WINNIPEG — She's watched her 13-year-old daughter terrorized online by tactics that allegedly included plastering personal information on an adult website. But now, Karry Boti said she's at her wits end after her daughter, Kyra Lynn, was targeted in an extreme case of cyber-bullying that started about seven weeks ago.

Boti and Kyra Lynn's father, Mike Jubenville, who lives in London, Ont., said they've contacted police agencies, technology companies and a local anti-child abuse organization, but they've hit roadblocks in their effort to learn who is publicly maligning their teen daughter.

"How much damage has it done already?" said Boti. "What a smack in the face."

She said the trouble began after someone stole her daughter's Facebook password and hacked into her account this summer.

Problems continued to mount after Boti received an online message in October from a stranger — reportedly a man — saying her daughter's information had been posted on an explicit adult website, along with information how to access the girl's Facebook account.

In the weeks following, the cyber-bullying escalated after classmates of Kyra Lynn told her they'd received hateful messages from her Facebook account, messages the girl hadn't written. The kicker came after the family found out websites had been created saying Kyra Lynn, a Grade 8 student, was a "little skank."

"All of her friends hate her and she wonders why . . . she talks behind people's backs and makes out with their crushes," said one of the websites. Another site, which doesn't identify an author of the content, posted photos of Kyra Lynn taken from her Facebook account.

The family went to police in Winnipeg last month to complain about the harassment. Boti said police told her "there's no laws" against the online harassment.

"It can happen to any kid, and there's nobody out there to help them. Nobody," she said. "It's sad, but in all of the people that we've called, everybody keeps saying 'I don't know what to tell you, I don't know where to turn.'

"They'll give me resources, but the resources are web pages on how to avoid bullies. Well, you can't avoid them."

Jubenville, a computer technician, said he went to police in London, Ont., with his laptop telling them about the problem, but the trip was futile.

"It's been really, really trying through the whole thing . . . I've sat a lot of hours on the computer trying to sort this out, and find out where everything is coming from," said Jubenville. "She's a 13-year-old kid. I find it just horrifying, actually."

Police said Monday general patrol officers were gathering information on a case that will be forwarded to Integrated Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit detectives.

"We're certainly aware of it," said Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen, who said there was a volume of information for police to "sift through."

"These types of investigations are . . . a little bit more complex because obviously we're dealing with the Internet, and we're dealing with social networking, and it's not as cut and dry," he said. "We take (complaints) seriously, bottom line."

The family believes that, based on their own investigation, the creator of the content is a teenage girl in Ontario who sees Kyra Lynn as a rival for a teenage boy's affections.

Boti said the two girls have never actually met.

Boti said police in Winnipeg contacted the family of the girl who is believed to be the tormentor after Boti complained to police for a second time about the harassment last week.

The websites about Kyra Lynn have been shut down, but the family said the web company told them they needed a police subpoena to release information about who was behind the sites.

Paul Gillespie, a former Toronto Police Service officer who is now head of Kids Internet Safety Alliance (KINSA), said cyber-bullying is growing increasingly sophisticated.

"(Bullies) have realized with a little smarts about the technology, they can make life very miserable for their intended victims," he said. "And then there's not much, you know, one can do."
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