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Swedish teen reported to police for 'face rape'

Published: 28 May 12 08:22 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/41078/20120528/

A 15-year-old boy from Norrköping in eastern Sweden has been reported to police for allegedly "face raping" another teen by writing false messages on the latter's Facebook page, an increasingly common phenomenon among young Swedes.

From a legal perspective, the crime is a serious one, but despite the fact that many young people in Sweden have been the victims of "face rape", police don't receive many reports about the crime.

"A huge number of our young people have been victims of this, but many probably don't realize that they can report it," Anders Ahlqvist, an IT-expert with the National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen), told the TT news agency.

"Face rape" can be seen as another name for computer hacking, a crime which is punishable by fines or up to two years in prison.

And it's a very common crime.

According to a report released last year by the Swedish Data Protection Board (Datainspektionen), around half of young Swedish Facebook users have had their accounts hacked by someone who then has written mocking or insulting remarks in the victim's name.

"There are probably a huge number of unreported cases. Some may be ashamed, as some of the things people write aren't so pleasant so they may just want to keep quiet about it," Göran Eriksson, an investigator with police in Norrköping, told TT.

Another reason why young victims of "face rape" don't report the crime to police may have to do with their attitudes toward the internet and the fact that neither the perpetrators nor the victims understand that "face rape" is a criminal act.

"Many have a hard time understanding that the same rules apply on the internet that apply in real life. Language is used differently online than what you would hear in the schoolyard, for example," said Ahlqvist.

TT/The Local/dl
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09:27 May 28, 2012 by Reason abd Realism
Up to 2 years in prison for young offenders? They wouldn't get that sort of sentence if they murdered someone or crippled someone for life. Glad to see legal priorities so well aligned with the value of human life.
10:23 May 28, 2012 by Twiceshy
These stupid "bait" headlines are going a bit too far, thelocal.

I came here ready to suggest the use of "teeth" against "face rape", and it turns out this is a stupid article about facebook hacking...
10:24 May 28, 2012 by Shibumi
I really wish the term "rape" could retain its true meaning and not be watered down to mean just about any type of transgression. The appropriate term for what happened above is "defamation" or more precisely "libel". No one was raped.
10:24 May 28, 2012 by Abe L
#1 - Just what I thought. If you're dumb enough to get your FB hacked then you deserve being mocked. The use of the word "rape" in these allegations is also completely misplaced and very misleading. My first impression when seeing the headline was that someone literally got raped in their face - despite the quotes.
10:56 May 28, 2012 by Opinionfool
#4 If you're dumb enough to use Facebook then you deserve to be mocked. They've sertainly be duped. Social networking is *not* about the users networking together it is about advertisers networking. Advertisers want their junk to smother the user and spill out on as many of the users' contacts as possible. That's what Facebook is about, hence the offensive share price in their IPO, it's what they are all about. The same happened with Google going from a search engine to one of the world's largest presenters of ads that there is.
13:04 May 28, 2012 by heu
For those unaware, "face rape" is how people actually call it. It's just a prank and there is no hacking involved. You can prevent it by logging out of facebook or by locking your computer when other people have access to it.... simple as that.
16:51 May 28, 2012 by Opinionfool
#5 A much simpler way ... don't sign up for Facebook in the first place.
21:10 May 28, 2012 by dizzymoe33
This is why I don' t use Facebook or Twitter I have more important things to do with my time. Plus I value my privacy I don't want the whole wide World knowing my business.
00:08 May 29, 2012 by BrittInSweden
Wow, are some of you in these comments living under a rock? The act of writing things on someone elses Facebook account without their permission has always been known as "Face rape".

As @heu says, it isn't about hacking at all. You generally have access to their PC because they don't lock it when stepping away from the computer. It is usually done between friends and you all have a laugh about it. That is why people don't tend to report it.
01:20 May 29, 2012 by Grokh
heres 2 suggestions : kids shouldnt leave their pcs /laptops or facebook accounts logged in without supervision.

and second just delete what other kids wrote and its solved.

this kind of stuff is just stupid, rape is a serious crime, saying someone writing on your facebook is rape already diminishes the seriousness of it.

This also shows how weird swedish law is, that a child molestor gets just as much time as someone that wrote silly things on someones facebook.
09:13 May 29, 2012 by AmericaninStockholm
Okay. I'm 23 and maybe it's just because I live in America, but "face rape?" really? I've never heard of that in my life and that is literally the worst thing to call it. How about face slander. Face Rape sounds like something a insensitive 10 year old would call this activity. Rape is serious. This, not so much.
20:41 May 29, 2012 by dizzymoe33
The news in Sweden really over-uses the word "rape" for everything and most of the time it is used it is used incorrectly. By misusing the word "rape" for everything you just simplify this word and it loses it power! Rape is a serious offense and it shouldn't be made a joke of!!
02:35 May 30, 2012 by HandsomeAmerican
As an American, I have to tell, you swedes are hilarious. Your actual rape convictions are a joke, but you want to hammer a bunch of stupid kids for being stupid. This site is always good for a laugh.
17:37 June 1, 2012 by tadchem
Maybe it is time to stop being "politically correct" about this.

Maybe it is time to stop using 'soft' words like "face rape" to conceal the ugliness.

This should be called libel, slander, and defamation because it is criminal.
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