COURT RULES CYBER-BULLYING IS NOT PROTECTED BY FREE SPEECH

Good! A blow for justice! This poor 15 year-old boy, whose name is not being released to protect the innocent and is known as J.D., set up a website to promote his career as an actor and was subsequently verball attacked by classmates. They posted hateful messages threatening to "rip out your heart and feed it to you" and "pound your head in with an ice pick" along with several anti-gay slurs. Well the boy sued claiming the remarks "constituted hate crimes and defamation" but one (stupid) classmate said the messages were protected by his right to free expression. WRONG!!!! The SF Chronicle reports that the California Second District Court ruled 2-1 that the violence contained in the language "conveyed a harmful intent that is not protected by the right to free speech." The boy reportedly is not gay, but still was offended, and rightfully so, by the hate speech hurled at him. This kid had to move from his home to an undisclosed area in California. This is great. Especially when it comes to children, words can hurt, even kill, and to hide behind free speech is just pathetic. Hopefully this will make kids think twice before bullying on the internet. [source]