The smiley face, heart, praying hands and other “emoji” have become the way millions of Internet users playfully punctuate their texts, posts and messages, but for one middle schooler the icons brought the police to her door.

　　笑脸、爱心、祈祷以及一些其他emoji表情包已成为成千上万的网友们发短信、邮件以及聊天信息中开玩笑的必备，然而，一个中学生却因为发表情，被警察找上了门。

　　The 12-year-old from Fairfax, Va., has been charged with threatening her school after police said she posted a message on Instagram in December laden with gun, bomb and knife emojis. It read in part:Killing “meet me in the library Tuesday”

　　这个孩子今年12岁，来自弗吉尼亚州的费尔法克斯，她被指控威胁学校。警方称她去年12月在Instagram上发布了一条包含手枪、炸弹和小刀的表情符号信息。这条信息的部分内容为：杀呀，周二图书馆见。

　　As emoji and their relative the emoticon have rocketed from web slang to the unofficial language of the Internet age, the case is one of a growing number where authorities contend the cartoonish symbols have been used to stalk, harass, threaten or defame people. And that has left the police and courts wrestling with how to treat a newly popular idiom many still dimly grasp.

　　Emoji以及其他相关的一些表情符号正迅速被网络广泛传播，慢慢转变成了互联网时代的非官方语言。据政府部门的数据，目前已经有越来越多的表情符号被用于跟踪、骚扰、威胁或诋毁他人，该案正是其中之一。这种含义尚未完全明确的新流行习语也给警察和法院带来了很大的困扰和挑战。

　　Police are trying to judge just how serious to take threatening messages using emoji, which are most often deployed in a light-hearted manner. Attorneys have argued over whether emoji should be presented to juries as evidence. Experts say the biggest problem is simply determining in court what a defendant actually intended by sending a particular emoji.

　　一般来说，用表情符号发布威胁信息都会被认定是随意开玩笑，但是什么程度的信息才是会真实发生的?警方正试图裁定。律师也在讨论表情符号可不可以作为证据提交给陪审团。专家说，最大的问题是，被告被诉讼至法庭只是因为他发了一个特定的表情，这种说法听起来不是很让人信服。

　　Is a winkie face emoji ironic, flirtatious or menacing? What exactly do the popular dancing girl or grinning pile of poo emoji actually mean — if anything — when appended to a message? Emoji have no set definition and their use can vary from user-to-user and context-to-context.

　　那么眨眼的表情，是表示轻浮呢还是威胁呢?一个流行的跳舞女孩表情，或者是一个露齿大笑的表情如果被加到信息中，那又到底是什么意思呢?Emoji没有给出明确定义，表情的使用也因用户的不同、情境的不同而含义也大不同。

　　“You understand words in a particular way,” said, assistant director of the Cyber Law clinic at Harvard Law School. “It’s challenging with symbols and images to unravel that.”

　　“你可以根据语境去了解文字所代表的含义，”哈佛法学院的网络法律研究所副主任Dalia Topelson Ritvo说，“解读符号和图片所代表的意义，这将很具挑战性。”

　　It began on Dec. 14, when a resource officer at Sidney Lanier Middle School in Fairfax was made aware of the threatening Instagram post and others, according to a search warrant.

　　搜查令显示，这件事始于12月14日，费尔法克斯悉尼拉尼尔中学的一位管理员在Instagram上看到了这则恐怖消息，认为这可能会给学校的其他人带来威胁。

　　The officer began interviewing students and sent an emergency request to obtain the IP address of the user associated with the Instagram account. The investigation led to the 12-year-old, who was also a student at Lanier. The Post generally does not name juveniles accused of crimes.

　　随后，管理员开始调查这些学生，并发送紧急需求要求获取与此Instagram帐户相关联的用户IP地址。经调查，这则消息由一名12岁的拉尼尔学生发布。文中并未指明具体姓名。

　　The search warrant states the girl admitted to authorities she posted the messages on Instagram and did it under the name of another student. She was charged with threatening the school and computer harassment. A spokesman for Fairfax County schools said the alleged threat was deemed “not credible.”

　　搜查结果表明，该女孩承认她用另一学生的名义在Instagram上发布的消息。她被指控威胁学校以及骚扰网络。费尔法克斯学校的一位发言人称，所谓的威胁是“不可信的”。

　　The girl was scheduled to make her first appearance in juvenile court on the charges at the end of the month, but it is unclear whether the case has been resolved since the hearings are not open to the public.

　　女孩月底会首次出现在青少年法庭，因为听证会不公开，目前尚不清楚该案是否已得到解决。

　　Authorities have not released a motive in the case, but the girl’s mother said the girl posted the messages in response to being bullied at school.

　　官方并没有公布此次事件的作案动机，但是女孩母亲表明，女孩曾说过，她在学校经常被欺负。

　　“She’s a good kid. She’s never been in trouble before,” the woman said. “I don’t think it’s a case where there should have been charges.”

　　“她是个好孩子。之前从来没有做过什么坏事，”女孩母亲说，“我认为学校不应该控告她。”

（编辑：何莹莹）