Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


6

Toxic Teen Website Infuriates Parents, Cops

On anonymous message board, free speech becomes personal attacks

Share

(Newser) – The creator of the online message board Peoplesdirt.com says he's just providing an "avenue for people to express their feelings," but parents and teachers disagree. The website allows teenagers to anonymously post slurs and false rumors about fellow students. Although it's legal, it's also hateful and humiliating, students and parents tell the Washington Post.

Alfredo Castillo, the site's 23-year-old administrator, presents the board as an outlet that might prevent school violence—and one posting has led to the arrest of a student who made threats. But for the girls who have refused to return to school and the boy who feels like an "outcast," the site is simply a sad example of the dark side of the Internet.

The message board Peoplesdirt.com is blocked by most school computer labs, since it has sexual and other inappropriate content, but that doesn't stop kids from using it.
The message board Peoplesdirt.com is blocked by most school computer labs, since it has sexual and other inappropriate content, but that doesn't stop kids from using it.   (Getty Images)
The creators of Peoplesdirt.com say they are filling a need for kids to air grievances anonymously, but those students mentioned by name on the site's explicit posts don't agree.
The creators of Peoplesdirt.com say they are filling a need for kids to air grievances anonymously, but those students mentioned by name on the site's explicit posts don't agree.   (Getty Images)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

It's so frustrating. The parents are upset. The kids are upset. There's nothing positive about the site at all. Young girls are coming home crying. - Montgomery Police Detective John Reinikka, who couldn't find anything illegal about the site

We understand that a lot of it might be false. . . . We have to allow people who know these individuals to judge what is right [and] what is not. - Alfredo Castillo, the site's administrator

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.23.09
Books Are Bad for You
11.20.09
The Health-Care Wars Have Just Begun
6 comments
VIEWING:
 
kokuaguy
May 17, 09 12:57 PM CDT
I think one would have to read the source article in order to form a defensible position on this issue. Or perhaps visit the website itself. Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+1
jscanzoni
May 17, 09 3:15 PM CDT
Sounds a lot like JuicyCampus... I wasn't a big fan of that site. Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
anchower
May 17, 09 3:58 PM CDT
Since when is libel "legal"? Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+2
TerrifiedCitizen
May 17, 09 10:28 PM CDT
Yeah... my friends in small places tell me that there is no gossip like in small towns. Seems the locals from the schoolyards never seem to mature past a certain point and discuss everyone's business except their own; partly to make themselves look important to others, but they also seem to have this rather distorted idea that the gossip they pass on is to protect their neighbors by identifying people who do questionable things, those worth repeating. Unfortunately, these gossipers haven't learned that most gossip is just heresy that isn't backed up with hard evidence; which is of course why it's gossip in the first place. I'm trying to remember what my old grandpa used to say about gossip... something like "Great people talk about ideas, good people talk about events; unfortunately the rest talk about other people." Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+2
IN RESPONSE:
jeangnome
May 18, 09 10:19 AM CDT
I live in a very small town. Your friends are correct. The gossip here is horrendous. If they can't find the dirt they make it up. *sigh* I'm not sure that reading something on a website is any worse than hearing it said to your face or behind your back, which always comes back to you from well meaning friends. The only difference is the parents are hearing (reading) it too.
Vote up! Vote down!
0

View all 6 comments »

LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

49 Stories

OPINION

 Time to 
 Crack Down 
 on Jihad 2.0 



Web indoctrination of terrorists on US soil poses major threat

Nov 19, 09 8:46 AM CST
(Newser) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has knocked Nidal Hasan out of the headlines but the Fort Hood suspect is the kind of threat America needs to focus on, warns Daniel Henninger. Home-grown terrorists, indoctrinated over the Internet, are now more of a danger than "old-school" jihadis abroad, and the ideology that... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Internet • terrorism • free speech • Facebook • First Amendment • counterterrorism • terror websites • domestic terrorism • Nidal Malik Hasan

 Web Protests Win Surprise   
 Traction in China 

Some fear official tolerance is surveillance in disguise

Nov 9, 09 9:20 AM CST
(Newser) - The usually repressive Chinese government has been surprisingly tolerant of—and even responsive to—a wave of Internet petitions protesting local injustices and corruption. Online campaigns have gotten accused killers freed, officials fired, and charges dropped against a motorist who cut off his own finger to protest police entrapment, then... More »

MORE ABOUT:
China • Internet • corruption • surveillance • anonymous • online activism • freedom of speech • petition

 White House: 
 Beating Vid 
 'Chilling' 

Obama prepares to pitch Chitown Olympics as city reels from murder

Oct 1, 09 4:43 AM CDT
(Newser) - As Barack Obama prepares to make a pitch to hold the Olympics in his hometown, the White House is decrying a "chilling" videotaped beating death of a teenager in the same city. It's one of the most shocking things "you can ever see," White House spokesman Robert... More »

MORE ABOUT:
high school • Chicago • crime • White House • murder • gang violence • videotape • beatings • teenager • videotaped beating • Derrion Albert

49 Stories


Principals are sad but powerless
Gazette.Net

The site (if you want to give it even more traffic)
Peoples Dirt

The arrest sparked by the site
Eyewitness News


Technology  •  Arts & Living 
TwitterFollow @NewserTech on Twitter

 
Internet • high school • free speech • message boards • death threats • anonymous • teenager • peoplesdirt.com

from our news partners