Cyber Bullying...

Quality

Opinions please.

A 49-year-old US woman accused of pretending to be a love-struck teenage boy on MySpace and driving a 13-year-old girl to suicide with cruel messages has been indicted on federal charges.
US prosecutors say Lori Drew and others created the fake MySpace persona of a 16-year-old boy to woo neighbour Megan Meier for several weeks, and then abruptly ended the relationship and said the world would be better off without her.
Ms Meier's 2006 suicide by hanging, just hours after she read those final messages, made worldwide headlines and prompted calls for social networking sites like MySpace to crack down on cyber-bullying.
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'This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a young teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications,' US Attorney Thomas O'Brien said in announcing the indictment in Los Angeles, where MySpace is based.
'Any adult who uses the Internet or a social gathering Web site to bully or harass another person, particularly a young teenage girl, needs to realise that their actions can have serious consequences,' Mr O'Brien said.
Experts said the indictment, which was handed down in Los Angeles after Missouri authorities declined to prosecute Ms Drew, was the first of its kind and could stretch the bounds of the federal statute on which it was based.
'We are in uncharted waters here,' University of Southern California law professor and former federal prosecutor Rebecca Lonergan said.
'This case is unprecedented and it's also a very aggressive charging decision.'

Ms Lonergan said Ms Drew was charged with accessing a protected computer to obtain information, a statute typically used against defendants who hack into government computers.

'While I think most people agree that it merits punishment to harass a young girl to the point where she commits suicide, it's not clear that this conduct is covered by this federal statute,' she said.
Fictional Boy
Prosecutors say Ms Drew, mother of a teenage girl who had a falling out with Ms Meier, and several others created a profile for the fictional 'Josh Evans' using the picture of an unwitting teenage boy.
They then contacted Ms Meier, who lived four doors away in O'Fallon, Missouri, through MySpace as 'Josh' and spent several weeks flirting with her before ending the relationship on 15 October 2006.
Several hours after the final message, Ms Meier, who had argued with her mother over the relationship, hanged herself in the closet of her bedroom in a St Louis suburb, still unaware that 'Josh' did not exist.
The indictment charges that after Ms Meier killed herself, Ms Drew had the phony MySpace account deleted and warned a girl who knew about it that she should 'keep her mouth shut'.

After the incident became widely known, the Drew family was shunned by members of the community, targeted for abuse on the Internet and their small advertising business was vandalised.
Ms Drew, who faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if she is convicted on all of the charges, was expected to surrender to authorities in Missouri.

Eoin

Quality wrote: »

Opinions please.

You start.

Red Hand

It's a sad one alright, I saw it a few months ago.

JC 2K3

MySpace should have no liability and shouldn't have to "crack down" on anything.

I dont really see what the big deal is. Some people are sick, you see it every day in the news, it's a fact of life.

bronte

Yeah, saw this a lil while back.
Pretty sick to think that an adult woman could be so heartless and stupid as to inflict that kind of abuse on a teenage girl.
What some assholes will do for revenge is beyond me.

monkeyfudge

I'm always reminded of the case in the UK where one teenage kid created an elaborate set of characters to manipulate an other kid into murdering him.

Story here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/boy-14-posed-as-spy-to-arrange-his-own-murder-565124.html

I wonder if the movie rights are available...

Thrill

This woman should definitely be punished for what she did. She deliberately set out to hurt that girl (emotionally, not physically ) with tragic results.

She is directly responsible for her death imo, and should pay for it.

Terry

Parents are responsible for the content viewed by their children.

I'd close the thread now, but I'm sure many of you have opposing views.

monkeyfudge

JC 2K3 wrote: »

MySpace should have no liability and shouldn't have to "crack down" on anything.

Yep. They're really no more responsible than the post office is if this had been done trough a series of letters.

But I think sites like myspace do have the technical ability to try and prevent things like this and as such should have systems in place where people report things if they suspect cyber bullying may be going on. Maybe these facilities are already in place... I don't know... don't use the site...

Quality

I dont understand how my space can possibly be held in any way accountable for what happened, They should not have to crack down on bullying, It should be down to the parents to make sure that what their child is viewing is suitable.

JC 2K3

That said, I'd have hated if my parents were monitoring my internet activity closely when I was 13. And even if they did, I deleted any trace of any dodgy site I was on, so...

connundrum

Quality wrote: »

I dont understand how my space can possibly be held in any way accountable for what happened, They should not have to crack down on bullying, It should be down to the parents to make sure that what their child is viewing is suitable.

Wouldn´t it be better if both parties did something/anything instead of attempting to shift the blame?

Terry

Quality wrote: »

I dont understand how my space can possibly be held in any way accountable for what happened, They should not have to crack down on bullying, It should be down to the parents to make sure that what their child is viewing is suitable.

That's what I said.
My cousin's 14 year old uses bebo quite a bit.
A letter was sent home from his school regarding cyber bullying on bebo.
She asked me to look into it and check his account.
I hacked it, had a look around and found nothing bad.
I then installed net nanny type software for her, but had to uninstall it because she couldn't figure out how to get around it.

I now just keep an eye on the cookies, prefetch files and the like for her.
It's simple enough for any literate person to do.
Except for my cousin, apparently.

Keano

Another very sad story - reflects the world today

Quality

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0516/newsspecial2_av.html?2375214,null,230

Prime time investigates on Monday night, I think it will be an interesting programme.

Cyber and mobile phone bullying.

Gummy Panda

Its pretty sad that as communications get better, some people use them to hurt others.

Luckly Gummy is a lovable bear so never received a hateful message online.

JC 2K3

Keano A Legend wrote: »

Another very sad story - reflects the world today

Probably a lot safer and better off than in the past, but with a lot more media exposure for the bad things that do happen?

monkeyfudge

Is cyber bullying when one of these guys gives you an Indian burn?

http://www.kasterborus.com/tardis/baddies/cybermen/cybermen.jpg

Keano

JC 2K3 wrote: »

Probably a lot safer and better off than in the past, but with a lot more media exposure for the bad things that do happen?

True.

RuailleBuaille

For a teenager to engage in that kind of behaviour would be beyond disgusting but for an adult woman to target her daughter's friend with the intention of driving her to suicide... words fail me.
Makes me wonder what she'd have done if there was no internet at all.

Agamemnon

monkeyfudge wrote: »

I'm always reminded of the case in the UK where one teenage kid created an elaborate set of characters to manipulate an other kid into murdering him.

Story here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/boy-14-posed-as-spy-to-arrange-his-own-murder-565124.html

I wonder if the movie rights are available...

That is mental.

Spy: could you stab someone?

Boy A: i haven't really thought about it

Spy: well think please

Boy A: ok erm well i watch a lot of films

dresden8

Terry wrote: »

Parents are responsible for the content viewed by their children.

I'd close the thread now, but I'm sure many of you have opposing views.

That's what I said.
My cousin's 14 year old uses bebo quite a bit.
A letter was sent home from his school regarding cyber bullying on bebo.
She asked me to look into it and check his account.
I hacked it, had a look around and found nothing bad.
I then installed net nanny type software for her, but had to uninstall it because she couldn't figure out how to get around it.

I now just keep an eye on the cookies, prefetch files and the like for her.
It's simple enough for any literate person to do.
Except for my cousin, apparently.

Terry, most people can't get windows to do what it's supposed to do, nevermind cyberspy on their kids. And short of sitting on you kids shoulder (which is what i do nearly most of the time) you have to place a whole lot of trust.

This bitch should fry. Won't though. At which stage she should be sued for every penny she ever owned or will ever own. And then killed.

monkeyfudge

monkeyfudge wrote: »

I'm always reminded of the case in the UK where one teenage kid created an elaborate set of characters to manipulate an other kid into murdering him.

Story here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/boy-14-posed-as-spy-to-arrange-his-own-murder-565124.html

I wonder if the movie rights are available...

I'd be more interested in reading the chat logs. Would be quite interesting I'd imagine.

monkeyfudge

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd be more interested in reading the chat logs. Would be quite interesting I'd imagine.

I just found that after a quick search.... I think there is a Guardian article out there that goes into a lot more detail.

Because one thing that is funny about it is all the characters tended to make the same spelling mistakes.

RedXIV

dresden8 wrote: »

Terry, most people can't get windows to do what it's supposed to do, nevermind cyberspy on their kids.

Depends what your dealing with really. for example, my dad with no training whatsoever in computers and nothing past a leaving cert was able to access temp internet files on the family PC to see what myself and my siblings were up to online as kids. If a very simple pamphlet was sent out about how to monitor these things, which isn't actually that hard, we might get tremendously positive results

Rb

RuailleBuaille wrote: »

For a teenager to engage in that kind of behaviour would be beyond disgusting but for an adult woman to target her daughter's friend with the intention of driving her to suicide... words fail me.
Makes me wonder what she'd have done if there was no internet at all.

I very much doubt that she was trying to get the kid to commit suicide.

All she was doing was trying to hurt her daughers friend who presumably had hurt her daughter. She really shouldn't have gotten involved, but I doubt the girls death was what she had in mind.

It's sad alright, but the girl must have had problems if she could go and kill herself over a virtual boyfriend breaking up with her, having never met him.

Quality

rb_ie wrote: »

I very much doubt that she was trying to get the kid to commit suicide.

All she was doing was trying to hurt her daughers friend who presumably had hurt her daughter. She really shouldn't have gotten involved, but I doubt the girls death was what she had in mind.

It's sad alright, but the girl must have had problems if she could go and kill herself over a virtual boyfriend breaking up with her, having never met him.

Yes I read up on this case, the girl suffered with depression, which this woman knew about.

http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/news

Obviously this is one side to the story, but interesting all the same..

Sherifu

Saw this yesterday. Manslaughter.

dlofnep

The most immature 49 year old the world has ever seen.

OrangeDaisy

absolutely shocking behaviour from a woman who simply should know better....... my heart goes out to the victims family god only knows what they're suffering right now>

Krieg

Keep net neutrality
Cyber bullying will always exist and probably get worse

Teach your kids about it and try and monitor their online activity

/2 cents