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Apr 24, 2008 9:59 pm US/Eastern
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Person Uses Web Site To Threaten Teen's Life
Jim Smith, WBZ-TV reporter
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Lisa Butler cheers her daughter on during a softball game, but she's also looking over her shoulder after a threat against 13-year-old Angela.
That threat was relayed over a Web site designed to help the hard of hearing send and receive messages over the phone. The user types in a message, connects via the site to a phone number, and the operator reads it to the recipient.
Sounds great right?
But this is the message Lisa got from an operator on Tuesday night. "She said I'm watching you, I see your every move. Angela, I am going to kill you when you least expect it, I am going to kill you."
That's right. No matter what you type, the operator will verbally deliver that message.
Young Angela is scared. "I was sitting on the couch crying my eyes out. I was petrified because, you know, what if somebody was watching me? Something could have happened to me. So I told (my mom) to lock all the window and shut everything… make sure nothing was in the closet… I was so scared. It was like something out of a horror movie."
Dracut police and the DA's office are investigating. They're trying to get the IP address of the computer user who sent the message, but Lisa Butler says the system must change. "She could have said 'I'm sorry, I have to relay this message, it's my job' and then say it… nothing. No warning… I guess she's doing her job, but there wasn't even a pause. Even when I said call the police, she continued on."
A spokesman for the Web site says they are willing to work with police, but advocates for the hard of hearing say these so-called IP relay sites do provide great benefits for the deaf.
Federal laws now on the books make the problem even worse by protecting the privacy of the callers, and requiring operators to say everything that is typed -- no matter what.
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