I guess so but I think some are getting too angry at these young people who made a mistake and bad judgement.That's my own personal opinion. I guess it will be up to the courts to decide what to do.
Respectfully, bad judgment would be speeding to get to work when you're late, dating the wrong person, snapping at your boss when he or she says something that you don't like, etc. A "mistake" would be drinking too much at a party, telling someone a secret who you should not have trusted, or overdrawing your bank account. A joke or prank would be putting salt in the sugar pot, putting a whoopie cushion on someone's seat before they sit down, putting a rubber snake in the coffee can, etc.
A mistake, bad judgment or joke would NOT consist of repeatedly attempting to, or actually videotaping another person, without their consent, in a compromising position or in a private moment, then inviting others to view what you have recorded, with the goal of making fun of that person, and gawking at them, and then broadcasting what you recorded on the internet where anyone could see it and where it can never be erased.
That is evil, disturbing, harassing and criminal behavior, IMO. There is nothing innocent in those actions. No pranky, juvenile mistake, or silly highjinks here. This was part of a sophisticated effort to record someone else surreptitiously, in their most personal, private moments, for the sole purpose of ridiculing and humiliating that person in a very public manner. Those "kids" knew exactly what they were doing.
Let me change the facts up a bit and see if that changes how some may feel about their little "prank". What if it was not a guy who was videotaped, but a girl? What if someone was repeatedly videotaping her in her room, alone, without her knowledge or consent? What if the video captured her in a private moment, but one that would not have the "immoral" label that some people may affix to an act, like consensual, premarital sex? For example, what if the video caught her masturbating or something, instead of having sex with another person? What if the young "prankster" then decided to invite others to view this video of this young woman, in a private moment, and to make fun of her, something along the lines of, "Hey, I dare you to come watch my fat roommate masturbate. She can't even get a guy!" or something like that? What if then, the secretly taped video of this young woman, along with the mocking comments about her, was published onto the internet, where it will be forever memorialized, and then the girl found out about it? What if she could not stand knowing that was out there for all to see, forever, any future employer could see it, any future potential mates, friends, her parents, her siblings could view it? What if as a result of all of that, she decided to kill herself? Would those who see this is as a minor issue still view the actions of the dirty peeping tom voyeur as just a mere "prank" that maybe got just a bit out of hand?
What if this poor girl was their own beloved daughter?
IMO, the acts of Ravi and possibly Wei, are criminally equivalent to the acts of the fictional peeping tom in my made up story above. The same. A young person was secretly and criminally video-taped in a private moment and then that video tape was published with the intent to humiliate, degrade, and harass. They are 18 years old. Young adults with the same rights and responsibilities of all adults. This was their moment, to show what kind of people they were raised and decided to be. Their actions show who they became, who they are at their core and it is ugly, IMO. Decent people do not choose to invade someone else's privacy with the intent to degrade that person, when deciding to pull a prank. Good people don't make the "mistake" of committing a crime that takes so much time to conceive of, set up and execute, with the intent of making sport of another's private moments. :twocents:
