Online Crimes

For the past several years, we have heard more and more about internet harassment. People, mostly teenagers, are being targeted and teased online by their classmates who hide under the cloak of an online user name. This 21st century version of bullying is just as damaging, if not more than its schoolyard counterpart, and needs to be addressed. Instead of just jumping a kid in the schoolyard and causing temporary physical pain, emotional abuse is used as the form of torture. Girls get called fat, ugly, annoying, and worse, and there doesn't seem to be anything anyone can do about it. Sadly, in at least one famous case of online bullying, the victim has committed suicide. People don't realize the toll their actions can take, and this kind of abuse needs to be punished with the same severity as physical crimes. I guess it's easy to hide behind a computer screen, but even though the words are virtual, the emotional scars are very real.