How People can Abuse by Technology

This is the story from www.dailymail.co.uk:

Megan Meier was, in many ways, a typical teenager. She had weight and self-esteem issues, occasionally fell out with her peers, and was preoccupied with boys.The 13-year-old also liked 'social networking' websites such as MySpace. It was an innocent pursuit which was to end up costing her life. While feeling low one day last year, she logged on to MySpace and was thrilled to be chatted up online by a good-looking, 16-year-old boy called Josh Evans. Over the next few weeks, they gossiped, flirted and exchanged compliments, with Megan's parents detecting a welcome lift in her spirits. Then, out of the blue, Josh wrote: 'I don't know if I want to be friends with you any more because I've heard that you are not very nice to your friends.'A devastated Megan then learned that Josh had forwarded all the secrets and confessions she had confided in him to her circle of friends. The coup de grace was delivered in this vicious final posting: 'Everybody knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a sh***y rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you.'

Extraordinary twist

Well, the world is without her now, because after reading these words Megan hanged herself. Her parents - who regularly monitored her internet use - found her hanging 20 minutes after the message was sent. She died in hospital the next day. The story is unutterably tragic. And yet today cyber-bullying such as this is commonplace. With practically every child having access to a computer and a mobile phone, the problem is reaching epidemic proportions.Indeed, Megan's case would barely have merited further comment except for an extraordinary twist in the tale. Six weeks after her death, Megan's parents discovered that 'Josh' did not exist. He was, in fact, a fictional character allegedly invented by Lori Drew, mother of a girl Megan had fallen out with. Mrs Drew, it appeared, invented Josh to monitor what Megan said about her daughter. The messages which drove Megan to suicide were said to have been sent by Mrs Drew, her daughter and a 'friend'. In a landmark case which started this week, Mrs Drew was charged on four counts: one of conspiracy and three of gaining access to protected computers, without authorisation, to acquire information used to inflict emotional distress. She pleaded not guilty, but if convicted faces a maximum 20-year sentence. The case has served to highlight the fact that the internet has practically no regulation.