Jessi Slaughter cyberbullying case

The Jessi Slaughter cyberbullying case revolved around an 11-year-old girl nicknamed "Jessi Slaughter" and "Kerligirl13", whose profanity-laden video postings became a viral hit via Stickam and YouTube. The videos resulted in a campaign of telephone and internet harassment against the girl, which has been characterized by her family and the media as a case of cyberbullying.

Videos
Slaughter created a variety of videos uploaded to YouTube using her webcam. She bragged in them about her popularity, her attractiveness, and her intelligence. They featured a shocking use of profanity, offensive gestures, repeated threats of violence, and a casual discussion of (alleged) sexual activity with older men coming at her very young age. She told video viewers, "'I'm happy with my life okay? And if you can't, like, realize that and stop hating you know what? I'll pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushy." She also angrily responded to comments that her (alleged) sexual relationships constituted statutory rape due to her young age. It's not clear, according to her mother, whether or not she actually had any of these relationships.

Her mother later said in an interview with the feminist blog MomLogic.com, "Jessica has a webcam and a computer. All of her friends have webcams, too, so they video chat with each other. I knew she'd made a video to apply for "America's Got Talent." She sings and sent an audition video in. I had no idea she was making other videos. I have seen her chatting with her friends, but not making videos."

Aside from making videos, Slaughter allegedly created nude photographs of herself that she released. Her mother has said that those images were photoshopped fakes distributed as a form of harassment.

Timeline
Slaughter's first popular video was originally posted in response to two rumors: first, that she had been raped by a real-life friend, and second, that she was having underage sex with the lead singer of the band Blood On The Dance Floor. She described the video's profane content as "just a way to get out my anger." This video was eventually linked to by users of the 4chan message boards, where users then found and distributed her real name, phone number and address.

The harassment intensified after Leonhardt posted video responses that included her father insulting and threatening the bullies, telling them that they had "done goofed," that he had "back-traced" their identities, and threatening that "consequences will never be the same": "You know what? I'm gonna tell you right now, this is from her father, you bunch of lying, no-good punks! And I know who it's coming from, because I back-traced it, and I know who's emailing and who's doing it, and you've been reported to cyber police and the state police. You better not write one more thing or screw with my computer again, you'll be arrested, end of conversation, from her father! And if you come near my daughter, guess what? Consequences will never be the same, you lying bunch of pricks!"

His retaliation made the taunting worse, and the video of his reactions received more views than any of his daughter's previous recordings. He later admitted that he was simply trying to support his daughter as her father and "get people to stop hating."

Leonhardt was placed under police protection, and the family's home was placed under police surveillance. She underwent counseling for the harassment but says it has not discouraged her from continuing to post videos to the internet.

Jessi Slaughter and her parents were subsequently interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America. The family revealed that, since the videos went viral, they have received harassment ranging from death threats to unfounded accusations of sexual abuse against the girl.

Parry Aftab harassment
After the Good Morning America interview, the television audience was given advice on how to handle online bullying from internet privacy expert Parry Aftab. Aftab herself was subsequently subjected to harassment from 4chan users in the forms of Google bombing false child molestation rumors, the distribution of her own personal information, threatening telephone calls, and DoS attacks against her websites wiredsafety.org and aftab.com. Aftab canceled a follow-up GMA report due to air the next day because of the harassment.

Reactions
In Australia, advocates of internet censorship invoked the harassment to support mandatory internet content filtering. In France, L'Express described the harassment as "ruining the life" of "an American woman in the throes of adolescence."