The consequences of cyber-bullying among students and even adults resulted in many States developing laws that would help curb the menace and further protect the would be victims from physical or psychological distress and even suicide due to cyber-bullying (Ruedy, 2007). Lori Drew, a mother from Missouri, came to the spotlight of the American community and its justice system as a whole when she contributed to the suicide of her daughter’s former friend Mega Meier. Drew opened a MySpace account as Josh Evans, a teenager and started the correspondence with Meier. The relationship went on to a serious point, but Josh cut it off and told Meier that the world would be a better place without people like her. Meier had developed a significant attachment towards Josh even if their relationship was established and advanced through the internet. Ultimately, Meier sent Josh an email stating that he was the kind of boy a girl would end her life for. True to her word, Meier ended her life fifteen minutes after she sent the email to Josh. Drew was arrested and charged for abuse of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act because the state had not developed any laws to curb cyber-bullying. Her charge was that she misrepresented her identity when creating the MySpace account without authorization with the aim of obtaining information from MySpace information, which resulted in the charge of computer fraud.
She had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as she had engaged in the illegal acquisition of information from MySpace and further used it illegally. By then, the state had not developed any laws to prevent cyber-bullying. However, when considering Drew’s actions to the laws available in place today, she violated the Stalking and Aggravated Stalking laws. These laws include various clauses that mention the use of any form of communication over a given period resulting in the intimidation, frightening or emotional distress of the victim (Smith, 2018). Aggravated Stalking was further present in Drew’s actions as her conduct and harassment towards Meier resulted in the victim committing suicide. She also engaged in harassment where she intentionally intimidated and caused emotional distress on Meier who was below seventeen years making her commit suicide.
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To this day, Missouri and many other States do not have laws directed towards cyber-bullying. Many of these laws address physical bullying but only mention clauses that may or may not cover cyber-bullying. In many instances, such laws provide a loophole for perpetrators of cyber-bullying meaning that they will manage to urge their way out of a cyber-bullying case through the ineffectiveness of the already established laws just like Drew and her defense did. The Meghan Meier Cyber-Bullying Prevention Act which will directly address issues of cyber-bullying remains pending as it awaits the decision by the House Judiciary Committee (Lidsky & Friedel, 2011). With the sharp increase in social media use and increased cases of cyber-bullying through the many social media sites, the act would go a long way in preventing such attacks and their consequences.
Drew broke the privacy and defamation laws present in Missouri by the time she committed her crime (Bosky, 2011). It is so because these laws center on any form of misrepresentation of the victim which did happen in Drew and Meier’s case (Barbas, 2015). However many legal issues came into question and are still questionable to this day. Drew was acquitted of any crime but evidence directly points to the significant role she played in Meier’s suicide. Josh Evans may or may not have been a real person by then but Drew invaded the individual’s privacy to a certain extent. It is because she used false information and misrepresented another individual, which eventually resulted in the death of Meier.
I did not agree with the court ruling. Drew was initially accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act which I believe she did because she obtained information illegally from MySpace and used the information for continued communication and future harm to a different user of the website. It was also necessary that the ruling is based not only on issues of cyber-security but also on the privacy laws present in the state. As is evident, Drew violated the privacy laws by using another individual’s information, real or insinuated to misrepresent herself and thus made Meier believe that the individual was interested in her. She further used the information to cause emotional distress on her victim which eventually resulted in her committing suicide. The laws or clauses that prevent cyber-bullying where absent by then, which prevented Drew from prosecution due to cyber-bullying. However, she would have currently been prosecuted for stalking and aggravated stalking and harassment as represented by the current Missouri Laws that govern these forms of crime. It would have been considered a Class D Felony whose punishment would have included seven years in prison or one year in jail. The court may have also fined her ten thousand dollars or twice the amount for the gain of the victim.
However, Drew remains free to this day remain without any form of punishment since she committed her crime. The unfair ruling centers on the loopholes present not only in the Missouri laws of cyber-security and cyber-bullying but also those of many other States. It is necessary that these states critically review their laws on cyber-bullying and change them where necessary to help prevent such crimes.
References
Barbas, S. (2015). Laws of image: Privacy and publicity in America . Stanford University Press.
Bosky, S. W. (2011). Defamation in the Internet Age: Missouri's Jurisdictional Fight Begins with Baldwin v. Fischer-Smith. . Louis ULJ , 56 , 587.
Lidsky, L. B., & Friedel, D. C. (2011). Legal pitfalls of social media usage. Social media: Usage and impact , 237-254.
Ruedy, M. C. (2007). Repercussions of a myspace teen suicide: Should anti-cyberbullying laws be created. NCJL & Tech. , 9 , 323.
Smith, S. E. (2018). Threading the First Amendment Needle: Anonymous Speech, Online Harassment, and Washington's Cyberstalking Statute. Wash. L. Rev. , 93 , 1563.
