The Internet blamed for death of a Japanese Schoolgirl.

[Agent Proto]

If you haven't been paying attention. There's an article about the death of a 12-year old schoolgirl who was murdered by a fellow student, an 11-year old schoolgirl. Apparently, the motive for the murder was a message online that the 12-year old girl put on her website that upsetted the other girl. So she planned to kill her for that comment. The next day, during lunch, the 11-year old girl slashed the other girl's throat with a knife.

However, her motive was a message that the other girl put online, and this has put the blame on the Internet. Is it right to blame the Internet for the actions of one person? You have to be also aware that over 60% of children under 14 are using the Internet in Japan, and crime has been slowly rising among minors in Japan. Is it really appropriate to put the blame on the Internet, or is there another cause for the rising numbers of crime among minors in Japan, which includes the death of a schoolgirl by a fellow classmate?

[DocFrance]

That's just stupid. If she was going to kill her for an internet message, she would have killed her for a paper message.

[LH]

Or for a bump in the hallway or a dirty look. The only way for someone that deranged to not end up doing something awful is... well, I don't think there is one. It's not the internet's fault.

[The Captain]

Unfortunately, we are a society that likes blame, and making someone or something the reason behind a crime, when instead, it would seem this child is just a serious mental risk. That really is a scary story, more for the fact that these two kids are/were 12 and 11, respectively, than anything involving the internet.

Take care all.

[Dr Unne]

Clearly what's to blame here is the internet, knives, schools, and lunch. If not for the existence of lunchtime, this would've never happened.

[The Captain]

Amen to that! Lunchtime is the Devil's playground.

In all seriousness though, how did this girl get the knife into school? I'm assuming there would be some form of security, or perhaps not.

Take care all.

[BatChao]

Well, in my school weapons are of course, banned, but they don't have like security checks out in front of the school and search you before you come in or something...

As for the internet, uhh, no. You can't blame the medium the message was transferred in... it doesn't make sense.

[Ouch!]

Weapons are surprisingly easy to get into school. A girl I know had a switch blade with her for about a week, though not for the purpose of hurting others, just herself, which isn't any better. Another guy I know had a hunting knife in his coat pocket all winter, though he didn't even realize it. As long as one keeps it on their person, rather than their locker (random locker checks), it's pretty easy not to get caught.

As for blaming the internet, I agree with The Captain. Society always wants to pin something or someone up with the blame. They can't accept that the child just had problems. The internet had nothing to do with it. Like DocFrance said, it would have been the same with a note on paper. Or someone gossiping that the other girl said that, or that girl saying it to the other directly. It just happened to be delivered over the internet.

It's all rediculous, really.

[gokufusionss1]

this isn't as funny as the 15 year old who convinced a 16 year old in a chat room that he was MI5, he then went on to give the 16 year old a "Mission" to kill him and promised him a reward of sleeping with a female agent.

[Rye]

This internet is always blamed for ignorance. If you write your address and full name on posters and put them all around town, a psycho will probably come and kill you. If you go around the internet giving the same info, guess what? A psycho will probably come and kill you.

As for the girl being murdered, it's the school's fault for not watching out for weapons.

[Big D]

The articles I saw simply mentioned that they had a dispute over something said in an IM, rather than 'blaming the internet'. Anything suggesting that line of reasoning is probably just another example of sensationalist garbage masquerading as "news" that we're subjected to on a daily basis. I prefer the balanced journalism which looks at the disturbing increase in violent crime in Japan, especially amongst the young. There's got to be some reason why such a peaceful society is facing increasing levels of brutality by its young. Of course, each individual is responsible for their own actions, but the trend as a whole must've been prompted by something.

Of course, if children didn't have ready access to concealable knives, they find it that much harder to cut each others' throats too, imhyho.

But then, you can't blame a society that's long been so inherently peaceful that such restrictions just weren't needed.[qq=gokufusionss1]this isn't as funny as the...[/qq]I really hope you're not suggesting it's "funny" that a twelve-year-old girl was murdered by having her throat cut.

[escobert]

Amen to that! Lunchtime is the Devil's playground.

In all seriousness though, how did this girl get the knife into school? I'm assuming there would be some form of security, or perhaps not.

Take care all.

I can bring as many knives in school as I want as long as the blade isn't longer than 3 inches. I think they need to look at the parents and the kids. The internet in no way could or should be blamed for something like this.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

Many of my friends bring knives to school with them for protection, not necessarily at school but should they go elsewhere, such as downtown. The authorities just don't find them. Anyways, as far as blaming the internet goes, I shudder to think who'd be stupid enough to do that.

[axelerise]

the more important point is that if the girl was crazy enough to kill someone over anything, especially a stupid note, than its her own fault. Its like when people blame violence in real life to in the media. If I see a Wile E. Coyote blow up the roadrunner and I want to go blow up my friend, that means there is something wrong with ME. I am tired of people blaming the media of whatever for their own stupid mistakes like those damn Truth commercials. They're like "my mom saw a commenrcial with a sexy girl that smoked so she wanted to. Its the commercial's fault she died." No, it is your dumb mother's fault that she thought that smoking would make her sexy.

If a 12 year old girl would kill someone over a rumor or whatever, she has mental problems that are in her no matter what, and not endorsed by the internet. Now, if you could find a site that she frequented that was a hypnotic spiral that said in subliminal terms "Kill the girl at your school", THEN I would blame the internet.

Laney

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

If a 12 year old girl would kill someone over a rumor or whatever, she has mental problems that are in her no matter what, and not endorsed by the internet. Now, if you could find a site that she frequented that was a hypnotic spiral that said in subliminal terms "Kill the girl at your school", THEN I would blame the internet.

No, I'd prefer to blame whoever set the site up. The internet is merely an object, a medium. I don't think you CAN blame it for anything.