The tragic death of 13-year-old Megan Meier has shaken the online community. The American teenage girl recently committed suicide; reportedly because she was being harassed through her MySpace account.
Megan's mother, Tina Meier, has called for strict action from the cyber law makers world over. She recommends criminalisation of such behaviour; and is getting tremendous support from web users, who are now voicing similar concerns.
There have been quite a few cases of harassment and bullying, especially involving teenagers. (I have even written a post on the same!). Most of the victims of such harassment usually go through tremendous mental stress, mainly because they are impressionable at this age.
Megan's act simply proves she was completely fed up of what was being written about her. And unfortunately, this is something that can happen to any one of us; anywhere. It is quite convenient for bullies to create an account in any of the social networking sites and write whatever they want, about whoever they want.
It is time Internet legislators step forward and come up with laws against stalking, harassment and child endangerment online. Some concrete action in this regard is expected by early next year.
Online reports claim that lawmakers in the US might actually make it a misdemeanour to misrepresent one's identity on the web, especially when you are sending messages to someone. In fact, there are reports that a bill on banning online harassment might be on the cards.
As a regular user of the World Wide Web, I too have the same concern. Youngsters, especially, should not be targeted in such a way that they are incited to do something drastic.
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