Teenager Charged for Pretending to be a Teacher on Facebook

[fredr123]

http://winnipegsun.com/News/Manitoba...71331-sun.html

The suspect -- who can't be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act -- will appear in court June 24 to face a charge of personation after allegedly posing as a school teacher on Facebook, a social networking website.

David Deutscher, a criminal law professor at the U of M, said a personation charge is laid only when it's alleged that the suspect intended to gain something by pretending to be someone else, or to cause some disadvantage to the other person.

"The context of advantage or disadvantage really hasn't been very well-defined in those kinds of situations. It's pretty broad," Deutscher said.

Simply pretending to be someone else for fun is not a crime, said MacFarlane, a former provincial deputy justice minister.

"If I was to go out and proclaim I am you, that's not an offence," he told a reporter.

"If I'm trying to seek something, that's when it's converted into a criminal offence. It would be interesting to see what the advantage was here."

An adult convicted of personation could spend up to 10 years in prison.

[dissentowner]

This is just reaching now...they are going to charge someone for pretending to be a teacher online???

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

This is just reaching now...they are going to charge someone for pretending to be a teacher online???

I disagree. I'm sure there are cool teachers out there who use Facebook as a way for students to communicate with them outside of the classroom, and use it as great tool. However if I create a page pretending to be a teacher, then tell the student to suck rocks, that could be bad for said teacher.

[fredr123]

Bad news for all those wieners pretending to be Dion Phaneuf or Huselius.

[Drunk Skunk]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Bad news for all those wieners pretending to be Dion Phaneuf or Huselius.

Krys Kolanos?

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I disagree. I'm sure there are cool teachers out there who use Facebook as a way for students to communicate with them outside of the classroom, and use it as great tool. However if I create a page pretending to be a teacher, then tell the student to suck rocks, that could be bad for said teacher.

Maybe but to be charged over it? That's a bit harsh unless it directly ruined someone's career or life.

[Gozer]

From the story:

David Deutscher, a criminal law professor at the U of M, said a personation charge is laid only when it's alleged that the suspect intended to gain something by pretending to be someone else, or to cause some disadvantage to the other person.

[old-fart]

So.... if for example someone were to pretend to be, oh I don't know... a doctor or a talent agent in order to impress some not so bright bimbo in order to gain a hummer, they could be charged with personation?

What if someone was just pretending to be not married to again procure said hummer?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by old-fart

So.... if for example someone were to pretend to be, oh I don't know... a doctor or a talent agent in order to impress some not so bright bimbo in order to gain a hummer, they could be charged with personation?

What if someone was just pretending to be not married to again procure said hummer?

Only if they pretend to be a specific person.

[RougeUnderoos]

All the big brand-names are just staggering over themselves to have a presence on facebook and take advantage of "social marketing" sites. They want to shill their product but a big thing they are after is harvesting all the information about people. I was at a seminar a few months ago and their was a web developer practically salivating at all the stuff they were going to be able to haul in just by making a facebook application. They believe this and are throwing real money at it. Somebody put up his hand and said "but people lie on facebook and the information is dubious at best" and the answer was "....umm, but this is going to be an awesome application" and started talking about something else.

Anyway, bla bla bla

If this kid just made a facebook page under the guise of Mr. Smith the math teacher as a lark then he probably shouldn't be charged. He must have done something though, and the possibilities are endless. Inappropriate suggestions to the girls (or boys), telling kids to eff off, asking for credit card numbers, bribery, blackmail, who knows.

[Locke]

Absolutely. Run the kid out of town and into jail.

I dont know about you people, but I've been charged far more for significantly less.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Locke

Absolutely. Run the kid out of town and into jail.

I dont know about you people, but I've been charged far more for significantly less.

details?

[tanguay'sstillgood]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

This is just reaching now...they are going to charge someone for pretending to be a teacher online???

No no, it's not reaching at all. Maybe you didnt hear about the teacher who got fired for having students as friends on his bands MySpace page. Or teachers losing jobs for the pictures that show up on their Facebook accounts (which is now why everyone in education programs cranks up their privacy settings).

And if anybody argues that the teacher would eventually be proven innocent to anything this kid did under his name, that doesnt really matter. Generally, once a teacher has been accused of something (lets say, for example, this kid harrassed a minor while pretending to be the teacher...one of his students or not), if the kid being harrassed went public, that teacher is screwed. Even once it has been proven it wasnt him there is still an illusion that he did it and its still in the back of peoples minds. Careers can be (and have been) ruined over things smaller than this. Teachers are in a sensitive enough position these days, we dont need this little ass making it worse.

[Daradon]

Well the article said that the offender was seeking something, or looking to do damage, so it wasn't just for fun.

[blankall]

People need to realize that the internet is a public forum. People will believe news they hear on the internet, and impersonated another human being is fraud pure and simple. Obviously some internet sites are not credible, but others clearly are. Like the other poster said, a teacher got fired for actions on facebook. So facebook is considered credible.

[Antithesis]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Maybe but to be charged over it? That's a bit harsh unless it directly ruined someone's career or life.

The part that I think you are missing (understably so - doesn't seem as if you're a teacher) is the depth to which something like this could very well ruin someone's career or life.

If this kid was making lewd comments or behaving inappropriately with students in that teacher's name, the tarnish from that may never leave the teacher's reputation. Teenagers have this amazing ability to believe rumor and innuendo despite glaring evidence to the contrary. For the sake of argument let's say that the "lewd/inappropriate behavior" is what actually happened here - some students in that school and others will see the teacher affected in that light as long as they live.

I'm sure day-to-day life for this teacher has probably been made more difficult due to this - funny looks in the hallway, completely innocent interactions with students painted in another light - even if proof exists that the actions mentioned in the article were not the teachers'.

The growth of social networking sites (facebook, YouTube, Myspace) poses a huge problem for teachers. You get students trying to bait their teachers into overreaction in order to record it and upload to YouTube to make the teacher look bad - to actions like this. These sites open huge privacy issues for those of us in the profession and I'm glad to see this being dealt with in this manner. A precedent needs to be set here.

[Kipper is King]

This happened to a prof of mine. He discovered someone posing as him on Facebook last year, and he had to take legal action against him.

[Incinerator]

Originally Posted by tanguay'sstillgood

No no, it's not reaching at all. Maybe you didnt hear about the teacher who got fired for having students as friends on his bands MySpace page. Or teachers losing jobs for the pictures that show up on their Facebook accounts (which is now why everyone in education programs cranks up their privacy settings).

And if anybody argues that the teacher would eventually be proven innocent to anything this kid did under his name, that doesnt really matter. Generally, once a teacher has been accused of something (lets say, for example, this kid harrassed a minor while pretending to be the teacher...one of his students or not), if the kid being harrassed went public, that teacher is screwed. Even once it has been proven it wasnt him there is still an illusion that he did it and its still in the back of peoples minds. Careers can be (and have been) ruined over things smaller than this. Teachers are in a sensitive enough position these days, we dont need this little ass making it worse.

a friend of mine is a freshly minted rookie teacher and her after-work life has been quite scandulous and well documented photographically, I better tell her to clean up her facebook haha...