Aaron Carter faced ‘nonstop,’ ‘relentless’ cyberbullying before death, manager says (PODCAST)
AUSTIN, Texas – It’s been more than three months since Jared Carter’s parents received an alarming email from their son, alerting them to what the teen’s peers had been saying about him online.
Within hours of the message, Jared had taken his own life, his father Brian Carter said. The message had been sent from his son’s cell phone number to the parents’ account, and the message was forwarded with no indication it was spam.
Carter said that he first heard about the suicide just after midnight on June 17. That morning, after the family learned of a suicide at the University of Texas at Austin, they were advised to change their passwords.
‘We had to change our password,’ Brian said. ‘Jared changed his.’
In the months after Jared’s death, Brian and Kelly Carter, his wife of 28 years, had to change their passwords. They were also advised to change their phone numbers and emails as well.
Their younger daughter, Taylor, who at the time was 14, had a similar incident. Taylor had been sharing online stories with her friends about her father.
The father said Taylor also received a similar warning from a friend at the beginning of the school year and was told to change her numbers, accounts and other online information.
The warning was given after a tip from a concerned parent, and the mother called the University of Texas at Austin Police Department, which then informed the Carter family that her son had been bullied and his death a suicide.
In the hours after Jared’s death, the young man’s online accounts were filled with comments that were critical of his faith, family, appearance, and the people who took him in, the father said.
‘The whole world was attacking him, just like it was attacking me,’ he said. ‘The whole world was against him.’
The email sent by Jared on June 17.
The Carter family shared their