The ultimate online slimes.....

[Dr Mordrid]

Link.....

Grrrrrr.....

DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Missouri (AP) -- Megan Meier thought she had made a new friend in cyberspace when a cute teenage boy named Josh contacted her on MySpace and began exchanging messages with her.

Megan, a 13-year-old who suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder, corresponded with Josh for more than a month before he abruptly ended their friendship, telling her he had heard she was cruel.

The next day Megan committed suicide. Her family learned later that Josh never actually existed; he was created by members of a neighborhood family that included a former friend of Megan's.

Now Megan's parents hope the people who made the fraudulent profile on the social networking web site will be prosecuted, and they are seeking legal changes to safeguard children on the Internet.

The girl's mother, Tina Meier, said she doesn't think anyone involved intended for her daughter to kill herself.

"But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile," she told the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which first reported on the case.

Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law. But sheriff's officials have not closed the case and pledged to consider new evidence if it emerges.

Megan Meier hanged herself in her bedroom on October 16, 2006, and died the next day.
>

[az]

You know who's responsible for safeguarding children on the internet? Parents.

[Dr Mordrid]

To a degree, but maicious slimes like this need hammering.

[xortam]

You know who's responsible for safeguarding children on the internet? Parents.

That's kind of the perverse twist on this story. It was the Mother of Megan's former friend who created the "Josh" account to monitor what Megan was saying about her daughter on-line. Megan’s Mother was also monitoring her daughter’s on-line communications and confronted Megan about the vulgar language she was using in the messages with the belittling "Josh". Megan committed suicide immediately after this confrontation.

[Mehen]

I hate to say it, chances are if it wasn't this, she would have killed herself for another reason in time. I am not saying the creators of "Josh" shouldn't be punished - but I would hate to see it escalate to the point where someone gets charged for manslaughter.

[Jammrock]

You know who's responsible for safeguarding children on the internet? Parents.

True, but teenagers don't tell their parents jack, which makes it harder to make informed decisions. Especially teenage girls...

[Gurm]

I agree with Mehen here. I'm sure everyone wants to punish the friend, and the friend's parents. But let's face it - Megan was one twitch away from a slit wrist anyway. If it wasn't "Josh", or her mom, it would have been the zit she got on Tuesday, or maybe the fact that her math teacher gave her a bad grade on Thursday, or that someone called her a mean name on Friday.

Suicidal teenage girls are a hair's breadth from slitting their wrists or dowing a bottle of pills ALL THE TIME. And they're usually DYING (pun intended) for people to find out how suicidal they are and stop them and help them. Her mom sounds like she was on top of things, so my money is on childhood sexual abuse.

[Technoid]

I agree with Mehen here. I'm sure everyone wants to punish the friend, and the friend's parents. But let's face it - Megan was one twitch away from a slit wrist anyway. If it wasn't "Josh", or her mom, it would have been the zit she got on Tuesday, or maybe the fact that her math teacher gave her a bad grade on Thursday, or that someone called her a mean name on Friday.

Suicidal teenage girls are a hair's breadth from slitting their wrists or dowing a bottle of pills ALL THE TIME. And they're usually DYING (pun intended) for people to find out how suicidal they are and stop them and help them. Her mom sounds like she was on top of things, so my money is on childhood sexual abuse.

That is soo cliché

[Gurm]

That is soo cliché

Cliche, however...

Or it could be abandonment issues, if Daddy left when she was little, or...

[Wombat]

Too bad the girl wasn't even old enough to even have a myspace account. Where were her parents in this? Yes, let's give a depressed, medicated girl unsupervised internet access. I don't care if the person on the other end of the line was a parent, adult, teenager - if your little girl can be pushed over the edge like that, it's her/your problem, not the rest of the world.

[Nowhere]

Doc cut off the quoatation 7 paragraphs too early...

And the end of the article suggests that Megan's parents aren't of the kind that would face and really deal with problems.

[Tjalfe]

I wonder how she managed school.. school age girls are not exactly known to be kind to each other at times. Instead of fighting they rely on psychological terror

[Dr Mordrid]

The parents may well run afoul of the 1994 Federal "Violence Against Women Act".

In the most recent renewal of VAWA provisions were added against cyberstalking and online harrassment. Prosecutions have occurred in incidents very much like this one, in fact Fox interviewed a Federal prosecutor 2 days ago and she said it was very much do-able.

[cjolley]

Chickens meet roost:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/15/internet.suicide.ap/index.html

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A federal grand jury indicted a Missouri woman Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.
...
"The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl's weaknesses," Hernandez said. "Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she's responsible for her actions."
...

Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.
...

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup, the internet is now just another place where people can choose to misbehave in a criminal manner...and the legal system is catching up to that fact. If convicted they then can then look forward to the real a**grabber: an immanent wrongful death civil suit by the girls family.