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Teens charged over Facebook bullying

A 12-year-old US girl allegedly had her Facebook hacked by two young classmates with illicit pictures and messages posted on the girl's profile.

The two accused girls, aged 11 and 12, will face charges of cyberstalking and first-degree computer trespassing after Issaquah police investigated the girls when the family of the alleged victim made a complaint.

The charges allege the two girls, aged 11 and 12, used the victim's password information to access her Facebook page and post sexually explicit content, and send messages to boys offering to perform sex acts with them.

Police were initially contacted by the victim, Leslie Cote's, mother on March 18 to report inappropriate material being posted on her daughter's Facebook page.

A friend of Leslie's mother had told her photos on the page has been changed to show Leslie with "devil horns" and with the words "I'm a slut" written across one of the images, prosecutors said.

The pictures and messages became more vulgar as the night progressed, it was alleged.

Leslie had visited the house of one of the girls earlier in March where she logged onto her Facebook from a computer in the house. Prosecutors believe the password and login were stored on one of the girls' computers, which they then used to access Leslie's page.

The defendants used the page "with the intent of embarrassing and tormenting the victim," prosecutors said.

Leslie's stepfather, Jon Knight, said he was relieved the case had been investigated, and charged had resulted.

Leslie had been granted a restraining order barring the accused girls from sharing a school bus or contacting Leslie, Knight said.

They still share some classes, he said.

Sara Niegowski, a spokesperson for the Issapuah School District, said the school was not conducting its own inquiries into the alleged bullying because they did not believe it was a school issue.

"This incident happened off-campus, off school time and not related to our school environments. There is no disciplinary action at all. It's not a school district incident," Niegowski said.

The school had not been disrupted by the incident, Niegowski said.

"You know what's a disruption is the media coverage," she said. "We always look out for the welfare of our students."

On Tuesday, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said, "This case reveals the dark side of social media sites used by young people.

"Many kids think that on a social media site that their actions will be anonymous and that they are free to use it as weapon to bully, harass, and intimidate another person. This case demonstrates that assuming the identity of another person on the Internet with the intent to torment them and expose them to the harassment of others is a crime," he wrote in a news release.