MySpace Teen Suicide Linked to Neighborhood Mom and Changes Missouri Laws

Many people know that MySpace is a social networking site that is accessible to teens. In fact, many teens are on MySpace with their parents' permissions. While I was driving around doing errands today, an old story about MySpace has resurfaced. It is a horror story of a young teen that committed suicide as a result of MySpace harassment. Not only is this story sad because a teen lost her life but because the primary person responsible was a neighborhood mother! The one good thing that came out of the death was a change in the laws in Missouri, where it is now illegal to bully or harass someone using the Internet.

Original Event

For those not familiar with the story, Megan Meier was a beautiful young teen. Prior to her death, she had gotten into a big argument with a neighborhood teen girl and they were no longer friends. According to Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,315684,00.html), Lori Drew had created a MySpace profile of a teen boy close to the age of Megan Meier. The purpose fo the profile by the neighborhood mom was to find out if Megan was saying anything bad about Drew's daughter. According to the Associated Press, the new MySpace profile was for a boy named Josh Evans. A close friendship and online relationship formed between the 13 year old teen, Megan Meier and the fake 16 year old teen, Josh Evans.

According to the Associated Press, Megan Meier began to get taunted, harassed and emotionally bullied from the Josh Evans profile created by Lori Drew. According to Megan Meier's parents, Lori Drew knew that Megan was on medication for depression. The taunts and emotional distress were just too much for Megan, who ended her life shortly after receiving a message on MySpace stating that the world would be a better place without her.

Megan's parents admit that the teen was under the age requirement for MySpace. However, they say that they closely monitored the account. No-one had any idea that the MySpace interaction, messages and fake account would end on such a tragic note.

Prosecution