Cyber Harassment Bill

[L Roebuck]

MySpace Suicide Case Leads To Tougher Laws

After the troubling suicide commited by a Missouri teenager due to an Internet related incident, state lawmakers voted and gave final approval yesterday to a bill which will deal with cyber-harassment.

The bill is expected to cover several aspects of the new wave of technology, identifying as illegal the harassment from computers, text messages and many other electronic devices, besides the well known written and telephone communications.

Full Article

[Azurerana]

The media has made hash of the truth in this case in order to clamp down on the Internet.

1) Drew, and her daughter live only a few doors down from the Meiers. The Meiers are finalizing a divorce (in process at the time of the suicide.) Much of the information they are alleged to have gathered over the Internet could just as easily have come from school and neighborhood interactions.

2) There is evidence that Drew's computer was used to set up the account and send messages; however, there is no evidence who actually sent the messages. Drew, Drew's daughter and a late teen employee of Drew are implicated in the "co-conspirators." The elder Drew was running her own business-- if she's anything like me, the time to engage in non-productiveNet chatter in typical day is minimal.

3) Meier had an eating disorder, was on antidepressants, had attempted suicide before and her mother admits to setting up the MySpace account for her then underage daughter. She was dealing with her parents' divorce, and the pressure inherent in being 13 in middle school in a neighborhood where everyone is supposed to be up and coming cleancut Leave it to Beaverish rah-rah successful and no doubt popularity and peer pressure mean more than actual accomplishment.

In several of the new laws, harasssment is being redefined, not as behavior in real space such as stalking, threatening one's life or such but as anything causing "substantial emotional distress". Heck, disagreeing with someone can cause "substantial emotional distress." Someone can read this post, disagree with me, and become 'distressed' over the matter. Can the thought poliice be far behind?

Using the Internet, others have since posted and widely distributed personal information about the Drews, destroyed Lori Drew's business and reputation, and carried on a hate campaign, which has resulted in every little town (including mine) around here passing feel good and generally uninforceable laws against various kinds of Internet behavior. They are talking now about requiring all Internet users to drop the use of pseudonyms entirely-- a tactic without which the US Founding Fathers probably would have never gotten their tax revolt off the ground.

And all this without a trial or conviction of anyone involved or any laws at the time being broken. Drew and her co-conspirators are now being charged with breaking the My Space TOS... but the prosecutor involved is considering a TOS the equivalent of a law, not a contract. Obviously, MySpace did nothing to stop the behavior when it was occurring, and throw Drew's computer off their site (which they would have been within their rights to do, if they felt they could make a case. But they missed the boat on that one until after the kid died. ) If the Missouri legislature would have only extended the existing laws about personal, written, and telephone harassment to include the Internet, I doubt if anyone would be too upset about the matter. But they, and municipal governments around here are going totally crazy, and trying to legislate subjective morality based on what happened here.

I feel sorry that the kid was so messed up, and that her parents couldn't help her. But why does that give society at large the right to regulate me?