Assignment #2: Scottish teenager commits suicide over Skype blackmail scam – Amanda Hariri

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/europe/uk-cyber-blackmail-suicide/index.html

Reports claim that in July of this year Scottish teenager Daniel Perry committed suicide after falling victim to an Internet blackmail scam. The criminals behind the scam lured Perry into Skype video chats with what seemed to be an American girl around his age, which they recorded without the his knowledge. Later, the criminals demanded money from Perry lest they reveal the recorded interactions – which had subsequently been manipulated to embarrass or shame Perry – to his family. Reports also claim Perry was mocked and harassed by trolls who encourage him to take his own life on Ask.fm, a social networking site where users can ask each other questions with the option of remaining anonymous.

I feel like this combined victimization of Perry by Internet blackmailing and cyberbullying clearly illustrates invisibilty (for the blackmailers on Skype) and dissociative imagination (for the cyberbullies on Ask.fm). 

Invisibility played a major role in disinhibiting the blackmailers because not even their existence was revealed to Perry until they demanded money from him. It is unclear how the criminals executed the scam; they may have hired a girl to talk to Perry, or they found some way to hack into the Skype system so they could monitor chats unbeknownst to either party in the interaction. Regardless, they did so invisibly (fully before revealing their existence, partially after confronting Perry), which likely gave them the confidence to manipulate and threaten Perry.

For the cyberbullies, invisibility may have also worked in their favor if they chose to stay anonymous/used fake names on Ask.fm. Invisibility may have disinhibited them in the sense that they’d feel less apprehensive being abusive online if no one could trace it back to them. However, I feel this is a stronger example of dissociative imagination, because it’s possible the cyberbullies did not think their online actions would have had any real-life consequences. These trolls were most likely in it for the “fun” of it, and never in their lives truly thought Perry would actually kill himself. Even if they did, dissociative imagination suggests they wanted “make-believe, Internet Perry” to kill himself, i.e., that Perry who they think doesn’t actually exist in reality.

(Also, if Perry was anonymous in his posts on Ask.fm, this could have led to the cyberbulling in that it allowed him the courage in posting something he may have not shared if his identity was revealed, and that it might have allowed cyberbullies more confidence in their abuse if they felt even more detached to the victim.)