In response to the suicide death of 13-year-old Meghan Meier, state lawmakers in Missouri have given final approval to a bill making cyber bullying illegal. Meier is at the center of a pending case that transpired when the mother of one of her friends wanted to know if Meghan was saying negative things about her daughter and allegedly created a false profile on MySpace in the name of a non-existent 16-year-old boy. Eventually this fictitious boy, “Josh Evans,” ended his online relationship with Meghan, which is believed to have been the catalyst that led to the young girl taking her life.

The bill, which was recently signed by the Governor, updates existing state laws against harassment to be more relevant with current technological developments. Specifically, the new bill removes the requirement that the communication considered to be harassment be written or over the telephone. Supporters of the move say the updated bill will now cover harassment from electronic devices like computers and text messages.

Many of the provisions contained in the bill arose from a special gubernatorial task force that studied Internet harassment after the details of Megan Meier’s suicide were made public.

The mother who allegedly created the profile, Lori Drew, has been indicted in California on federal counts of conspiracy and accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the teen. As we reported earlier, an attorney for Drew is preparing a legal challenge to the prosecution’s claims.

Police in Missouri did not initially file any charges against Drew largely because there was no applicable state law to prosecute her actions under. While the outcome of the current case is uncertain, Sen. Scott Rupp has stated that the proposed amendments would have allowed prosecutors to continue investigating without having to ship the case to a different state.

“Without a good, quality cyber stalking and harassment law, which we don’t currently have, we have to go to federal courts in other states to make a stretching leap argument,” said Rupp, R-Wentzville.

Other senators have seen the proverbial handwriting on the wall, and our coming out with their own interpretations. State Sen. Harry Kennedy, D-St. Louis, said the law is “definitely a warning shot for those folks who want to use the Internet for harassment.”

This is another example of how 20th century case law is unfit to deal with the realities of the digital age. Anti Bullying advocates, parents and concerned netizens, while saddened at this event, can be pleased with the outcome and new state law.

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