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The death of a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide after
becoming the victim of an Internet hoax has inspired a legislative effort to
make it an offense for adults to harass children.
In 2006, 13-year-old Megan Meier hanged herself after being
teased on social networking site MySpace.
A neighborhood mother, her 18-year-old employee and
13-year-old daughter created a fake profile of an attractive teenage boy to befriend
Meier. Meier had depression and attention deficit disorder when she started
talking to “Josh” through their MySpace pages. After talking with him for
several weeks, Megan suddenly began receiving cruel messages from Josh,
including one stating that he did not want to be her friend anymore. Shortly
thereafter, Megan hanged herself in her bedroom.
No charges were filed then because prosecutors said there
was no state law that applied to the case. However, this prompted the Senate
committee to propose a law that would punish someone 21 or older who harassed
someone 17 or younger with up to four years in prison. State laws were also
updated against harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic
devices
Read “Teen's suicide inspires Missouri effort to change harassment laws” on
The Straits Times
Hui Jin:
I was shocked when I saw
this news. I have to admit, I’ve never heard about this story. Hang yourself
because someone didn’t want to be your friend anymore? It sounds like a rather
trivial reason to me, but I thought it was very insensitive on the part of the
creator of the fake profile as well. Harassment laws should be in place to do
justice to harassed victims all over the world.
(Ed’s note: Just about time,
This is another apt instance of how virtual life is increasingly mirroring real
life – the good and the bad. That said, this makes me wonder about what
motivates cruelty in people.)
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