Mom: Web Hoax Led Girl to Kill Herself
November 17, 2007 By BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who owns the social networking Web site MySpace, speaks at the company's Global Energy Initiative in this May 9, 2007, file photo. The parents of Megan Meier, a Missouri teen who committed suicide, hope the people who made a fraudulent profile on MySpace will be prosecuted, and they are seeking legal changes to safeguard children on the Internet. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
(AP) -- Megan Meier thought she had made a new friend in cyberspace when a cute teenage boy named Josh contacted her on MySpace and began exchanging messages with her.
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The important point here was that PARENTS were involved, participating in psychologically torturing a child. That, I would think, would fall under some statute of child abuse. In any case, I agree with the mother: it was vile, and there should be a special place in jail and hell for adults who help their children be more effective bullies.
Parents need to accept a bit of blame on this one. They could have easily averted the situation. That said, it is still a tragedy that such perverted people (creators of Josh, I mean) would pull something like this.