Website on Cyberbullying

After looking at this website, there is so much more to cyberbullying then I ever thought there was. After hearing about the Megan Meier case, all I thought about was how people could say hurtful things to others. I never thought about sending out bad pictures to other kids, impersonating them, and even internet polling. Kids may be asking who is hot? Who is not hot? If a child was voted as "not hot", I could not even imagine what this would do to his or her self-esteem.
I liked seeing that there is the internet golden rule. This includes privacy to only one's account and no one elses. There is also the fact that if someone is upset with someone, he or she should never say it via on-line. It could only cause many problems.

St. Louis Suburban Journal

The service terms on Myspace state a user should be at least 14 years old. Even though Megan was 13, the age factor should not be examined. If she would have known what was going to happen on Myspace and that she would end up taking her life, I highly doubt that she would have registered an account.
I am dissappointed that Lori Drew was found not guilty to the felony and misdemeanor charges. Her actions made a teenage girl take her life.

Defense Asks for Dismissal in Myspace hoax case

H. Dean Steward is a defense attourney, and he believes that many internet users create fake identities and accounts. However, they have never been charged. While I agree with him, this case is extremely different. A person's fake identity led to a 13 year old girl hanging herself. It just makes me angry that a mother would create a fake identity to see what her daughter's old friend is saying about her daughter. The mother should be the mature one in this case; however, she is far from it, clearly.

Lori Drew Indicted for Misuse of Myspace...

Something that I thought was interesting in this article was when it discussed Myspace's policies. It says, "soliciting personal information from anyone under age 18 and not using information gathered from the Web site to 'harass, abuse or harm other people'". No one should ever be harassed. In this case, this should never be done with anyone younger than 18. Then there is the question of whether Lori Drew ever even read the terms of agreement. However, I believe that one should not have to read the terms of agreement to know not to harrass someone.

Article from the New Yorker

In this article, I discovered that "Josh" had called Megan a "cruel" and "bad person". As a 13 year old, I am sure she was devestated to hear this. It hurts to hear that anyone, but especially a 13 year old girl because they are so emotional at that time in their life.
Because of this case, there are now state and federal laws attempting to cease cyberbullying. If one is found guilty of this crime, he or she could face a fine of $500 and 90 days in jail. It is also considered a misdemeanor now.

I am really glad that there is the fine and jail time now; it should be there. I hope if the case is more severe that the punishment is worse. In this case, I think, Lori Drew should be in jail for just about the rest of her life and have to pay an enormous fine-thousands of dollars.

Annals of Crime: Friend Game

I think this is such a horrific story; it is so sad! First of all, for someone to send mean messages to another person is awful. Secondly, I do not know why someone would want to fake an identity. Finally, I hope Lori Drew realizes what she did, and how wrong of her it was. She made an innocent 13 year old take her life. I think Mrs. Meier summed it up perfectly when she said, "But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a thirteen-year-old-with or without mental problems- it is absolutely vile".

This is my first blog; it is for one of my classes.