In the novel, The Revealers, the students of Parkland Middle felt connected through SchoolStream or as the students called it KidNet where they were able to chat or instant message. Most of you do this nightly through MSN Messenger. With KidNet and MSN nobody could break into or eavesdrop on your conversation without it being known. Not anymore. Today’s technology allows you to assume the identity of another person. Do you really know whom you are talking to in the cyber world?

It is 10:00 pm on a Wednesday night; you have finished your homework and you are chatting on MSN with three other friends. After 10 minutes two more friends ask to join the chat. By 10:30 pm five more people have joined and it is fun; however, there is a joke said about one of the people, rapidly followed by an insult. At first, no one knows how to respond, then seconds later a message pops up stating, “I didn’t say that! It isn’t me saying these things. Someone is using my name. What is going on here?”
What is the issue involved in this scenario? Why is this serious?

The issue involved in this scenario is that some of the five people that joined MSN at 10:30 with the permission of the other four friends and then have been involved in the coversation, so basically your name is being hacked. Then one or more people from the 5 people that joined at 10:30 sent a joke about one of the people with an insult and they are saying that I didn't say anything so the friends get an indication that you have sent that insulting message.This is serious because this could create a fight between the five friends and the one friend whose name is being used is going to be blamed in the first place.
What would be a responsible way to handle this situation?

A responsible way to handle this situation would be that the guy whose name is being used sends a message to all the other four friends that some imposter has hacked his/her account and tell the other four friends to quit and that they can chat later.

How could a situation like this be resolved? How would one of the three main characters from The Revealers deal with this situation?

A situation like this can be resolved by the guy whose name is being used changes his
username to some other name and then sents an e-mail to his other friends saying that he has changed his username so the imposter can no longer use his/her name. The three main characters in the Revealers deal with this situation by doing the same thing that I wrote to resove this kind of situation.