The internet is an amazing and dangerous place, especially if you’re too young to fully understand the repercussions of posting questionable content online. For two days Tumblr has been ablaze with re-postings of a screen cap from a video of a young girl throwing a puppy into a body of water. Along with the photo was this little blurb:
“This is actually one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen on the internet, and I’ve really seen it all. I’ve seen suicide videos (mildly disturbing, but usually cartoonish), etc… but this is just fucking awful.
[…]Obviously, if you know who this girl is, report her to law enforcement, even if you’re not a “dog person”.
Here’s why you should report her to law enforcement: She’s a serial killer in the making. There are various reports on the internet [...] that show the direct correlation between animal abuse in childhood, and serial killing sprees as adults. This girl is sick.
This girl, while she appears to still only be a child, needs to be locked up away from people.”
Not that I’m trying to nitpick, but the “she’s a serial killer in the making” comment is a bit of a stretch. In no way am I contesting the fact that this is one very sick little girl — but she’s probably not on her way to serial killer-dom. Just repeated incidences of animal abuse, which isn’t much better.
Once upon a time, I wanted to be an FBI agent. Like everyone else that has had an interest in psychology, I dreamed of working with the profiling unit at Quantico. This led to a lot of reading on the topic of serial killers, which is why I know the information I’m about to regurgitate all over your screen.
The behaviors necessary for this type of loose diagnosis usually manifest themselves in at least two of three areas before anyone takes the leap to saying something regarding characteristics of a serial killer. Yes, she has the whole animal torture thing covered but pyromania and chronic bed wetting are two equally important symptoms in this triad. Plus, she’s female and I’m pretty sure that means there’s a significantly slimmer chance she’d ever make it to multiple murder status.
So she’s got a few screws loose and clearly needs help; that means an assessment from a qualified professional before we leap straight to locking her up forever. She should probably get new friends too, because who the fuck would post something like that on the internet? All of this is assuming the video is real which, as I think we’ve all learned in the past, it could just as easily not be.
I’m not posting a link to the video or the screen-cap because frankly, I need less horror in my life and I figure the rest of you do, too. I can’t even fathom wanting to watch the damn video. If you’re reading this, you’re probably Google-savvy enough to find it yourself anyway. The internet is supposed to allow for research, keeping up with current events and lurking hot girls photos on Facebook. I don’t need one more thing to make my stomach clench, to make me hate humanity with my whole heart. I do that well enough on my own – why else do you think I quit watching the evening news and put a cap on the amount of time I will allow myself to read about sad things in one 24-hour period? Happy news doesn’t sell, and while I’m not trying to argue that it should it would be a nice change of pace for once to see people get up in arms about a cause they can reasonably do something about.
Back to the topic at hand: a link to this girl’s Facebook is now making the rounds as well. For the time being her page is private, but we know that won’t last. I’m curious how long it will take for her account to be removed by Facebook admins (unlikely), deleted by the girl/her family (slightly more likely) or hacked by someone with ill intentions (most likely). Only so much attention can be put on this before someone pulls some crazy stunt to try to “teach her a lesson.” I’m talking 4chan levels of too far, because we all know someone will go there. Will someone call her friends, her school… her parents? Have they already?
If the person whose account has been fingered is actually the culprit, their full name is now forever linked to this video. Assuming it’s real, and that she gets help, this will never stop popping up alongside her name in search engines. The internet, as I’ve said before, is not a forgiving place. Forgetting is not an option either–the internet really does mean forever.
Maybe I’m off base here, but there’s something equally (if not more) wrong with people–most of which are adults–posting this link while encouraging others to try to contact her. Reporting her to the authorities is one thing; behaving like some kind of citizens brigade towards what we all seem sure is just a child strikes me as dangerous. An internet mob mentality running full steam does not equal a happy or productive ending to incidents like this, ever.
If you think reposting things like this for all to see, harassment and otherwise alienating this (and I cannot stress this word enough) KID is going to help her change her ways, you probably need just as much therapy as she does. To be clear, we all love cute furry creatures and hurting them is wrong. But cute furry creatures aren’t the ones that are going to need protection as a result of these posts: that girl is. From the innumerable messages she’s probably received, news media agents, stalkers… at this rate, she may need to be concerned about masked agents of the ALF showing up on her doorstep.
I understand the internet is trying to do right but man… y’all are going about this in entirely the wrong way.