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By on November 26, 2008

Jury Set to Deliberate MySpace Suicide Case

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By Taylor Pratt

A Los Angeles jury is set to deliberate the suicide of a Missouri teen who was emotionally tortured on MySpace and committed suicide. In yet another blow to the human race, a 47-year-old woman posed as a 13-year-old boy to tease and humiliate a 13-year-old girl named Megan Meier.

Lori Drew, the 47-year-old woman, lived just a few houses down from Megan. She was upset that Megan had been teasing her daughter in school, and sought revenge. I’d like to take a moment here for you all to read that sentence again, focus on “sought revenge.” We’re talking about 13-year-old girls here. I know they are mean to each other, but as a parent, don’t you sort of prepare for this type of thing to happen in your daughter’s life? Has there even been a kid who wasn’t made fun of at some point in their life? It is part of growing up. It is what shapes us into who we are. As a parent, you have an ethical responsibility to teach your children to overcome those obstacles, not to retaliate to the degree that Lori did. </rant>

Lori is being charged with conspiracy and accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information for the purpose of inflicting emotional distress, a sentence that faces a maximum of 20 years in a federal prison.

I hate to see social networks like MySpace and Facebook as means to deliver these attacks. I can’t imagine it will get any easier as more social networks roll out. Hopefully we won’t be hearing about 50-year-olds seeking revenge against an eight-year-old who said he didn’t like their kid in 140 characters or less on Twitter.

via Reuters

Taylor Pratt is a Search Marketing Specialist at nFusion, a results focused marketing agency.


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9 comments on “Jury Set to Deliberate MySpace Suicide Case”

  1. Nicole Price Says:

    November 26th, 2008 at 8:37 am

    This is indeed very true and a very stiff penalty is the way to send home the message to other possible perps that this will land them in serious trouble if they were to attempt anything similar.

    Nicole Price’s last blog post..The Best Recipe Sites

  2. Pilgrim Writer Says:

    November 26th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    I am in no way minimizing this despicable behavior, but I do object to people blaming the medium. Social media is no more to blame for this kind of social travesty than a gun is responsible when someone gets shot. It is the people who use these tools who are to blame. Having said that I hope they make an example of her.

    Patricia Skinner.

  3. iphone Says:

    November 26th, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    A pretty sad story, I hope she is convicted and gets a tough sentence.

  4. Marketing News Roundup, November 26 Says:

    December 7th, 2008 at 12:45 am

    [...] Suicide Verdict: And one followup: the mom who used MySpace to torment her daughter’s classmate into suicide has been acquitted of felony charges. She was found guilty of three misdemeanors and now faces up [...]

  5. Lily Bent Says:

    January 11th, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    The woman behaved like a mother who infinitely loves her child and does her best to protect her for all the cruelties of the world. Wrong behavior, she just had to tech her daughter how to protect herself. I feel pity about daughter and her mother.

  6. Aurelius Tjin Says:

    February 4th, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    It’s so sad to hear that these social networking media facilitated deaths and depressions amongst teens and even old folks alike when they should have been devoted for fun, community interaction, and making friends.

    Aurelius Tjin’s last blog post..The ?ABCDE? Method of Getting Things Done

  7. Santa SEO » Fake Social Media Profiles Says:

    February 11th, 2009 at 8:48 pm

    [...] you may recall, we reported on a horrible case in which a mother had created a fake social profile and bullied a girl to suicide. This report has a lot of merit, and this is a real threat that more businesses need to take [...]

  8. Is The Biggest Online Threat of 2009 Going to Be Fake Social Media Profiles? Says:

    February 23rd, 2009 at 12:39 am

    [...] couple of months back, a mother created a fake social profile and bullied a girl to suicide. This report has a lot of merit, and this is a real threat that more businesses need to take [...]

  9. Jason T Says:

    February 27th, 2009 at 11:15 am

    It is horrible. There must be a way to control this fake social media profiling. Social networks like facebook must find a way to check abuse of this kind. too bad huh.