Online Anonymity....Does it Really Exist?

Reading the paper over Sunday brunch in Wellington this weekend I came across an article of a young 14 year old student from California that had her 15 minutes of fame. Unfortunately it was with the US Secret Service.

Apparently upset with the president over the war in Iraq, Julia Wilson posted a picture of President Bush to her MySpace.com web page. The paper reported "she posted a picture of the president, scrawled "Kill Bush" across the top and drew a dagger stabbing his outstretched hand. She later replaced her page on the social networking site after learning in her eighth grade history class that such threats are a federal offense."

Too late.

Two secret service first appeared at her home looking for the 14 year old then got her at school. Pulled her out of class and spoke with her for about 15 minutes. The young lady was very upset and her parents were as well as they stated they should have been there during the interview. Read the article further on sacbee.com.

So many young people have online accounts where they post and discuss pretty much whatever they want. They feel they covered with an anonymity cloak....Julia Wilson found out otherwise. Parents and teachers we need to talk to our students about online social consciousness, etiquette and the legal ramifications of online interactions.

Did the Secret Service over react? What do you think?