Be Careful of What You Say...

[LongBlade]

Careful what you say in gaming...

A Texas teenager who has been in jail since March faces an eight-year prison sentence because of a threatening joke he made while playing an online video game.

In February, Justin Carter was playing "League of Legends" — an online, multiplayer fantasy game — when another player wrote a comment calling him insane. Carter's response, which he now deeply regrets, was intended as joke.

"He replied 'Oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts,' and the next two lines were lol and jk," said Jack Carter, Justin's father, in a statement to a local news channel.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/27/texas-teen-makes-violent-joke-during-video-game-is-jailed-for-months/

[Tpek]

So sexual harassment and verbal violence are now okay, but snarky remarks said in response to these will not get you 8 years in prison despite being under age?!

[Martok]

Ugh.  I realize Newtown altered the landscape, but this is still stupidity & paranoia triumphing over common sense. 

[Rayfer]

We (society) get ourselves into these catch-22 situations.  If everyone ignored this kids posting as just a joke and did nothing, and then he later he did shoot up a school...there would be lawsuits filed against the game sponsors, players, parents, etc. for what would retroactively be deemed as a failure on their part for not acting upon a threat.  I agree with the prior posts but I can also see that when people ignore these sorts of rants from teens they are then held responsible for not taking action.  And therein lies the catch-22. Report it and you are paranoid and over-reacting, don't report it and you might later be held responsible to failure to act and prevent yet another horrific school shooting.

[Tuna]

Wow, my 17 year old is addicted to that game, hopefully he is behaving chat wise. He wanted me to download and play with him, but I was leary of the installer, so since what I saw game play wise, didn't impress me, I passed.

[FarAway Sooner]

It's Texas.  I say they shoulda fried the kid.  The deterrent value there in deterring online gaming rants would have been extraordinary.

In all seriousness, he wasn't a minor and his prison sentence could be up to 8 years.  I agree that it's overboard, but it's not like he's a a minor who's already been sentenced.  Just want to clarify a fact point or two.

[sandman2575]

We (society) get ourselves into these catch-22 situations.  If everyone ignored this kids posting as just a joke and did nothing, and then he later he did shoot up a school...there would be lawsuits filed against the game sponsors, players, parents, etc. for what would retroactively be deemed as a failure on their part for not acting upon a threat.  I agree with the prior posts but I can also see that when people ignore these sorts of rants from teens they are then held responsible for not taking action.  And therein lies the catch-22. Report it and you are paranoid and over-reacting, don't report it and you might later be held responsible to failure to act and prevent yet another horrific school shooting.

Yes, but context matters, doesn't it?  There's absolutely nothing about the context here that suggests the kid was serious about the threat -- and 2 lines hardly qualifies as a "rant."  It was a stupid and disgusting thing to say, but it was very evidently not meant in earnest.  The idea that he's now facing a long prison sentence is beyond absurd.

If the kid had posted something like that on his Facebook wall, not in obvious response to anything (i.e. without any obvious context), then yes, that would be very worrying and worth reporting. 

A decent lawyer should be able to get him out of this.  it doesn't seem like a very hard argument to make, and a reasonable jury I think would understand.  of course, 'reasonableness' is always a rare commodity...

Also -- "I'm gonna eat their still-beating hearts" --?  This alone should signal to anyone reasonable that the threat was not meant in earnest.  Unless "World War Z" has besotted everyone with irrational fears of the reality of zombies...

[GJK]

What's scary is the fact that somebody is actually reading all of the in-game chatter from the players.

[W8taminute]

I see two things with this event:

1. Online chat etiquette needs to be taught to everyone, adults and children.  (Myself included)

2. We live in a world now where the list of things one is not allowed to do or say or think is growing exponentially.  Scotty, beam me up as there is no intelligent lifeforms left on this planet.

[LongBlade]

What's scary is the fact that somebody is actually reading all of the in-game chatter from the players.

It is, however in this case it appears to have been someone in game who reported it. What isn't clear is whether she was a fellow player or a mod monitoring the chat room. Given the fact that she was able to look up his location tells me that she was probably a mod in the game. Not good when you're this wrong.

But a Canadian woman who saw the post looked up Carter's Austin address, determined that it was near an elementary school, and called the police. Carter was arrested one month later, and has been in jail ever since.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/27/texas-teen-makes-violent-joke-during-video-game-is-jailed-for-months/

[Rayfer]

We (society) get ourselves into these catch-22 situations.  If everyone ignored this kids posting as just a joke and did nothing, and then he later he did shoot up a school...there would be lawsuits filed against the game sponsors, players, parents, etc. for what would retroactively be deemed as a failure on their part for not acting upon a threat.  I agree with the prior posts but I can also see that when people ignore these sorts of rants from teens they are then held responsible for not taking action.  And therein lies the catch-22. Report it and you are paranoid and over-reacting, don't report it and you might later be held responsible to failure to act and prevent yet another horrific school shooting.

Yes, but context matters, doesn't it?  There's absolutely nothing about the context here that suggests the kid was serious about the threat -- and 2 lines hardly qualifies as a "rant."  It was a stupid and disgusting thing to say, but it was very evidently not meant in earnest.  The idea that he's now facing a long prison sentence is beyond absurd.

If the kid had posted something like that on his Facebook wall, not in obvious response to anything (i.e. without any obvious context), then yes, that would be very worrying and worth reporting. 

A decent lawyer should be able to get him out of this.  it doesn't seem like a very hard argument to make, and a reasonable jury I think would understand.  of course, 'reasonableness' is always a rare commodity...

Also -- "I'm gonna eat their still-beating hearts" --?  This alone should signal to anyone reasonable that the threat was not meant in earnest.  Unless "World War Z" has besotted everyone with irrational fears of the reality of zombies...

Sandman....yes, I agree with your points, but in many of the past school shooting it turns out there were things posted, said, etc. by the perpetrators that were ignored or not taken seriously and then later those who read them (psychologists, teachers, etc.) are held accountable for failing to take action.  I just feel for those who have to make these subjective opinions regarding context and who is and who isn't serious about actually doing what they posted.  How do know which are real and which are just jokes?  Not an easy thing to do when the stakes are so high.  In this instance it sure appears this kid should be let go.

[son_of_montfort]

We are damned if we do, damned if we don't. Everyone looks to the actual perpetrators of school shootings and says "They had all this online activity, stated their intent, and nobody took them seriously." Then we look at this kid, act on his joke, and it makes us look too jumpy or foolish.

Also, adding "LOL" and "j/k" is like saying "With all due respect..." right before you say "your mother is a slut." Or "I'm just kidding" after you say, "your wife looks like a man."

Maybe the best route would be to ignore what people post online and make it harder to get guns...  8)

[sandman2575]

and make it harder to get guns...  8)

paging Jarhead.  Jarhead to the front desk.   :)


Believe me, I'm all for caution and taking threats seriously.  And again, I think what the kid wrote was awful.  But I'm just kinda surprised at the overreaction in this case, which to me seems pretty cut and dried:  young kid was pissed off about something while online gaming (...an activity known for sparking, shall we say, tempers) and he shot his mouth off writing something stupid.  But criminal charges?  Jail time?  I find it mind-boggling.  I don't think as an ethical matter that people should make jokes about heinous massacres of school children.  However, i also don't think there's anything criminal about what this kid did. 

[GDS_Starfury]

Maybe the best route would be to ignore what people post online and make it harder to get guns...  8)

looking for a beat down arent ya.

[son_of_montfort]

^ As if you all COULD!

It was said tongue-in-cheek to get you all riled up... so that you say something awful on the internet... so that I can report you to the authorities.  :P