I found an article off of ethanl's blog called "Town may criminalize online harassment" by Greg Toppo about a young girl named Megan Meier who died over an online "boyfriend".
Megan Meier was said to have been friends with one girl and their friendship seemed to have faded off. However, Megan, age 14 found a great 16 year old guy named Josh Evans on myspace. They became pretty close after awhile, but then something went wrong. He began to call her names and harass her and other people even joined in on the harassment! They were calling her names and saying how she wasn't a good friend. (This was related to her recent problems with her friend). Megan became so depressed over this "boyfriend" and decided to commit suicide! It turns out that the parents later found out that Josh Evans never existed. It was the mother of Megan's old friend and the mother wanted to find out what Megan was saying about her.
So what do you think, is this suicide the mothers fault for harassing her, or do you think it was totally un-necessary? Personally, I think it was ridiculous for her to commit suicide over a boy. No boy is that important when you are a teen to want to be with him all the time or do everything he wants you to do for him. My parents constantly remind me of how their will be many times where guys will pressure girls into doing certain things and a lot of girls are o effected by them. Just like Megan. Though you could also argue that the mother should not have done something so mean. There are so many problems with harassment online. I'm not sure this will or can be stopped. All I can say is to be careful to who you are talking to.
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