This increasingly well-known 'MySpace hoax' refers to the tragic case of Megan Meier - a teenager who took her own life in 2006 following persistent incidents of cyberbullying on a MySpace page. After Megan's death several memorial sites were created, including the Megan Meier Foundation site - which aims to 'bring awareness, education and promote positive changes to children, parents and educators to ongoing bullying and cyber-bullying in our children's daily environment.
Details of this case have been examined on television and in the print media in the past few years, but every parent should take the time out to read this harrowing story in full on the Foundation site. Megan was a teenager of a very vulnerable age. She had challenges with her weight and struggled with depression. Like many other young people - she was caught up with the 'magic' of social media and used it to establish friendships and to keep in touch with the people she knew. Her parents monitored her internet use and were aware of some of the dangers of the internet - people pretending to be someone they are not. But even this knowledge and vigilance could not protect Megan.
Megan struck up what she thought was a fun and flirty friendship with a teenager, who called himself Josh. Soon after receiving a bullying internet message which read: " You are a bad person and everybody hates you...the world would be better off without you" Megan disappeared upstairs to her room whilst her parents made dinner. Megan had witnessed hundreds of children 'joining in ' with the on-line bullying with hateful messages. This troubled and vulnerable teenager then hanged herself.
It was only after Megan's death that the true facts behind the deception emerged. 'Josh' was not a teenager, but a fictional character created and managed by an adult woman - the mother of someone who lived close by. The hoax had started as a cruel joke. The people who perpetrated the deception were said to bear a grudge against Megan and her family. The false internet personality served to make Megan look foolish and to bully and intimidate her.
The question 'Can Cyberbullying be controlled?' is too complex to answer completely in a single article. However, some of the important issues which emerged from this case include:
- The difficulties of securing a prosecution in this context. One of the female perpetrators of the bullying was eventually tracked down and prosecuted using laws against internet fraud and 'conspiracy to inflict emotional distress'. These laws are usually employed to deal with computer hacking and this fact partly explains the delay in reaching a verdict. What happened clearly violated site terms and conditions but whether this should be regarded as a criminal offence is unclear. The internet is of course, a global entity and there are unanswered questions about how laws like this might be implemented and adapted in other countries and continents. The case is being prosecuted in Los Angeles - where Myspace servers are based.
Attempts have been made to create a 'Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act' which aims to amend the federal criminal code 'to impose criminal penalties on anyone who transmits in interstate or foreign commerce a communication intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior.
- There is also a need for ongoing education, awareness and parental support. It is estimated that a million teenagers take their own lives every year. Parents need to stay informed, continue talking to their children and engaging with them on the issue of cyberbullying, how it comes about and what solutions might be relevant and useful for families, schools and colleges.