Cyber Bullying: Is it just cruel or a cruel crime?

Bullying alone is hard to deal with and very hurtful, I can speak from experience, then again they are not many people who can say they have never been bullied at one time or another in their life. When you mix today’s most widely used communication tool, the internet, and cruel hearted people you get an ugly and vicious outcome called cyber bullying. Now that I am older it’s easy to ignore hurtful words or ignorant comments that people make on a daily basis, but it may not be so easy for a young teen trying to find their place in this messed up world. Cyber bullying is a gateway for all the spineless cowards to come out and prey on people who they feel have a lower self esteem then they themselves have (opinion of course).
Thirteen year old Megan Meier started an account on a popular social site and not long after joining the site she received a friend request from a boy who said his name was Josh Evans. This boy and Megan responded back and forth for a short period of time but within that time Megan had grown very much attached to this boy according to her mother. This seemingly instant “love” was not by false ideas on Megan’s behalf, because this boy sent messages that went on and on about how beautiful she was and even once told her he loved her. Megan Meier’s mother said that she always had an issue with her self esteem and when Josh came into the picture she absorbed every bit of his lavish comments.
October 15, 2006 Josh took an ugly turn and began to bash Megan with crude words and was far from the boy that showered her in compliments. The last words that Megan read were “The world would be a better place without you.” A mother should never have to see what Megan’s mother saw when she opened her daughter’s closet, for her little girl had hung herself. Megan's story is a tradegy and you would think it ended with her death, but the story did not end at Megan’s preventable death. It continued with a woman that lived just down the street from the Meier’s family, and her name was named Lori Drew. Drew’s daughter and Megan were former friends but because of a fall out no longer hung out. This causes an uproar within Lori Drew and she decides to handle the issue herself, by making a fake account on the same social network that Megan used and can you guess the fake name she choose? Yes, Josh Evans was in fact a 50 year old woman that lived only houses away.
(Megan Meier)

The result of this woman’s cruel and unforgiveable words was ultimately the death of a young and beautiful girl, and this statement being completely y opinion. I believe that if a person is weak psychologically then it is very possible for someone else to push them to the “edge” by attacking them with words which in turn makes those attacked individuals turn inside themselves and begin to question themselves. Let there be no mistake about it that anyone who has been attacked whether through cyber bullying or just bullied in general those people are victims and are victimized every time a mean and undeserving word is thrown there way.
I am positive that Megan was a wonderful young lady, but sadly her story is not unique by any means these cases unfortunately happens more often than most of us would like to come to terms with, and the truth is that none of us know how many victims cyber bullying takes in a given day. Meier’s story is my evidence to the argument that cyber bullying will cause and continues to cause extreme social isolation, mental issues, and in the worse of situations suicides. The reason for Lori Drew not being prosecuted to the fullest is the laws surrounding cyber bullying were not adequately prepared for the severity of some cyber bullying cases.
Lori Drew supporters would say she had nothing to do with Megan’s suicide and the court in the end essentially fed that theory by acquitting Drew in 2009. Even through this is a move in the right direction came from the state of Missouri when people became more passionate about changing the laws that were structured around cyber bullying. The governor, Matt Blunt, created Internet Harassment Task Force whose mission was to study and create laws in reference to cyber bullying. Along with this they also made an improvement in their laws by shifting cyber bullying from a misdemeanor to a Class D felony.
In other words it should not take a human life to begin to open the eyes of people that cyber bullying should be considered a harsh crime and should in my belief have a just as harsh punishment. Cyber bullying is serious and the effects that in can have on a young girl or boy is can be life changing, for those kids will grow up with a distorted image of how the world will perceive them and they could possibly become non-functioning members of our society. I would categorize Americans as selfish, because if it is not happening to us we don’t really give it a second glance. So I will revert to the oldest trick in the book, what if it was you who was told day in and day out “your worthless” “you’re fat and ugly” “why are you here? No one cares if you are alive!” Most of the people our age would perhaps just blow it off, but what if it was your little brother, sister, daughter, or son who was being tormented every time they logged into that really popular site? What would you want done about it? Even when or if the bullying ends, how bad are your little brother/sister’s scars? How deep are your son/daughter’s wounds? If more people care then the more action will be put into place therefore forcing stricter laws that will eventually prevent and in hopes one day stop cyber bullying.