Eleven year old Jessi Slaughter became internet famous over the last week or so for the response elicited by a few of her more controversial YouTube videos. The girl, something of a Internet personality in adolescent circles, posted a video (definite profanity warning) addressing her detractors, which drew a response from the Internet’s strangest behemoth, 4chan. This anonymous network found and posted her home and school address, her real name, and phone number to a page designated for the sole purpose of harassing the girl. As you might imagine, she received death threats, phone calls, and visits from officers who had been tipped that she was hurting herself, that her parents were abusing her, and that she was having Craigslist prostitutes operating out of her house. She and her father responded in an emotional video, and the story caught the attention of Gawker, then the MSM.

Jessi and her parents were on Good Morning America today to discuss the situation. She’s currently under police protection, and they are investigating this as a potential crime. Now, despite the anonymous nature of the 4chan users, the case has already drawn parallels to the Lori Drew trial and conviction a few years ago. There is a distinct lack of law surrounding cyberbullying, but increased instances have prompted the question: Is what happened to Jessi a crime?

Lori Drew was charged, inexplicably, with three misdemeanor counts relating to unauthorized computer use; the jury foreman commented that someone should “absolutely” go to jail for violating the terms of service on a site like MySpace, where Drew impersonated a teenage boy and harassed her daughter’s friend into committing suicide. The terms of service. Think about that: if you’ve broken, say, YouTube’s terms of service, you can now go to jail. Jessi Slaughter herself has broken the YouTube terms of service by being under 13 and using the site. It’s a legal travesty that Drew was convicted on what were basically hacker charges for using her own computer.

Here’s a good rundown of the current state of cyberbullying laws in the United States. There are none in Florida at the moment, so I’m assuming the police are investigating Jessi’s case on the basis of general harassment laws.