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

[nathansgirl1908]

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.

Yep. You can place some blame on the parents. They knew she was too fragile to be on Myspace anyway without supervision. And they should not have allowed her to develop a cyber non-platonic relationship. I am wholeheartedly against that even for people who don't have issues with emotional instability.

[dolllover]

But that doesn't excuse the bullying.You can't keep the kid chained up.Kids are doing homework on the computer.Myspace is a great social networking site for young people. You need laws to punish the creeps that bully,stalk and harrass people period.This woman was a predator of a minor.It's rediculous that this judge threw out the conviction. But there are bad judges everywhere that let the bad guys out.

[Roo]

Originally Posted by nathansgirl1908

Yep. You can place some blame on the parents. They knew she was too fragile to be on Myspace anyway without supervision. And they should not have allowed her to develop a cyber non-platonic relationship. I am wholeheartedly against that even for people who don't have issues with emotional instability.

I suppose you can blame the parents for some of it. But what happened to Megan was beyond the pale of what those parents could probably imagine. Also, as I posted earlier in this thread-- something similar happened to us and we monitored computer usage very carefully and what happened in our case was also beyond the realm of what we thought was possible back then (we think differently now, of course!). Kids will find a way to access things no matter what; at friends' or relatives houses, school, etc.

[nathansgirl1908]

Originally Posted by dolllover

But that doesn't excuse the bullying.You can't keep the kid chained up.Kids are doing homework on the computer.Myspace is a great social networking site for young people. You need laws to punish the creeps that bully,stalk and harrass people period.This woman was a predator of a minor.It's rediculous that this judge threw out the conviction. But there are bad judges everywhere that let the bad guys out.

He's not a bad judge. He's smart enough not to allow emotions to cloud his judgment and result in him rendering a decision that could have substantial and far-reaching consequences. I admire his ability to do what is right in the face of what is and probably will continue to be great public outcry. I only hope he doesn't give in. He's not "letting the bad guy out." He's making sure that the next time you and your family and friends violate a tos agreement you don't go to prison and have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. I appreciate that. I think people forget that courts don't just do what they want to. They follow precedent.

And I wholeheartedly disagree about Myspace being a great networking tool for young people. They were able to adequately network before Myspace, and there are far too many harmful aspects of Myspace at this point. After all the cases of stalking, suicides, and murders related to Myspace, I'm amazed that anyone would still think it is a positive networking tool.

[tanukiki]

Originally Posted by nathansgirl1908

He's not a bad judge. He's smart enough not to allow emotions to cloud his judgment and result in him rendering a decision that could have substantial and far-reaching consequences. I admire his ability to do what is right in the face of what is and probably will continue to be great public outcry. I only hope he doesn't give in. He's not "letting the bad guy out." He's making sure that the next time you and your family and friends violate a tos agreement you don't go to prison and have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. I appreciate that. I think people forget that courts don't just do what they want to. They follow precedent. And I wholeheartedly disagree about Myspace being a great networking tool for young people. They were able to adequately network before Myspace, and there are far too many harmful aspects of Myspace at this point. After all the cases of stalking, suicides, and murders related to Myspace, I'm amazed that anyone would still think it is a positive networking tool.

I wholeheartedly wish that they will find some other way to prosecute this woman. I under the judge's point unfortunately. But this woman deserves some form of punishment as she acted downright despicably and maliciously.

[DreamingBeauty]

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?

IA with your post, I don't think it is being insensitive at all. The thing is, while online people can be whoever they want to be so you really can't take anything at face value. I remember when I was in college people used various websites and messenger services like AIM to mess with people by doing anonymous postings or creating a bunch of fake screennames. If you can't handle that, you sign off and don't go to those sites, but a child or even an unstable adult may not have the judgment to do that, so the child needs more supervision. Obviously Megan's parents didn't monitor her online activity at all if they allowed all of this to happen and for it to go on as long as it did.

[LVmom]

Originally Posted by nathansgirl1908

Yep. You can place some blame on the parents. They knew she was too fragile to be on Myspace anyway without supervision. And they should not have allowed her to develop a cyber non-platonic relationship. I am wholeheartedly against that even for people who don't have issues with emotional instability.

The parents didn't allow her to be on Myspace without a parent in the room supervising-sadly, the mom left and the girl logged in without permission. I think parental controls would be a great thing for this kind of situation. My husband is a computer engineer and has a kill switch for the Internet that he controls. Obviously a kid could leave and get on the Internet elsewhere, but I am very grateful we have the power over the Internet under our own roof. I don't think this would have solved the bullying situation, though. Bullies have since the dawn of time figured out how to humiliate people under the radar.

[natalie78]

Originally Posted by nathansgirl1908

And I wholeheartedly disagree about Myspace being a great networking tool for young people. They were able to adequately network before Myspace, and there are far too many harmful aspects of Myspace at this point. After all the cases of stalking, suicides, and murders related to Myspace, I'm amazed that anyone would still think it is a positive networking tool.

I agree completely. I networked just fine in the years before there was a computer in every house. And so did the generations before us. I am working a case right now where a girl is a victim of domestic violence. Her boyfriend violated the restraining order and was being taken to court. She went on Myspace and Facebook and posted some quesitonable comments about her behavior and their relationship. Now the case against him is shot because she can no longer be a credible witness.

[sweetneet]

Originally Posted by natalie78

I agree completely. I networked just fine in the years before there was a computer in every house. And so did the generations before us. I am working a case right now where a girl is a victim of domestic violence. Her boyfriend violated the restraining order and was being taken to court. She went on Myspace and Facebook and posted some quesitonable comments about her behavior and their relationship. Now the case against him is shot because she can no longer be a credible witness.

i agree, the same thing can be said about pretty much every form of technology. recently there have been cases of "sexting" where teen girls send nude pictures of themselves to their boyfriend, friends etc via text messaging. all it takes is it getting into the wrong hands (or a backstabbing bf) and the pics make its way around the whole class/school. i heard of one case where a teenage girl in Ohio committed suicide after nude pictures of herself got passed around her school. it's really sad and it's difficult for the law to prosecute these cases because there has really been no laws governing this kind of thing. and yes, the victim loses credibility because they were the ones that made the pictures available in the first place.