megan meier redux

[seperis]

Update to the Megan Meier case.

To recap, in case the name doesn't ring any bells (pulled from my post here):

Short version: thirteen year old girl and best friend break up. Thirteen year old girl meets boy on myspace. Thirteen year old girl and boy become friends. Thirteen year old girl and boy talk. Boy starts to send unpleasant messages. Boy becomes cruel. Thirteen year old girl with a history of known depression kills herself. Boy turns out to be an imaginary construct of the parents of the broken-up-with best friend.

Parents, adults that knew this girl and how to fuck with her.

So it's been a year and change. Lori Drew, the perpetrator, was tried and charged with several misdemeanors, according to yahoo here.

Quote from original article:

A Missouri mother on trial in a landmark cyberbullying case was convicted Wednesday of only three minor offenses for her role in a mean-spirited Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide.

The federal jury could not reach a verdict on the main charge against 49-year-old Lori Drew — conspiracy — and rejected three other felony counts of accessing computers without authorization to inflict emotional harm.

Instead, the panel found Drew guilty of three misdemeanor offenses of accessing computers without authorization. Each count is punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Drew could have gotten 20 years if convicted of the four original charges.

If nothing else, the public humiliation and scorn she's received, and will continue to receive, are something.

Comments

[ladyholder.livejournal.com]

And depending on what is decided, she may yet see the inside of a jail. Can't say that the thought causes me any problems. Plus she is always going to have this on her record. Suits her right.

~L

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yes, this.

And public shunning and humiliation works for me big time.

[ladyholder.livejournal.com]

Oh, me too. And I really hope that she stays in that town so people can keep shunning her.

~L

[delle.livejournal.com]

I am perfectly satisfied with public shunning and humiliation. Because charging her with a felony because she used a fake name on line? Is a really bad precedent. But what she did goes so far beyond heinous...

[kathgrr.livejournal.com]

The legal system is obvious not up to par at dealing with cyber crime. I can't stand the horrific idea of the poor 13 year old driven to suicide over such a petty issue as a broken friendship - and by a person who is suppose to be a responsible adult! Such a sad commentary on the state of the world.

[ceares.livejournal.com]

Saw that and literally cheered. Something is better than nothing which is what I was expecting. It still just infuriates me uncontrollably.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. Keep her name in the newspapers so that everywhere she goes people will point at her. You know, I do not know how some people face themselves in the mirror.

[sobelle.livejournal.com]

The legal system is so far behind in addressed the technology issues that we interact with every day. There are numerous cases that are working their way through the courts and will most likely reach Supreme Court review in the next few years. (I'm suspect a few of our cases might even make it)

Until then we'll stagger through with what we've got. I am glad the the Attorney General got involved if for nothing else but the additional publicity it prompted.

What a sad unhappy story. Realizing (once more) that there are mean people out there, sociopathic or not, is a sad smack upside the head. =(

And then there's Mumbai. =(

[sobelle.livejournal.com]

And I forgot to add my agreement to your thoughts on shunning.

[seekergeek.livejournal.com]

*nods* Public humiliation has its place. Wish we'd use it more often.

[epj.livejournal.com]

The Amish have had it right all along; shunning is where it's at. I would've had problems with her being convicted, simply because I think the laws they were using to prosecute relate to her actual crime shakily at best, but shunning, scorn, and moral outrage? Definitely called for.