Do online exposure for teenagers necessary?
Girl’s online friends jailed for assault
16 April 2013
Five young men have been convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl on separate occasions after they got acquainted with her on a social networking website.
The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court sentenced each of them to six months in jail, while the third and fourth defendants were ordered to remain behind bars for another year for depriving her of her freedom.
The girl’s ordeal started after she met with the prime suspect on a social networking site and developed a close friendship with him online. Later, he threatened her that he would disclose their relationship to her family members unless she met him.
The girl went out with him and he dropped her on a street after having sex with her.
The other defendants also came to know of her through the website. They also forced her to go out with them and assaulted her, the court was told. The third and fourth defendants also imprisoned the victim illegally and against her will.
Lawyers of the defendants raised the issue of the victim’s age, arguing that she had crossed 14 years according to the Hijri calendar though she was below that age as per the Gregorian calendar.
The UAE law does not consider the will of children below 14 and, therefore, sex with such a person’s consent is also taken as sexual assault. In this case, the defence lawyers requested the court to consider only the Hijri calendar by which she had crossed 14. Hence, the charge of forcible sex should not be pressed against them. However, the court rejected this plea and convicted them of sexually assaulting her.
Citing the case, the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department appealed to parents to closely watch their teenaged children, understand and fulfil their emotional and psychological needs. This will help them pass this critical period of their life safely.
“Allowing the children to use social networking websites without being watched will put them at risk of direct contact with strangers, whose attitudes and instincts cannot be speculated,” the department said.
The Abu Dhabi courts had reviewed a number of crimes which took place recently due to the free access to the virtual world, especially by children and teenagers, the department added.
Yet could have easily been prevented had the girl in question received the right education on the do's and don'ts of the cyber world, and indeed the world itself, and proper adult supervision and conveyance. Sadly though she appears to have been extremely trusting, fearful, naive and ignorant which proved a boon for all those predators. And going by the frighteningly lenient penalties, I fear this will unlikely deter future offenders as well. Scary!
Thelonius dont bet on it... there might bye some guys out there who might fancy having 5 big guys one after the other... lol
Hail Thelonius the wise and just !
Hail Thelonius the wise and just !
in some cultures and in some cultures no,
Isn't 14 years of age is too young to go out of home unsupervised?
since social networking is very hard to limit or deprive these teenagers from using. parents can monitor them by asking their password so that they can view the inbox/private messages. because those who has bad intention will always use private messaging to victimized innocent teenagers.
I think we discussed this story already or may be another similar one.
Rape cases are very difficult at the best of times. There are various reports regarding this. However, I personaly feel that the sentences were too lenient..
"One of the men had sex with the girl, an Emirati, after contacting her on Facebook and arranging to meet her in Dubai. Afterwards she called another friend - who she had also met on Facebook - to help her. But when he arrived he took her to an Al Ain hotel where he and a friend held her captive for two days and also had sex with her. These two were sentenced to year-long prison terms on the grounds they held the girl captive.
Following this ordeal the girl called another man she knew, HB, a policeman. But he and his brother, also a policeman, took her to the desert and had sex with her."
Teenagers should draw a line as to where to stop and not to cross it....
Have to be analysed in detail