Britain: 18-year-old first to be jailed for online bullying

The Asian Age

London, Aug. 22: A British teenager became the first person to be jailed in the country for bullying on a social networking site after posting a death threat on Facebook.

Keeley Houghton, 18, was sentenced to three months in a young offenders’ institution after pleading guilty for harassing Emily Moore, the Telegraph reported. She was also given a restraining order banning her from contacting Emily in person, via the Internet or in any other manner for five years.

District judge Bruce while convicting Houghton said, “Since Emily Moore was 14 you have waged compelling threats and violent abuse towards her. Bullies are by their nature are cowards, in school and society. The evil, odious effects of being bullied stay with you for life. On this day you did an act of gratuitous nastiness to satisfy your own twisted nature,” he said. Houghton had posted she would kill Moore, whom she had bullied for four years since they were at school together. People have previously been jailed for harassment and stalking on social networking sites but she is first to be jailed for bullying via the Web. —PTI

Source: www.asianage.com

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