Teen charged for alleged Facebook bullying

OPP NEWS RELEASE

************************* Cyber bullying leads to criminal charge

On Thursday, January 31, at 5:21 p.m., Manitoulin OPP responded to a complaint of threatening by way of e-mail using computers over the Internet.

It was learned that two students from Manitoulin Secondary School were on the website “Facebook” in which one of the students received a life-threatening e-mail.

The student immediately reported it to parents who contacted police.

After an extensive investigation which involved other students, it was learned that the internet was allegedly used for cyber bullying and actual threats were being sent in an e-mail format.

As a result of this investigation a 16-year-young person has been charged with one count of uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm under Section 264.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

The youth is to appear in Gore Bay Youth Court to answer to the said charge.

The name cannot be released as per the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Constable Allan Boyd, community services officer for the Manitoulin OPP, advises that cyber bullying is taken very seriously by the OPP.

If any criminal act is committed using the computer and Internet and charges are warranted, then they will be laid.

Constable Boyd stated: “What young people don’t understand that any crime that can be committed face-to-face also applies on a computer. Just because someone decides to write a threat in an e-mail format rather that to verbally convey it does not make any difference."

"It is still a threat and if the victim perceives it to be real then an offense is committed," Boyd said. "Cyber bullying is on the increase and this is why as community services officer I am in the schools teaching the children on the dangers of this type of behaviour."

This is a prime example of what can happen if young people don’t take this type of behaviour seriously,” he said.

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