More on the Meier Case

I refuse to name this after the woman who has been indited simply because of a statment she made through her attorney back in December. When it was decided that no charges would be filed locally, the accused essentially said that she had nothing to do with the page, no knowledge of it, and that she wasn't even there when the last messages were sent. But here's the kicker: she also said that "the Drew family is also sorry that their family, friends and neighbors have had to endure the stresses associated with the harassment directed toward the Drews." I'm pretty sure that her neighbors who are participating in this "harassment" aren't feeling particularly stressed about this family's harassment. I just think the statement was tacky; if you want to come off like you are not the scum of the Earth, you may want to not talk about yourself and your stress when some 13-year-old is dead and there is at least one source out there that quotes you as saying that you didn't feel so bad that she died because the girl was already suicidal [and I will find that article when I'm not writing these entries at work]. They also say in this article that the police overstated her involvement in this tragedy.

If that is the case, then why were charges brought against this woman if she had nothing to do with it? This second article brings up some of the concerns I have with this case; do they have enough evidence to convict? Are these charges overreaching? I hadn't even considered the possible slippery slope that this could begin. My stance on this is that the accused did have something to do with creating this MySpace page, but I'm not sure going after the adult who had this page created is enough. There should be punishment for the individual(s) who participated in contacting this girl. We have to show people that bullying is wrong and can have dire consequences, because while this may punish the adult for what she did, how do we get young people to not do this to each other?

That, and I hope that parents out there will do the minimalist thing when it comes to MySpace and obey the age limit set by the company. You are supposed to be 14 to start a page and while I understand that the parents were monitoring her participation, it was still breaking the rules. I remember all of the flack that MySpace got for not protecting young people against predators [Especially from Dateline: NBC who kept implying that their child predators were caught on MySpace despite the fact that not a single one of their predators was contacted or caught through the service, which is why they stopped bringing up MySpace in their subsequent reports], but it defeats the purpose of getting on these services when you allow children who are not supposed to be on there to set up accounts anyway.

For the purposes of this case, it doesn't matter if she should not have had a page or not. It's up to the courts to decide if what the adult did in this situation was criminal (ultimately morally bankrupt, yes) and if she broke any laws to which she can be held accountable. As more information becomes available, I'll report when I can.

Indicted!

It is official: The Missouri mother who created a false MySpace page that led to a teenager's death has been indicted. I can't say I'm rejoicing (I'm not upset for the woman, either), but I am very curious to see how this will end. My hope is that something good will come out of this, but I'm not sure if the woman will be successfully convicted. I hope it will be a wake-up call to others that bullying, whether it be in person or online, is harmful and can lead to consequences.

Charges are Coming

Apparently, there will be a price to pay for cyber-bullying after all.

According to the Smoking Gun, there will be an imminent announcement that charges will be filed by a grand jury in the case of 13-year-old Megan Meier, the girl who killed herself after a "friend" turned on her on MySpace. It was discovered that the friend was not a real person but a fake account set up by the mother of a former friend of Megan's who wanted to see if Megan was saying bad things about her daughter. On the last day of Megan's life, she got a message telling her that the world would be better without her, and she ran up to her room and hung herself in her closet. Initially, Lori Drew (the mother who instigated the MySpace page) seemed to feel bad for Megan's family, but she has later said that she didn't feel responsible for what happened because she heard that Megan had tried to kill herself before, implying that Megan would've done this without the hoax. However, Megan's parents say that the child was never suicidal; she suffered from depression but had never tried to kill herself before this occurred in 2006. It doesn't matter if she was previously suicidal; what this woman did was wrong, and the fact that charges are being pursued at all is surprising and impressive. The article I linked to also has a link to statements from the 19-year-old who also played a role in this tragedy; a girl who is getting immunity in exchange for her cooperation and testimony.

Initially, there were going to be no charges filed because there was nothing on the books against cyber-bullying in the area (there are some now), but this is being tried in a federal setting and I wonder how this is going to turn out.

As a former troubled teenager who struggled with severe depression, I feel for the girl and her family. At least her family knew about her depression and were trying to help her (I kept it a secret and I still haven't told them that it's something I struggle with to this day), but the fact that a grown woman would do this is despicable. It's not the spying [so much] that I don't approve of (there have to be better methods than this), it's the idea that she encouraged people to say hateful things to a vulnerable 13-year-old that cuts me to the core. Why would anyone think bullying is acceptable in any form? What is it about the Internet that brings out the worst in people?

I wish I knew.

I have a friend who had a Facebook group dedicated to making fun of him and he found out about it and decided to respond by posting a Facebook blog where he linked the names of everyone who had joined the group who were also supposed to be his friends. One of them had the audacity to complain that she shouldn't have been listed because she quit the group a month after joining it. It's like saying that you shouldn't be convicted of being part of a lynch mob because you went home before the body was strung up. It's one thing to be anonymous on the Internet, but it's another thing when you are on Facebook and everybody knows that you are a part of something, which means they were being stupid if they thought he would never find out. It's like a small town; everyone is going to know your business. Fortunately, his story didn't end in tragedy, but it bothers me that people would do this at all.

I really hope that Megan's family can find some peace after all of this. I don't know how I'd handle this if it were my child and I hope that there can be a stop to this so that it doesn't happen to anyone else's child.