A mother from Michigan was detained for running a catfishing harassment campaign against minors, including her own daughter.
Kendra Gail Licari, 42, was arrested on December 12 after officials claimed she bullied her daughter and their ex-boyfriend online using a false internet persona, according to the Morning Sun and Unilad.
The accused victim’s mother, who is a suspect and resides in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, allegedly made an attempt to place the responsibility for the harassment on a classmate of their daughter. In addition to two counts of stalking a minor, two counts of illegal computer use, and one case of impeding the administration of justice, she is charged with five felonies.
A Beal City School District investigation that began in December 2021 as a result of the allegations led to the accusations.
Mother Charged With Computer Crimes For Catfishing
Local police enforcement joined the probe in mid-January and requested assistance from the FBI in April. Ms. Licari allegedly began harassing the teenagers in early 2021 while catfishing her daughter’s age and posing as someone else.
The prosecution demonstrates that the messages were connected to IP addresses connected to Ms. Licari, according to the Independent’s investigation. During the course of online cyberbullying, authorities were able to collect an astonishing 349 pages of harassing texts and social media posts. After being questioned by the police, the suspect mother gave a complete confession.
However, it is still unclear what drove the accused mother to commit the atrocity. Ms. Licari was later released on a $5,000 bond. Ms. Licari would reportedly serve up to ten years in prison for computer-related offenses in addition to the five years she received for obstruction and stalking.
Teens in America Are Being Cyberbullied at an Alarming Rate
Relatedly, according to Pew Research, approximately 50% of American youths between the ages of 13 and 17 have acknowledged being the targets of cyberbullying.
A poll conducted between April 14 and May 4 revealed that name-calling was the most common type of cyberbullying. At least 32% of the adolescents acknowledged engaging in online or mobile taunting. Meanwhile, at least 22% of respondents claimed that untrue and nasty stories about them had been spread online, and 17% claimed to have experienced harassment after receiving explicit messages they had not asked for.
In relation to the recent crime, the Pew poll reports that 10% of the teens they surveyed revealed that they had been physically threatened, while an alarming 15% of the respondents said that someone other than their parents often inquired about where they were, which implies stalking.
However, the report finds that cyberbullying was not just limited to stalking and threats, as 28% of students stated that they had experienced various types of cyberbullying.
Six behaviors were listed in the report, including the use of derogatory language, the dissemination of false information online, receiving explicit images without asking for them, being physically threatened, having their whereabouts frequently questioned by people other than their parents, and having explicit images of them shared without their consent.