Sunday, April 25, 2010

Cyber Bullied To Death: Megan Meier

http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/




Torrington Middle School Teacher and students invited Ms. Tina Meier to speak to their school about cyber-bullying. Ms. Meier is the mother of Megan Meier (a seventh grader) who committed suicide in 2006 after being cyber-bullied by a group of people who posed as a 16 year old boy on the social networking site, MySpace.  The virtual boy feigned interest in her for five weeks and then ended the virtual relationship, and then harassed her. In a few days of cyber harassment, she hung herself in her closet. This was one of the first publicized cases of cyber-bullying.  This also raises the issue of how strongly influencial social networking sites can be on children before they come of a mature enough age.

Tip: Parents can monitor these sites, but not the instant messaging features on those sites. 

No comments: