Current Events Essay
California man gets five years in prison for harassing Parkland school shooting victims
Among the stories making headlines in the news recently is the sentencing of a California man who used social media, specifically Instagram, to harass Parkland shooting victims. Brandon used different Instagram accounts with different names to mock the victims. He impersonated the shooting defendant and serial killer Ted Bundy. Though he was not the killer, he managed to instil fear and despair among the victims. The victims had this constant feeling that they were not safe with this man continually bombarding them with messages.
In recent times, issues of social media misuse, especially among young people, are reported to be increasing from ne day to another. According to Puglisi, “I think that it’s a high sentence given Brandon’s background and other similarly situated cases, but I believe that the judge felt the need to have the sentence send a message to others that are out there on the Internet doing this bad behavior” (Betz, 2020). Through this case, the judge felt the need to use general deterrence to other young people sitting behind the keyboard and doing illegal things.
Young people think that impersonating other people and using a fake identity in social media makes them invisible. However, there are cybersecurity laws which they do not take account of when doing whatever illegal things they do and this case serves as a lesson to others who are doing the same or think of doing such a thing.