Carolina Picchio was a 14-year old girl from Novara, Italy, near Milan. She had an enviously pretty face and a bright future was in her way. However, at night on January 4th, Carolina leaped out of her bedroom window from her family’s fourth floor apartment. Before she jumped, she updated her Facebook status with this post: “Forgive me if I’m not strong. I cannot take it anymore.”
A suggestive video of her, taken at a drinking party, was uploaded without Carolina’s permission by her ex-boyfriend. In addition, the boys have been sending her nasty texts and have been cyberbullying her on Facebook with different insults and threats.
In a similar case, where Google Italia officials did not take down an offending video that lead to suicide, prosecutors were able to charge the officials on criminal charges of manslaughter, for shirking their responsibility to provide a safe haven for Internet users. Prosecutors look to a similar type of case.
Eight boys are being investigated for instigating suicide and distributing pedopornography on the Internet. Prosecutors want to make Facebook liable for Carolina’s death as well, debating on whether or not they wanted to sue Facebook for their lack of action in response to the video.
Facebook strives to make changes and to reform their system. Too late for the family of Carolina Picchio though, the reform that Facebook promises may save many other lives that could be taken through cyberbullying.
To read about the entire situation, check out:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/05/31/will-italy-sue-facebook-over-cyberbullying-suicide.html
