(Newser)
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Two middle-school girls in Texas have been arrested after police say they created a Facebook page in a classmate's name—and used it to fire off threats to other students. The girls, ages 12 and 13, face third-degree felony charges for online impersonation, NBC News reports. The messages caused "the victim to endure threats from other students" and suffer social rejection, a sheriff's statement says; the victim's mother says the incident nearly prompted a "physical altercation."
"This is similar in every way to identity theft," the sheriff said. He noted that the victim was friends with the alleged perpetrators and "would like to forgive and forget." Meanwhile, the ACLU has voiced concerns about the case, citing "hysteria" about social media from "people who don't understand it." "Increasingly, this is the case, if you misbehave at school, you get arrested. You don’t get suspension," says a rep. Details of the messages are being kept quiet in the juvenile case.
