Суд в Филадельфии обязал охотника-нарушителя опубликовать извинения в TikTok за 17 преступлений

Trending A New Philadelphia municipal court's creative sentence for a 21-year-old's 17 wildlife crimes is fitting, yes; but also an important reminder to all of us about the boundaries we seem to forget when social media is at our fingertips. According to a Yahoo News report, Carter J. Hickey pleaded guilty to charges involving taking wildlife out of season, hunting without permission, illegally possessing animals, using a vehicle to spotlight and kill wildlife and failure to follow game-check rules. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigation spanned 17 states. That investigation began because both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife received complaints. It's likely those tipsters knew what Hickey was up to because he was broadcasting his hunting all over TikTok. So, the court sentenced him to jail time and thousands of dollars in fines, of course; but added something special. He has to post an apology from that same Tik Tok account. He's also got to contribute $5,000 to Ohio's Turn in a Poacher program, according to the report, which relied heavily on an earlier piece by Outdoor Life. "Poaching damages far more than one species. It harms trust and puts honest hunters at a disadvantage," U.S. Fish and Wildlife told Outdoor Life. That's one lesson, then, for Hickey and any other young attention-seekers who think they are above the rules. But here's another -- for social media users of all ages -- Social media is not anonymous. It does not grant protection from the consequences of action or speech. It may make us feel safer expressing ideas and behaviors that are socially unacceptable (for good reason), but that security is an illusion. Damage done on social media is almost always damage done in the real world. Words not only hurt, the damage can be spread and multiplied. And while some people seem to thrive on the thrill they get from inflicting such damage, or from the attention they get for doing it, the bottom line is when you show the worst of yourself, be prepared to experience the consequences that behavior or speech has earned. Hickey learned some of the attention he craved was coming from people willing to report his crimes. Perhaps he has also learned, when it comes to social media, the whole world really might be watching; and there's no going back from that.