NO CHARGES IS SUICIDE RELATED TO MYSPACE
ST. CHARLES, Mo. - No criminal charges will be filed against people who sent cruel Internet messages to a 13-year-old girl before she committed suicide, the St. Charles County prosecutor said Monday.
The parents of Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie, who hanged herself last year, said her suicide came minutes after she received mean messages through the social networking site MySpace.
County Prosecutor Jack Banas said at a news conference there was no applicable statue to file charges in the case. Banas said he looked at laws related to stalking, harassment and child endangerment, but found no repeated incidents of threats to someone's life or health, and no organized conspiracy.
A police report said that a mother from the neighborhood and her 18-year-old employee fabricated a profile for a teenage boy online who pretended to be interested in Megan before he began bullying her. The police report indicates others gained access to the profile, and it is not clear who was sending Meier messages just before her death.
Banas said based on additional interviews, the fake MySpace page was not created by the mother of one of Megan's friends. He said the page was created by the 18-year-old employee, though the mother and her 13-year-old daughter knew about the page. He said he was unable to speak directly with the 18-year-old, whom he said has been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.
After the case became public, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt asked lawmakers to review state law to see if changes were necessary to better deal with cases that involve Internet bullying. Some municipalities have also considered or passed statutes to strengthen laws that deal with Internet harassement.
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My question is, what is your position on myspace/facebook? As parents, do you allow your children on these sites? At the school I work at, we have them blocked so the kids can't access them during the day. But there seems to be more and more controversy surrounding these website.... curious to hear your responses!
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Comments: 17
As for this case - it sickens me because initally the kids claim the mother set the account up....and as an adult she was responsible for the things that she did to this innocent child....but now it sounds like they got together and agreed to pin it on the eighteen year old, who would have been underage at the time and thus not responsible since clearly with him in a psych unit shows he is not stable....
A bunch of crap and only serves to teach kids that they can get away with things by finding loop holes. Sickening.
Keep on going on ;-o
My daughter is still WAY too young to even use a computer, so I don't have to worry about it yet, but when she is old enough, if Myspace is still big, I am sure I will let her use it, but moniter her use...
I have a myspace, only to keep up with my family and friends, since I moved to FL, and they are all in IL. I hardly ever use it tho, but I have found a lot of old friends on there.
I don't see how it is so "skanky" or that everyone who has one is "stupid".....
I mean yeah, a few peoples accounts are that way, but if you have a private account, then the people you don't want to see it can't...
Terrible tragedy...if nothing else I hope that a lesson is learned here.
Bullying habits are learned. period. plain and simple. Whether parents realize it or not, our kids will learn how to be adults from us, while at the same time adding their own independent spin to it. The brain doesn't complete development until about the age of 25 - so we should not stop parenting just because they have a job and become 18. This mother should have known better and should be ashamed of herself.
My heart goes out to the family of Megan. That age is so very fragile and kids become so good at hiding their true feelings - that I hope they don't punish themselves for years thinking they should have seen something.
Kudos to you for this discussion. I think they are important.
My 17 yr old daughter has an account but she only gets on it about once a month and it is kept "private"
My 10 yr old and 12 yr old DO NOT have accounts
My 19 yr old son and his girlfriend have them and it is the WORST thing that ever comes between their relationship.
I WISH MYSPACE WERE TO SHUT DOWN FOREVER AND JUST GO AWAY. Myspace is about the same as going into a cheap sleazy bar. I wish that someone would get a grip and get this site to go away because there is so much drama and bad stuff because of this website. Look at that girl that killed herself because someone messed with he because of a Myspace account.
My son and his girlfriend fight so much because of Myspace and "who posted to her account" "who messaged him" etc on and on and on.....
MY SPACE IS NOTHING GOOD.