Finland, Philadelphia and YouTube—a deadly connection?
14-year-old Dillon Cossey in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania met 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen from Finland on YouTube. They traded e-mail and exchanged posts on a site they were both interested in–about the Columbine school massacre in Colorado in 1999.
Dillon was arrested in October, 2007 for allegedly planning an attack on his high school. In early November, 2007, Pekka killed six students, a nurse and the principal at his school before killing himself. A rifle and other weapons were found at his home as well as a suicide note.
Photo by Thms.nl (Flickr)
In October, 2007, five Belleville, Michigan 11th-graders were expelled from school after posting photos of themselves on MySpace. They posed around a pool table covered with guns, and holding a half-filled baggy and a handgun in the back of a limousine. The boys claimed they were play-acting for a CD cover but the school district stood by its discipline.
Share with us any thoughts you have about the use and/or abuse of video/photo sharing sites and the consequences of what some see as irresponsible behavior. Should there be limits on what you can post online? Why or why not?
