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  • Essay / California Criminalizes Online Identity Theft - 2633

    Social networks like Facebook have been big targets of malicious actions in the past. This is why California has passed a new law that will criminalize anyone who commits these procedures. Additionally, the person will be punished with a $1,000 fine and one year in county jail under SB 1411. The law considers "harming, intimidating, threatening, or defrauding another person" online and without his consent constitutes an offense. It allows the victim to sue the imitator for damages and losses. » This law will help California because one of the biggest problems young people face when they fall in love. According to Janis Wolak's study, most victims are teenage girls aged 13 to 15 who frequent chat rooms and meet adult offenders. These girls would fall in love and have sex without realizing that some of them were sex offenders, which would eventually affect their health. Besides sexual relations, teenage suicide is another factor. In 2006, there was a big case where Lori Drew was being sued because she created an account on Myspace under the name Josh Evans. Because of this incident, Megan Meir, a 13-year-old girl, committed suicide. Meir thought no one liked him and a lot of that was because of Josh Evans' comments on his page. These actions are considered cyberbullying and may encourage others to commit suicide. In fact, regulation is needed, especially in an area where social media has become more common for committing crimes. And some of these crimes have to do with the fact that websites like Facebook contain a lot of public information that should instead be private or offer privacy options to people viewing their profiles. Current Policy Under section 528.5 of the new policy called SB 1411 in California, it states that "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any person who knowingly and without consent credibly impersonates another real person through or on an Internet website or other electronic means for the purpose of harming, intimidating, threatening or defrauding another person is guilty of a public offense punishable under the subdivision.” It is also important to clarify that if the victim involved in the incident is allowed to bring a civil action for compensatory damages, the offender .