Myspace Lawsuit

Many teenagers today have access to the internet; so it shouldn’t be a surprise that almost all of them have an account on a social networking site such as MySpace.

MySpace is a site where people can go and meet other people, chat, post pictures, and even post blogs. MySpace also has a bad reputation with parents from people who kidnap children, and people who post in blogs about other people. One example is the case of a thirteen year old girl who committed suicide after a failed romance with a boy he met online. After some time police found that the sixteen year old boy from MySpace was actually made-up.

It all started when thirteen year old Megan Meier met Josh Evans, the made-up boy, and started getting friendly. Megan was who had A.D.D, depression, and was overweight as a child needed a boost in self-esteem and she found it with Josh Evans. After a while Josh decided not to be friends with Megan anymore because of some rumors. This later escalated to name calling in blogs.

The person who created Josh Evans has not been charged with anything.” Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law” said Mike Celizic a reporter for msnbc (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21882976/page/2/) It seems to me that the people who created Josh Evans should be charged for writing harmful messages to Megan. The correct term for this would be libel which is “the spreading of damaging statements in written form,” (Essentials of Business Law Liuzzo pg.45).Libel is part of defamation “the harming of a person’s reputation and good name by the communication of a false statement.”(Essentials of Business Law Liuzzo pg.45) Lori Drew was convicted of three misdemeanor charges and could be sent to jail with a fine of $100,000 for each misdemeanor .

Parents should keep an eye on what their kids do on the internet. Whether they’re playing an innocent game online with someone else or if they’re chatting they might be in danger.