Mom indicted in MySpace suicide - Crime & courts - MSNBC.com


I can't believe this lady was that stupid and I can't believe that when this all came out she didn't show any remorse. How does one live with that on their shoulders without the guilt?

That's what I'm thinkin.

How can we expect future generations to know the difference between right and wrong, when adults NOW can't tell the difference? Over the last 10 years or so, I can't believe how many grown adults are just plain idiots. It's very sad.

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I agree!

JMHO.... In short, I think it's germinated over the generations with the boob-tube! I blame TV with it's severely declining morals. So many households have to rely on 2 incomes now days which leaves no one home to raise the children. And, a lot of households only have one parent. Being a mother is already the toughest job on Earth, and it's 24/7. But when you have to be mother and father??? Also, many people miss the opportunity to talk to their kids when they should. It's not something they do consciously, they're just not aware when the perfect opportunity has just risen to teach their child how to make good decisions. It's not enough just to tell the child, "Don't do that". The child needs to know why they shouldn't do that, so they can learn to judge for themselves when the parent is not around to tell them "Don't do that". And, because so many children are being raised by TV, there's no parent there to teach them about good and bad decisions and consequences. There's so much bad behavior being glorified on TV now days it's disgusting. (Paris Hilton for one.) Yes, I'm sure a lot of it's entertaining. I watch some of it myself. (Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal) But, I'm not an impressionable child, nor an impressionable adult. And, there are no minors in my home. Quite frankly, a lot of what I see on TV sickens and angers me (Jerry Springer, Girls Gone Wild commercials = teaches your daughters that being a slu* will get you on TV), therefore I don't watch much TV anymore. And, it seems like they just keep scraping the bottom of the barrel to see what they can come up with next. And, look what they found, Swingtown. I wonder what kind of values this show teaches?

I'm not trying to step on any toes here, JMHO.

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~~~MsMiser

One word - GOOD! What a hateful Wench!

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Mary

I'm glad, she deserves whatever she gets x 10. This is awful. I think it is time that people are held accountable for computer generated crimes. You can't hide behind the computer forever. I am so happy for the little girls' parents. Finally someone is listening to them. This whole deal just steams me.

This is a really bizarre case, so if I'm getting confused here, please be kind. It sounds like an adult woman used high school-style tactics to harass/manipulate her daughter's former friend, which is creepy, but when it's all written/verbal, and no threats are being made, it's a civil matter, not a criminal one. Ditto for breaking MySpace's terms of service. The charges they chose reflect this. It is possible to commit crimes online, but they typically have to involve monetary fraud, indecent materials, or piracy. Other things are problems, but there isn't much case law on them, and even constitutionally, your right to be an a****** is protected. The only thing that surprises me is that it sounds like she's not being charged for making sexual comments (sources from other articles for that one).

What was done was definitely cruel, but by definition, you can't make someone else commit suicide. I'm not sure that it's any more the charged woman's fault than it is the fault of the mother who didn't take more action on her daughter's depression. If kids are spending too much time online, or showing signs of mental illness, parents do need to act.

I agree foryoubabyblue. I haven't read much on the subject, but my first thought is..

Where was the mom or dad of this girl, and why didn't they notice her online activity, or what was being said about her?

Did they not monitor her myspace quickly enough to intervene? I just can't see how this severe of a problem could go unnoticed.

I agree there's plenty of blame to go around for all the adults involved. However I do see the criminal aspect here. The mom used her computer to harass a child and even if she doesn't go to jail, I hope she spends all herself into debt defending herself against these charges.

Totally agree!!!

I think that a lot of people should take a lesson here when it comes to internet harassment. Just because you can't see the person, are not face to face, and you feel that you are totally hidden, does not make your words that less painful to someone else. Especially if someone doesn't have a thick skin, and is very sensitive to others verbal bashing or abuse. You just never know how someone else is going to react to what you say, whether on the internet or in real life.

The thing is, and I know it's way more complex than this, trash talk isn't a crime. The First Amendment protects free speech, and making laws to try to restrict what can be said online, no matter how good the intent, is dangerous if it infringes on that. Laws don't exist to protect people's feelings; that's a matter of personal responsibility. By the same principles we'd like to charge this woman with, a lot of the flame wars and arguments here would be criminal.

Horrible story. Poor girl. Sick mom.

And - I also thought..now, instead of a weirdo mother of a teenage girl what if the person communicating with the teenage victim had been a 50 year old MAN? I bet he would have been arrested for soliciting or enticing or whatever charges are normally used in those internet stings, where grown men try to talk to young girls. A grown man on the internet contacting a 13 year old or 14 year old and pretending to be a 15 year old boy...I bet he would have been arrested a LONG time ago.

Yep, the world is a mess.
I'm sooooo glad that woman is being charged!!!!

foryoubabyblue, from a technical standpoint, I see what you are saying. I do wonder, though, if there is not some crime she's guilty of in this. The girl was a minor, and the woman had full awareness of this. She mis-represented who she was and apparently had a faux online relationship going on with this girl. Her intent was not sexual, but it was malicious. She mis-represented who she was for the purposes of aggrivating a minor child, and if I understood the report I read correctly, she did form an online relationship with the girl.

She was a predator. Her goal was different than that which we typically associate with the word 'predator', but nonetheless, she played on the niavate' (?) of a minor in order to achieve a tangible outcome, knowing that the process would be detrimental to the minor involved. That's got to be worth some sort of a charge, one would think.

As was stated above, if she had been a 50 year old man doing those exact same things to that girl, she'd be in jail.

Yes the parents allow Megan to set up the myspace account under their supervision...It looks like things turned ugly quickly..Here is the video of the parents YouTube - Megan Meier Story

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I just read this morning that the person who opened the account and also wrote the note saying the girl should kill herself was actually a 19 year old employee of the witch that's being indicted. She SAYS she couldn't stand helping do this anymore and so wrote the note hoping to make Megan mad so she'd stop writing "Josh".

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus