Suspect In Cyberbullying Suicide Indicted

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.

[Stacey]

I dont know if any of you go on MySpace or monitor your kids' MySpace pages but OMG it is appalling the things these kids say, even to adults. Thank god Illinois has laws on the books already regarding internet bullying because it is out of control.

[Christine]

Good!!

I tell you, some of these mothers today. From my daughter's softball games to volleyball. THEY ARE WACKED.

I swear they encourage their girls to be @ithces from @ell!

I don't know if it is because they were unpopular or were popular and didn't GROW UP.

It's disturbing to me that many adults act like 13 year olds with the drama, jealousy and bullying.

[KCcritic]

It's disturbing period... I can't believe a parent would stoop to this... After reading stories similliar to these daily, the shock and trauma has worn off.

[daughter76]

This woman is pure evil ! Only a possessed mind could possibly do something like this. She deserves every punishment she gets.

[some people]

idk how in the world this woman is accountable for this young, obviously unstable girl killing herself. if anyone regularly goes online, which 99% of people do, you hear all kinds of mean stuff all the time, people online are assholes, if you are that unstable and don't know how to control your emotions, how is that anyone elses fault? this woman should be freed of allllll charges. im sure this girl had other problems in her life other than myspace....her own parents should have noticed her behavior and perhaps gotten her help???? but no, blame someone else because your child is messed up in the head. give me a break. again, we always blame others. its getting pathetic.

[some people]

and again, u have to be 18 to have a myspace account, if this little 13 y/o whore wasn't lying about her age, this never would have happened. what the f is a 13 year old doing on myspace??? where where HER parents and why are they not being held accountable for their daughter lying about her age????????

[brian]

What a waste of taxpayer money and the courts time. The women is trash, but to be facing prison time. Give me a break! There is no way this women could have forseen the girl hanging herself. Sticks and stones.... Remember that one?

[some people]

exactly, everyone is responsible for their own actions. this girl obviously had mental issues and i doubt someone saying something mean online made her want to die. get a grip. if i hung myself every time someone said something mean to me......damn, i would lose count. this woman should not be charged with anything and should be set free.

[some people]

in fact, i can't wait to get added onto megan's myspace page so i can tell the family that!!!!!

[someone]

some people wrote:

in fact, i can't wait to get added onto megan's myspace page so i can tell the family that!!!!!

i agree with you for the most part but you can't be added to her account, she's dead.

[some people]

her family has some cheesy memorial that is adding people

[some people]

but they will probably sue me also for saying something mean :(

[Rick]

(Somepeople) What your saying makes you no better then the woman in question. Sure the child had problems, and shouldnt have lied about her age to get on myspace, but the woman being an adult had no business at all talking to a child or making statments to her in the way she did. At least the girl only lied about her age, the woman lied about her age, her gender to be able to harrass this child. Tell me where that is right?

[some people]

but if you read the article it wasn't only the mother who was sending messages, in fact it appears from the article that the mother's employee had sent the final messages because she wanted to end the whole thing and get rid of the myspace. another article i read said the mother of megan told the news megan was being treated for depression and was on medication. i agree that they should not have gone to the extent they did and should have just deleted the account without another word but, with how seemingly unstable this girl is, she apparently had self esteem issues also and she probably would have killed herself anyway if they just deleted the account and she never heard from this "boy" again. this woman can't be held accountable for something this girl did to herself.

[Stacey]

some people wrote:

exactly, everyone is responsible for their own actions. this girl obviously had mental issues and i doubt someone saying something mean online made her want to die. get a grip. if i hung myself every time someone said something mean to me......damn, i would lose count. this woman should not be charged with anything and should be set free.

I dont know if they have them out in PA where you are but here in Illinois there are laws on the books to prevent things like this.

If you could see the things 12 year olds are writing, let alone adults, it is appalling.

[Belinda]

I see both sides, however this woman was an adult, and what she was doing was abusive and harrassment.

If it would have been two adults or two children, but it was adult vs. child. That is wrong.

[Dont Agree]

I don't agree with this.... that kid obviously had some emotional problems....kids weren't nice when I was growing up and it sure hasn't improved now. I can see the harassment part but being indicted for someone elses actions? idk thoughts anyone?

[Belinda]

She was an adult, that is the thing, essentially she was abusing a child. Kid on kid is one thing, they have to learn to deal with that. But her being an adult, she knew what she was doing was wrong, and she was doing it to a child, double wrong, almost criminal.

I don't know, I am conflicted.

[Just My Opinion]

yes, it is wrong to harrass anyone, regardless of age, but did this woman know she was a kid? I do not recall that part of the story.

anyway, how is someone online going to know the effect that a simple statement will have on another?( I know, how would you feel if it was written to you?) Seriously, maybe she just thought she was being witty and the recepient took it wrong?

do we know exactly what was written? I can't make my personal call unless I know the content of the emails.(by the way these statements are just meant to make you think, not to give my opinion.)

[Belinda]

Yes, she knew, unless I am thinking about another story. This adult was posing as a child, harrassing an ex friend of her daughters. She knew the girl was 13, she actaully knew the girl in real life.

Also, research the story, you can see a lot of what kinds of things were said.