The Megan Meier Myspace suicide case *Update: Conviction overturned* see page 23

[HauteMama]

I don't mean to be insensitive, and I DO feel that woman needs to be held accountable in some way for her actions, but what about the parents? They knew the girl was unstable; they knew it better than anyone else. Yet they allowed her access to social networking sites where "mean girls" thrive. How many ADULTS here complain about people being being awful on networking sites and wonder what to do about it? How could an emotionally unstable teen be prepared to deal with those sites and the ramifications of cyber-bullying when many adults are driven to distraction by it?

How different would this case be if teen girls had done this instead of an adult? How different would it be if the boy had been REAL, and the girl had killed herself? No matter how we look at it, no matter who made the unkind remarks, it wouldn't bring the girl back. Do we place responsibility for someone's emotional stability and suicidal tendencies on strangers or people unrelated to her? Or do we say that perhaps her parents allowed her too much online freedom that she wasn't prepared to handle?

[nathansgirl1908]

Originally Posted by HauteMama

I don't mean to be insensitive, and I DO feel that woman needs to be held accountable in some way for her actions, but what about the parents? They knew the girl was unstable; they knew it better than anyone else. Yet they allowed her access to social networking sites where "mean girls" thrive. How many ADULTS here complain about people being being awful on networking sites and wonder what to do about it? How could an emotionally unstable teen be prepared to deal with those sites and the ramifications of cyber-bullying when many adults are driven to distraction by it? How different would this case be if teen girls had done this instead of an adult? How different would it be if the boy had been REAL, and the girl had killed herself? No matter how we look at it, no matter who made the unkind remarks, it wouldn't bring the girl back. Do we place responsibility for someone's emotional stability and suicidal tendencies on strangers or people unrelated to her? Or do we say that perhaps her parents allowed her too much online freedom that she wasn't prepared to handle?

I agree, and I don't think that is being insensitive at all.

[nathansgirl1908]

Originally Posted by canada's

^^^ agreed. the woman knew what she was doing. she knew the girl's mental issues and used them to her advantage to toy with a troubled teen. let's take myspace out of the equation and say this woman constantly harassed this little girl to the point where the girl commits suicide. is it still not her fault the girl did this merely because she wasn't the one tying the rope around her neck? what's sad is you know this isn't the last of this type of case we'll see. the spread of social networking is only adding more fuel to fire and eventually people will have to be prosecuted for such things. just because you're in your home, behind a screen, doesn't mean you aren't responsible.

How can you prosecute someone for pretending to be in love with someone and then why it turns out not to be real, the person kills himself/herself? Hautemama was right. The girl's parents should receive some blame as well. They ultimately had more control over Megan.

And if you take Myspace out of the equation, you are completely changing the facts. The point is that this woman is being prosecuted for a violation of a tos click to agree contract. Suppose someone on here inadvertently broke a tos. Do you really think they should get prison time and a fine of $300,000?

I don't know...I have mixed feelings about this cyber bullying stuff. I feel like if someone kills themselves over an interaction on a computer, then they had deeper issues and they probably would have eventually committed suicide over something else. When someone is that emotionally fragile, anything can make them go off the deep end.

[HauteMama]

Haven't there been previous cases where someone threatened to commit suicide and was actually egged on by posters online? Were those people who encouraged someone to kill themself ever prosecuted? I might be wrong, but I don't think they were...

[nathansgirl1908]

Originally Posted by HauteMama

Haven't there been previous cases where someone threatened to commit suicide and was actually egged on by posters online? Were those people who encouraged someone to kill themself ever prosecuted? I might be wrong, but I don't think they were...

I think I have heard of those incidents, and I don't think they were prosecuted. I'm not even sure what a charge would be in a situation like that.

[Roo]

nathansgirl, fwiw, cyberbullying can be extremely serious.

This guy is being prosecuted for harassing a girl online in my area.

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stori...KS.2adb44.html

WA teen jailed for posting nude pics on MySpace

01:54 PM PDT on Thursday, July 2, 2009

By ROB PIERCY / KING 5 News

Video: Teen lands in jail after posting nude pictures online
Larger screen E-mail this clip


EVERETT, Wash. - An 18-year-old ended up in jail this week, accused of posting nude photos of his Arlington ex-girlfriend on MySpace.

"Sexting" is the term for when someone uses their phone to send text messages containing nude photos of themselves.

A 15-year-old student at Arlington's Haller Middle School sent nude photos to 18-year-old Tyler Deccio. When they broke up, the photos ended up on MySpace.

"She thought she could trust him, thought he was a nice kid, probably thought he would keep those pics private," said Lisa Wojciechowicz, spokesperson for the Arlington Police Department.

When they broke up, police say Deccio started text messaging threats to her - demanding more nude pictures.

"He was making demands of very specific pictures of her body, and specific circumstances and making some veiled threats," Wojciechowicz said.

Police say he threatened to show the pictures he had to her family. Then he created an account on MySpace with her name, the pictures and crude comments.

She went to a school counselor, who went to police.

"There were about half a dozen pictures of her," Wojciechowicz said.

Deccio appeared in court yesterday. Officers arrested him on suspicion of harassment, and sex crimes for posting nude pictures of a minor. All three are felonies.

Police say this case is reminder to keep what is private -- private.

When police arrested Deccio, they say he admitted to everything and told them he thought his girlfriend was cheating.

A judge released him on his own recognizance, pending formal charges.

[nathansgirl1908]

thanks for posting this, Roo. Seems like more people would take a lesson from this and the HUNDREDS of other similar incidents and stop giving people nude photographs of themselves.

But this isn't the kind of thing I am talking about. I don't consider this to be cyber bullying. It's on a whole different level. When I reference cyber bullying, I'm talking about kids saying mean things to each other via IM or some other chat mechanism or on Myspace. Posting nude photos of someone without their consent is actually something you can be charged for and makes sense.


On this note, does that mean those kids who bullied the Columbine boys should have been prosecuted because the boys killed so many students?

[JSH812]

This is really sad. I can't even find words to say how much I disagree with this decision. If I were her, I'd now be fearful for my life...

[dolllover]

Bullying is harrasment and there should be consequences for it. The schools are not protecting the students enough and this woman should pay for bullying this teenager.You can't blame the parents in this.So what if she was emotionally unstable. It doesn't excuse this dispicable human being from bulying a minor. Have her do community service in a mental hospital.As far as I'm concerned she belongs there to do what she did to that young girl.

[floridasun8]

Originally Posted by dolllover

Bullying is harrasment and there should be consequences for it. The schools are not protecting the students enough and this woman should pay for bullying this teenager.You can't blame the parents in this.So what if she was emotionally unstable. It doesn't excuse this dispicable human being from bulying a minor. Have her do community service in a mental hospital.As far as I'm concerned she belongs there to do what she did to that young girl.

ITA! Bullying is way too out of control these days and NOTHING is being done about it. And this kind of court ruling just shows that the world continues to not do anything about it. All this does is tell others that there will be no consequence for bullying and therefore they have no reason to stop. Other than the money situation and having to face the public wrath (of which Im sure Lori Drew doesnt care about), what has she really learned from this? I seriously doubt anything!

[nataliam1976]

Originally Posted by HauteMama

I don't mean to be insensitive, and I DO feel that woman needs to be held accountable in some way for her actions, but what about the parents? They knew the girl was unstable; they knew it better than anyone else. Yet they allowed her access to social networking sites where "mean girls" thrive. How many ADULTS here complain about people being being awful on networking sites and wonder what to do about it? How could an emotionally unstable teen be prepared to deal with those sites and the ramifications of cyber-bullying when many adults are driven to distraction by it? How different would this case be if teen girls had done this instead of an adult? How different would it be if the boy had been REAL, and the girl had killed herself? No matter how we look at it, no matter who made the unkind remarks, it wouldn't bring the girl back. Do we place responsibility for someone's emotional stability and suicidal tendencies on strangers or people unrelated to her? Or do we say that perhaps her parents allowed her too much online freedom that she wasn't prepared to handle?

I theoretically agree. But the thought of an ADULT woman conspring against a child and inventing crazy, irresponisble, cruel plan like that despite knowing about her problems and then going unpunished doesnt sit well with me.

[DamierLover]

The Cyber bully needed/needs to be punished. Period. End of story.

The Cyber bully and her Cyber bully Daughter will live out the rest of their days as outcasts in their community. They will continue to be able to spend time together sharing fond memories of their horrific act of bullying a child who was fragile emotionally. Every time they look at each other or into a mirror what they see is what they get. Cyber Bullies who are responsible for someone taking their own life.

They can't live long enough as far as I'm concerned. May their memories last forever.

[Grace123]

Have Megan's family filed a Civil action against the defendant? I would think they'd have a decent chance of winning one. Not for financial gain, but for the thought that maybe they got some justice for Megan after all.

[Roo]

Originally Posted by nathansgirl1908

On this note, does that mean those kids who bullied the Columbine boys should have been prosecuted because the boys killed so many students?

Actually NG, as a result of Columbine, pretty much all public school systems in the US adopted non-violence policies that are strictly enforced and include expulsion and/or arrest for bullying and harassment. (I know b/c both my kids were in public school when it happened.) That is the reason Lori Drew orchestrated her harassment of Megan with her as the perpertrator and not her daughter at school; she figured the law would not apply to her if she did it herself, outside of the school setting, and she was right.

Also my point about the photo harassment case is that myspace was used and the perpetrator put up a false myspace page in order to carry out the harassment. Unfortunately in MO they did not have a law on the books that made that illegal at the time the Megan case took place, but we do have a law here that does.

[nathansgirl1908]

Originally Posted by Roo

Actually NG, as a result of Columbine, pretty much all public school systems in the US adopted non-violence policies that are strictly enforced and include expulsion and/or arrest for bullying and harassment. (I know b/c both my kids were in public school when it happened.) That is the reason Lori Drew orchestrated her harassment of Megan with her as the perpertrator and not her daughter at school; she figured the law would not apply to her if she did it herself, outside of the school setting, and she was right. Also my point about the photo harassment case is that myspace was used and the perpetrator put up a false myspace page in order to carry out the harassment. Unfortunately in MO they did not have a law on the books that made that illegal at the time the Megan case took place, but we do have a law here that does.

Thanks for providing the info about the bullying policies. But what I meant was prosecuting the bullies for the death of the innocent kids who were killed.

And I have to disagree with the poster who said that nothing is being done about bullying. In some schools that may be the case, but there ARE school, even pre-Columbine that were very strict about dealing with bullies. I have found though that in the schools where they are lax about dealing with bullies, it is usually when the athletes are the ones doing the bullying. The schools don't want to have to punish their star athletes and make them miss games. ugh