



'Those pictures made me sick... they were so cruel': Mother of 'Scumbag Steve' reveals torment at internet hate campaign





The mother of 'scumbag Steve' spoke for the first time today about how the vicious online campaign against her son made her 'heart sick'.



Speaking to MailOnline, Susan Boston, 54, revealed how her family was left devastated after pictures of her 21-year-old son Blake were daubed with slogans before being beamed around the world by malicious pranksters.



Family members even turned on Mrs Boston in the mistaken belief she was 'encouraging' the internet campaign.



Viral: The original 'scumbag Steve' picture has been daubed with an ever increasing number of rude and offensive captions

Meme: The picture, taken in 2006, was copied from a social network site built by Blake's mother, Susan

'I was heartsick,' Mrs Boston said.

'Can you imagine how I felt when my son came to me - some of the first pictures and responses were so cruel.

'I cried at how he was being portrayed all over the world and that I was responsible for the picture. It made me physically sick.

'I felt like I couldn’t protect my kids.'



Her son Blake was the victim of what is known as an internet 'meme'.

The word has come to symbolise an online phenomenon where ideas, jokes or social commentaries are spread via message boards and chat rooms.



Usually taking the form of an image or slogan, the meme is passed from person to person as users add their own variations and in turn forward these on.

In the case of Blake Boston however, an innocent picture - taken by Mrs Boston six years ago - was copied and distributed around the world with extremely offensive and distressing messages written on it.

Powerless: Susan Boston felt like she was 'losing control' of her son Blake's image

Level Head: According to his mother, Blake remained calm in the face of mounting abuse from anonymous posters

Mother of two Mrs Boston said members of her family did not understand what was happening, and as the online campaign grew some began blaming her for 'encouraging' the maelstrom that was surrounding her son.

It was only after Mrs Blake consulted lawyers that they, 'finally came round'.



At times the abuse almost became too much, with threatening and abusive emails clogging Blake's inbox.

In one particularly nasty incident, an ultra scan image of Blake's pregnant partner Alyssa and her baby appeared online with a threat to kill the unborn child.



'My 85 and 87-year-old parents were baffled, my other sister said we were embarrassing our family name,' Mrs Boston added.

After writing letters to Google and other sites to try and remove the image, Mrs Boston said she felt like she was losing control of her family's identity.

'It was surreal,' she said, 'It felt like our family against this underground movement.

'And to think I thought I was so hip putting the pictures up in the first place.

'I had over 300 hundred images on my computer of all his friends and my daughter Patsy.



'Thank god no one saw the others, they were worse .'

Identity: Neither Blake Boston or his mother Susan had any idea of the meme phenomenon until he became one

Mrs Boston described how when she first saw the pictures with messages that included references to incest and under age sex she was mortified.

But, praising her son's level headedness, she said Blake had encouraged her to take the whole incident with a pinch of salt.



'We were looking at the pictures and My daughter, Blake's girlfriend Alyssa and I were crying.

' Blake just burst out in hysterics. We looked at him like he was crazy.



'He said 'take me out of your mind when you read these.''



The infamous picture of a 16-year-old Blake wearing his brown fur collared coat began to circulate on January 19.

Bizarre: Pop legend Rick Astley unwittingly starred in his own internet meme when users were directed to a video of him singing

The image, taken in 2006, was copied from a MySpace website Mrs Boston had set up for her son as part of a photographic editing course she was taking.

The image was captured in the family home as Blake was headed out for the evening.



'I remember Blake was becoming slightly annoyed with my photo attempts,' Mrs Boston added, 'he was on his way out for the night and I called to him.

'He looked in my office, I snapped the picture and he was like 'mum give it a rest.''

Incredibly, at the start of this week the tide of abusive photographs began to turn.



After Blake gave an interview outlining his side of the story, the meme began to change, with positive captions replacing the abusive text.



Mrs Boston added her gratitude towards the online community reddit, who's members she says have even offered to throw a baby shower for his unborn child.



Blake Boston is just one of a number of victims of the 'meme' phenomenon.



Other bizarre but harmless examples include the craze of 'Rickrolling'.

An internet user would click on an innocent looking web link, only to find they were directed to a picture of 80's pop star Rick Astley singing his number one hit Never Gonna Give You Up.



According to Google, searches for 'scumbag Steve' started to gain popularity on January 19, peaking on February 2.

They have been in steady decline ever since.