Friday, September 10, 2010

A "SCANDALOUS" Website ruining lives of youths





The site, www.toilet.wen.ru, has apparently led to the suicide of a teenager in Escourt, KwaZulu-Natal, who had been defamed.
Teens spill the beans about their friends and enemies on the site that allows "toilet users" to remain anonymous.
One victim, who did not want to be named, said she was targeted on the website by people who spread the rumour that she was HIV positive.
"I gave birth in June last year then lost a lot of weight. People said on the site that I used to be pretty, but now I'm not, and that I have Aids."
The slanderous comments have even resulted in one Mandeni mechanical parts salesman losing business. He revealed that his life came crashing down on Sunday when he was alerted to what was said about him on the site. "My live-in girlfriend left me after someone told her I was a target on the site," he said.
"They spread the rumour that I had had affairs with married women."
What's more, unlike MXit and Facebook, toilet users can remain anonymous and this, according to child psychologist Tshepiso Matentjie, makes its impact on youth more devastating. "It disempowers the person because there is no way they can identify the culprits. The person writing the damaging things about you has no fear of repercussions."
Matentjie said she discussed the site a few months ago on SABC's popular Yo-TV where it was raised as a concern by the youth.
"I had no idea though that its impact had reached such damaging proportions."
The site allows users to be specific about who they want to target - it's divided into provinces and each province is further broken down into suburbs or townships.

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