First known TikTok mob attack led by middle schoolers tormenting teachers
arstechnica.com
Legal options limited to stop fake TikTok accounts harming teachers, school says.

A bunch of eighth graders in a “wealthy Philadelphia suburb” recently targeted teachers with an extreme online harassment campaign that The New York Times reported was “the first known group TikTok attack of its kind by middle schoolers on their teachers in the United States.”

According to The Times, the Great Valley Middle School students created at least 22 fake accounts impersonating about 20 teachers in offensive ways. The fake accounts portrayed long-time, dedicated teachers sharing “pedophilia innuendo, racist memes,” and homophobic posts, as well as posts fabricating “sexual hookups among teachers.”

  • psychothumbs@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    So kids are joking around with each other online and the school is monitoring their accounts and punishing them for mean jokes about teachers? Leave these kids alone

      • psychothumbs@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        2 months ago

        Again, how is it harassment if it’s just jokes these kids are passing around between each other that are only discoverable by snooping in them?

        • Triasha@lemmy.world
          0·
          2 months ago

          Impersonating someone to suggest sexual relationships threatens their marriage or partnership.

          Implying pedofilia threatens their freedom and all their relationships.

          This isn’t telling jokes at the lunch table, it’s shouting them in a public forum. Tik Tok is no different than putting up a billboard or running an ad spot on television.

          • psychothumbs@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            2 months ago

            I mean everyone gets that it was in fact a joke right? What are we talking about here? People are trying to make it sound like the kids were harassing these teachers or trying to trick people into thinking they were pedophiles as opposed to passing around dumb memes about them between each other.

          • psychothumbs@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            2 months ago

            This was impersonation on the level of “hey look at me, I’m funkless_eck, I’m a pedophile! dur dur dur” not some attempt to make it seem like those teachers were actually pedophiles.

          • stoly@lemmy.world
            0·
            2 months ago

            I speak that really from experience. My Reddit account (which I abandoned) is roughly 17 now. Was on other platforms prior.

            You can usually tell when you’ve got a teen when they become libertarian and angry about why anyone should care about something edgy being done. The whole “it was just a prank, bro” mindset.

            • Triasha@lemmy.world
              0·
              2 months ago

              Maybe we misunderstood each other. I meant the children should not be on the internet.

              If they are going to do hurtful crap like that they should not be allowed to have smart phones.