This is Truly a Sad Story... Talk about Cruel!

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KennyFlys

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Town Will Punish Cyberbullies

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City officials unanimously passed a measure making online harassment a crime, days after learning that a 13-year-old girl killed herself last year after receiving cruel messages on the Internet.
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Authorities have said they could not find a crime to charge anyone with in the case of Meier, who thought she had met a good-looking 16-year-old boy on the social networking site MySpace last year. But he began sending her mean messages and others joined in, her family said, then abruptly ended their friendship.

Megan hanged herself within minutes of receiving the last messages on Oct. 16, 2006, and died the next day.

Megan's parents, Ron and Tina Meier, learned about six weeks after Megan's death that the boy, Josh Evans, was not real. The boy was created by a mother down the street who wanted to know what Megan was saying about her own daughter, who had had a falling out with Megan.
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I'm dumbfounded there is no criminal penalty for this. I hope the parents can have some civil recourse. It cannot go unpunished.
 
At the very least, Megan's parents should be allowed to go beat the crap out of the mom.
 
One can only speculate at the force of the wrath that would come down on that stupid woman if it were my daughter. This makes me so angry!! What a stupid, stupid woman.
 
The LA Times had a long article about that yesterday.

It is shocking how creul and stupid that woman is.

I too hope that civil action keeps that woman and her family living in a $300/month apartment eating Purina for the rest of their lives.

However after some cooling down, I wonder what you could truly criminalize. Perhaps the fraud of an adult pretending to be a child on the Internet to cause harm in any way?

Considering my frustration in trying to moderate the AOPA boards, I find it hard to define "criminal bullying" or making the response of a mentally unstable person a criterion for action. Very few parts of the Internet are truly friendly places, caveat surfer.

Joe
 
Areeda said:
The LA Times had a long article about that yesterday.

It is shocking how cruel and stupid that woman is.

I too hope that civil action keeps that woman and her family living in a $300/month apartment eating Purina for the rest of their lives.

However after some cooling down, I wonder what you could truly criminalize. Perhaps the fraud of an adult pretending to be a child on the Internet to cause harm in any way?

Considering my frustration in trying to moderate the AOPA boards, I find it hard to define "criminal bullying" or making the response of a mentally unstable person a criterion for action. Very few parts of the Internet are truly friendly places, caveat surfer.

Joe
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I would think there some culpability given one could reasonably foresee emotional harm done by making such statements. If someone kept saying you were a worthless pilot and unsafe, kept saying you need to lose your ticket... in spite of your actual performance, constant statements can cause doubt. Now, put that on an emotionally, immature young girl.

To me, there's at least some basis for criminal harassment. A small charge but its something.
 
I keep thinking about "sticks and stones"... It's one thing when somebody shows up in your physical life and hassles you. It's something else entirely when online and you have the ability to disconnect/delete and remove yourself from the situation.

Without the particulars, I don't know how outrageous this was, but I am concerned that we're abdicating too much responsibility for our own self-worth, and the self-work of our kids, to other people.
 
TMetzinger said:
I keep thinking about "sticks and stones"... It's one thing when somebody shows up in your physical life and hassles you. It's something else entirely when online and you have the ability to disconnect/delete and remove yourself from the situation.

Without the particulars, I don't know how outrageous this was, but I am concerned that we're abdicating too much responsibility for our own self-worth, and the self-work of our kids, to other people.
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Indeed. Tragic as it is, I couldn't help thinking the same thing. We're quick to condemn this neighbor woman (and certainly her acts were reprehensible, to say the least). But I can't help but wonder what kind of relationship the girl had with her own family that she didn't feel she could turn to one of her parents or another family member for solace if she was hurting that much because of something that had been said online.

Like Tim, I also thought about the old "sticks and stones" rhyme. Seems to me that we used to just brush things like that off when I was a kid -- and back then bullying, insulting, and "ranking out" were real and in-your-face, not anonymous and virtual.

Obviously, I feel terrible about this, as any normal adult would. But I also think this child must have had other problems to begin with. I can't imagine there are too many normal, happy, well-adjusted kids who would hang themselves over online insults. If I'm wrong, then we need to do some serious examination of modern parenting methods, rather than just passing more laws and then pretending that the problem is solved.

Rich
 
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etsisk said:
It wasn't just the MOM - the other girl's FATHER was in on it, too. Jerks.
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Yup...but criminals? Nope, and I think this is a DANGEROUS thing to do, criminalizing "cyber-bullying" that is.
 
If I were the dead girl's dad I wouldn't care if it were a criminal offense or not. Did the girl have problems? Probably. She was a teenager after all. But for adults to be that underhanded, that cruel... there's no way they could outrun me.
 
but I DO think that they should make the offending parents' names available so they could receive the total social ostracism they so richly deserve. :yes: :yes:
 
etsisk said:
but I DO think that they should make the offending parents' names available so they could receive the total social ostracism they so richly deserve. :yes: :yes:
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Yes my thoughts exactly!!. There is a higher code than than the law. Shunning is appropriate here. What they did may not be illegal but is morally repugnant.:mad:
 
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