be encouraged to let an adult know if they are made aware of any type of communication that is threatening to others.

Recently, a man was arrested in Massachusetts for using Craigslist exotic services to find women, one of whom he allegedly killed. In response to pleas from law enforcement, Craiglist has changed its erotic services section to an adult's section which is monitored for inappropriate content. If sites like peoplesdirt want to exist as a forum for immature minds to spread gossip and innuendo, then perhaps they should be required by law to monitor postings more closely. The Whitman threat speaks volumes about the integrity of 23 year old Castillo. He didn't notify law enforcement and the posting is still on the site.

Talk to your kids about peoplesdirt and other internet forums where harmful information can be circulated. Let them know that this type of public gossip is harmful and inappropriate. Perhaps a lack of interest in these sites will shut them down.