[*miranda*]

Most parents with a teenager in the house would be aware of the allure of social networking sites such as MySpace, especially for girls. Responsible parents try to monitor their children's digital activities in order to protect them from potential predators or inappropriate influences.

But in the case of American mother Lori Drew, responsible parenting mutated into such obsessive involvement in online teenage life that it set off a train of tragic events culminating in the suicide of her daughter's former best friend.

Megan Meier was 13 when she hanged herself in her bedroom closet last year. Her parents, Tina and Ron Meier, say she had been driven to despair that afternoon by cruel comments posted on her MySpace website by "Josh Evans", a 16-year-old boy she believed was her boyfriend, although she had never met him in person.

For weeks he had been showering her with compliments on MySpace but, that day, he turned nasty, writing: "I don't want to be friends with you anymore." Others in Megan's MySpace group then taunted her about her weight and called her a "whore". Mrs Meier says Josh's final barb was: "The world would be a better off place without you."

But, as the Meiers discovered six weeks after their daughter's death, "Josh Evans" did not exist.

He was the creation of Lori Drew, the mother of a 13-year-old girl down the street in their small Missouri town.

The New York Times says Drew, 48, had enlisted an 18-year-old employee to help create the "Josh Evans" identity in order to spy on Megan and learn what she was saying about Drew's daughter, Sarah, after the girls' friendship turned sour.

After a police investigation, Missouri authorities last week announced they had no grounds to charge Drew, and her lawyer denied she made the comments that so distressed Megan.

At the same time, a post titled "Megan Had it Coming", which purports to be written by Lori Drew appeared on a blogsite, and attempts to justify her actions, describing Megan as a bully, blaming her parents and the "MySpace crowd" for her suicide. Drew's lawyer denies she is the author.

But the community has drawn its own conclusion, shunning the Drews and holding candlelight vigils for Megan outside their house. Tina Meier blames Drew for Megan's death, telling reporters: "She might as well have held a gun to her head."

We are never likely to learn the extent of Drew's culpability, but her admission to police that she was involved in creating the "Josh Evans" persona indicates at least a twisted frame of mind.

It may be the toxic extreme of what Melbourne adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg says is a new phenomenon in middle-class parenting - overinvolvement in children's lives.

His book Real Wired Child encourages parents to monitor their children's online communications. "But assuming a virtual identity in order to spy on your kid's friends is taking it too far."

What's more, he says, parental overinvolvement prevents children from experiencing failure - and learning from it.

The Megan Meier story can also be seen as the evolution of the "mean girls" phenomenon, identified in the 2002 bestseller Queen Bees And Wannabes about the b**chy world of schoolgirl hierarchies. It's what happens when mean girls grow up and try to relive their adolescence through their daughters, as described in Rosalind Wiseman's sequel, Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads, which explores parental competitiveness.

While compelling, the book is the latest in an unhelpful genre giving modern parents a bad name.

The truth is that most parents just try to do their best. Criticism does not take into account the increasing necessity for micro-management of children's lives in a more complex world.

In fact, today's busy parents deserve a pat on the back for their efforts to be engaged and interested in their children's lives.

But the sad tale of Megan Meier does serve to guard against the little bit of Lori Drew which lurks in the heart of every parent.


Source: The Sun-Herald

http://www.smh.com.au/news/miranda-devine/...673.html?page=2



This post has been edited by night-night-chazzy: 11/12/2007, 06:40 AM

[wilding]

I remember when i read about this back in November, i cried for the girl and her family, and felt at those that created the account.

This post has been edited by wilding: 09/12/2007, 08:03 PM

[**Kaz**]

OMG

[EthanEmmaLola]

What kind of person would do something like that! That poor girl

[Sally ®]

I read about this in WHO magazine. It's a bloody disgrace that the mother could stoop to such a level.

[Lillium]

You would expect the extraordinarily juvenile behaviour, exhibited by the mum who caused Megan to take her life, by a child of the samge age as Megan.

Its frightening that adults will gang up and bully a child so young. What sort of an awful example is this woman setting for her own child?

[riwybo]

The first time I heard of it was on the news last month was it?

I can not understand what the hell was going through that womens head when she was saying such horrid things to a young girl. Just goes to show, that some people never grow up. that women is a pathetic B**** & i hope she suffers for the rest of her life thinking about the death & pain she has caused a young girl & her family.

[Sally ®]

There has been a development in this story:


MySpace mum could be charged

By Andrew Ramadge

January 11, 2008 10:22am
Article from: NEWS.com.au

THE woman linked to the suicide of a 13-year-old girl who was tormented through MySpace could be charged with fraud after the case sparked worldwide outrage.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has subpoenaed the MySpace records of Lori Drew, the Missouri woman who created a false account on the social networking website to communicate with her daughter's friend, sources told The Los Angeles Times.

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles were considering charging Ms Drew with cyber fraud in the absence of more a relevant offence, the unnamed sources said.

While the events unfolded five states to the east in Missouri, MySpace is based in California - potentially giving the US attorney's office of Los Angeles jurisdiction.

Grand juries are used in the US to judge whether or not an alleged "capital or infamous" crime should go to trial.

Grand jurors are presented with evidence by a prosecutor before deciding whether to issue an indictment. They can also call their own witnesses and subpoena evidence.

If Ms Drew is charged with defrauding MySpace by creating a fake profile, the case could have serious implications for internet privacy.

"The right to speak freely online is hugely important. Whistle-blowers create pseudonyms," an attorney for legal advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation told the Times.

"So do many people who anonymously report on corporate or government bad practices."

Missouri teen Megan Meier hanged herself two years ago after allegedly receiving abusive messages from a MySpace user she thought was a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans.

It was later revealed Josh Evans did not exist and the profile had been created by the mother of one of Megan's former friends - Ms Drew - who lived in the same street.

After Megan's death, Ms Drew told police she had created the fake profile with the help of an employee with the aim of "gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter".

It is not clear who sent the allegedly abusive messages from the fake profile.

Ms Drew has so far avoided charges because prosecutors were unable to find a law under which to prosecute her.

Ms Drew's attorney Jim Briscoe said he was unaware of a grand jury's involvement in the case and the US attorney in Los Angeles, Thomas P O'Brien, declined to comment, the paper reported.

After the story of Megan Meier's suicide was published in The St Charles Journal last year, vigilante bloggers revealed Ms Drew's name and published her home address, phone numbers and photos online.

One blog published Ms Drew's name and address under a picture of a man holding an axe with the caption "win a date with Patrick Bateman".

Patrick Bateman is the fictional serial killer and central character of the controversial book American Psycho.

The author of the blog added the following comment: "Many news outlets declined to publish the parents' name, out of consideration for their teenage daughter. I can bullsh**, as do many other outraged news-readers. Other blogs and comments on news threads have outed these parents, as have I."

The case sparked outrage around the world and renewed debate on cyber-bullying and the lack of legislation covering online communication.

In December Missouri Governor Matt Blunt set up a committee to review state laws on online harassment.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23036875-23109,00.html

I hope she DOES get charged.

[Mclovin]

people like that shouldnt have kids

[wilding]

Lori Drew Not Guilty of Felonies in Landmark Cyberbullying Trial
By Kim Zetter November 26, 2008 | 2:26:00 PM
Categories: Lori Drew Trial

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/l...drew-pla-5.html

LOS ANGELES — Lori Drew, the 49-year-old woman charged in the first federal cyberbullying case, was cleared of felony computer-hacking charges by a jury Wednesday morning, but convicted of three misdemeanors. The jury deadlocked on a remaining felony charge of conspiracy.

After just over a day of deliberation, the six-man, six-woman jury acquitted Drew of three felony charges of violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, in an emotionally charged case that stemmed from a 2006 MySpace hoax targeting a 13-year-old girl, who later committed suicide.

Tina Meier, the mother of the girl, shook her head silently from the gallery as the verdict was read.

Prosecutors claimed Drew and others obtained unauthorized access to MySpace by creating a fake profile for a nonexistent 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans." The account was used to flirt with, and then reject, 13-year-old old Megan Meier. The case hinged on the government's novel argument that violating MySpace's terms of service for the purpose of harming another was the legal equivalent of computer hacking, and Drew faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each charge.

But on Wednesday, jurors found Drew guilty only of three counts of gaining unauthorized access to MySpace for the purpose of obtaining information on Megan Meier — misdemeanors that potentially carry up to a year in prison, but most likely will result in no time in custody. The jury unanimously rejected the three felony computer hacking charges that alleged the unauthorized access was part of a scheme to intentionally inflict emotional distress on Megan.

This post has been edited by wilding: 27/11/2008, 12:36 PM