A Florida woman beat her son with a computer cable for using Facebook, police said.
Althea Ricketts, 62, struck her son several times at their home in Apopka, a city just north of Orlando, causing welts on the child’s arms, according to The Orlando Sentinel newspaper.
Ricketts was arrested after the boy, whose name and age were not released by authorities, ran to a friend’s home. The friend’s parents called police.
The beating came after someone told Ricketts about a posting on her son’s Facebook page, police said.
The boy wrote he “broke a glass on purpose and kept a piece to play with it later,” according to reports. He has a history of cutting himself, his mother claimed.
Ricketts told arresting officers the boy had lied to her about having a Facebook profile, and that “hitting a child with a cable is a common way of disciplining kids where she comes from,” The Orlando Sentinel reported.
The mother was charged with aggravated child abuse. She is being held without bail.
