Adults bully teen girl on Myspace - girl kills herself

[Harlowe]

Nah, it's more than just that.

Among other things, Drew was charged with conspiring to violate the fine print in MySpace's terms-of-service agreement, which prohibits the use of phony names and harassment of other MySpace members.

"The rules are fairly simple," federal prosecutor Mark Krause said. "You don't lie. You don't pretend to be someone else. You don't use the site to harass others. They harassed Megan Meier."

[Ddrak]

Nah, it's more than just that.

Among other things, Drew was charged with conspiring to violate the fine print in MySpace's terms-of-service agreement, which prohibits the use of phony names and harassment of other MySpace members.

"The rules are fairly simple," federal prosecutor Mark Krause said. "You don't lie. You don't pretend to be someone else. You don't use the site to harass others. They harassed Megan Meier."

It's not, Harlowe. The media has the whole thing screwy. Here's the charges:

One count of Conspiracy. Jury deadlocked and mistrial called.
Three counts of "accessing computers without authorization to inflict emotional harm" (a felony). Jury found no intent.

This results in three misdemeanor counts of "accessing computers without authorization". So, my description is exactly correct. She was charged and tried in a criminal trial for creating a false MySpace account, and accessing it three times. That's it. Everything else was thrown out - not responsible for the suicide, no intent to cause emotional harm found, no charges *at all* to do with Megan ever hit home. If you have a MySpace account without your own name then you're guilty of the exact same thing she was.

Dd

[Klast Brell]

Goading a teenage girl in to killing herself may be morally reprehensible, but it is not illegal. So they found something else to bust her on so they could at least punish her a little.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Goading a teenage girl in to killing herself may be morally reprehensible, but it is not illegal. So they found something else to bust her on so they could at least punish her a little.

Agreed Klast.

I feel the true punishment will come when the "adults" in this matter begin to chew on the tripe of their own involvement.

[Ddrak]

Goading a teenage girl in to killing herself may be morally reprehensible, but it is not illegal. So they found something else to bust her on so they could at least punish her a little.

I know that's exactly what they are doing, but if you really think making it a federal crime to break the ToS on some web site isn't going to lead to a whole lot of wasted taxpayer money then you really haven't thought things through. It's a bad decision, and (far as I can see) will almost certainly be turned over on appeal.

They would have been much better going after her in civil court.

Dd

[Klast Brell]

They are definitely vulnerable to a civil suit by the parents of the girl.

And their names and picture have been all over the news. Their friends and family will reject them. They will have trouble holding down a job. Their house and cars will be vandalized. I imagine this will haunt them for a long time.

[Taxious]

Case just got thrown out. About time, IMO.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-myspa ... 3682.story

[Fallakin Kuvari]

The woman should have to live with the guilt that she manipulated and degraded a child enough that she killed herself...

[Embar Angylwrath]

I feel for the parents of teh girl, but she was a suicide waiting to happen. The court was right to throw out the case.

[Ddrak]

Wu said he was concerned that if Drew was found guilty of violating the terms of service in using MySpace, anyone who violated the terms could be convicted of a crime.

"Is a misdemeanor committed by the conduct which is done every single day by millions and millions of people?" Wu asked. "If these people do read [the terms of service] and still say they're 40 when they are 45, is that a misdemeanor?"

Judge got it exactly right. Like I said - they would have been better going after her in civil court.

Dd

[Select]

More adults bullying children. This time it was against a 9-year-old.

A Long Island woman allegedly tried to get revenge on a 9-year-old girl who ar gued with her daughter by giving a throng of sex- seeking men the child's home phone number through a Craigslist ad.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07032009/ne ... 177431.htm

[Ddrak]

Hmm... I'd guess that one could well be considered illegal. Impersonating a 9 year old to solicit underage sex is a hell of a lot different to creating a fictional persona just to screw with someone.

Dd