Currently, if you live in Georgia, the answer is yes. In a case of legal precedence, a Georgia court ruled that not only are the children responsible for their actions, but the parents are also responsible. In this case, two seventh graders created a Facebook page and pretended to be a girl at their school. On the Facebook page, the two kids altered the girl’s image and used explicit language. The parents of the two culprits are currently appealing the court decision.
This ruling brings up an interesting question; how much are parents supposed to know about what their children are doing. For instance, if your child is using a computer, smartphone or tablet to run-a-muck on the internet, are you expected to police their every action. Is this different than a situation where your children are at school and bullying another kid. If the parent is not told what is happening, how does the parent know to take corrective action? It is one thing to monitor your child’s own Facebook page, but another to monitor a fake page your child created that you have no way of monitoring.