Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace

"Josh" targeted Megan, a thirteen-year-old girl, making her think that he was a true friend - and boyfriend. On a MySpace account, it's not hard to be anyone you want to be.

In the real world, Megan was thirteen, overweight (but working on that), had ADD, and had problems with depression.

Then, "Josh Evans" told Megan Meier "I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I’ve heard that you are not very nice to your friends." Things went downhill from there.

Finally, Megan killed herself.

"Josh" doesn't exist. He's a MySpace account created by the parents of a girl Megan knew. These alleged grown-ups decided to teach Megan a lesson, because their daughter and Megan weren't friends any more.

So, they created "Josh," and used him to torment Megan until Megan killed herself.

I'm skipping the usual "alleged" stuff here, because the police told Megan's parents that there would be no charges in the case, since no law was broken.

Sweet.

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Assuming that hounding a teenage girl until she kills herself is legal, as long as you do it online, we've got a serious problem.

I'm concerned about at least two of the possible futures we're looking at:

• Laws don't change, official attitudes remain stuck in the world that was -
  With individuals and families left to protect themselves online
• Lawmakers have one of those paroxysms of legislative passion, and create a techno-illiterate, draconian, zero-tolerance/zero-sense piece of legislation that will keep courts and lawyers employed for decades.

Until that distant day comes, when people in leadership positions have a clue about email, the Web, and other information technology(1), we're on our own.

I think that includes letting our kids know that people they meet online may not be as-advertised.

More, on:

• Blogger News Network
• Wentzville Journal
• St. Charles Journal

Don't be surprised if you don't make a connection: Their servers seem busy this morning.

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(1) People get into high-level executive positions, in business and government, in their fifties (forties, for over-achievers). So, my guess is that it will be thirty or forty years before we have leaders who understand the Internet as well as today's leaders understand the telephone.

Posts, including this one, about the online predation of Megan Meier:
"Megan Meier's Tormentor: Knowledge is Power"
(December 6, 2007)
"Megan Meier's Online Predator Has New Problems"
(December 6, 2007)
" 'Murder?' Not Legally, but Megan's Still Dead"
(December 4, 2007)
"Ersatz Boyfriend Kills With MySpace"
(November 13, 2007)