MySpace hoax victim’s mother fights for online rules

People who create fake Internet accounts on social networking sites should be prosecuted, regardless of the purpose of the accounts, a woman whose daughter committed suicide after being the victim of an online hoax said Wednesday.

Tina Meier said she doesn’t believe there are innocent reasons for setting up accounts under fictitious personas.

“Making a false account is not OK,” Meier said during an interview with TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira in New York. “You’re still defrauding somebody, whether you’re finding out a cheating boyfriend or girlfriend, whether you’re doing it as a joke to play with somebody. Any of those things, to falsify it, you’re doing it in a way that’s not truthful, and it doesn’t need to be done.”

Meier’s daughter, Megan, was just short of her 14^th birthday when she hanged herself in her closet in October 2006 after being victimized by a hoax on MySpace. A former friend with whom Megan had had a falling-out created an account for a fictitious 16-year-old boy, “Josh Evans,” who supposedly had just moved into their community in St. Charles County near St. Louis. The boy made friends with Megan, a girl who battled ADD and depression and who had entertained thoughts of suicide several years earlier.

When “Josh” suddenly turned on Megan and told her “the world would be better off without you,” she took her own life.

Megan’s parents kept silent for a year while federal, state and local law enforcement authorities investigated whether Lori Drew, the mother of the girl who created the account, could be charged with harassment. When they decided no laws covered the situation, the Meiers went public with their story and vowed to fight for laws to cover what happened to their daughter. Drew, who said her business and her life have been destroyed by the media attention and by hostility in their community, has remained unapologetic.

But the case is apparently not dead. Citing unnamed sources, The Los Angeles Times has reported that federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, where MySpace is headquartered, are investigating whether Drew can be charged with wire fraud for allowing her daughter to create the fake Josh Evans account.

Video   MySpace hoax leads to teen’s suicide Nov. 19: Teenage Megan Meier killed herself after being the victim of a cruel Internet hoax. NBC’s George Lewis reports. Today show

“I think something needs to be done, absolutely,” Meier told Vieira. She said she doesn’t care whether MySpace is considered the victim if a prosecution is pursued. “Megan will always be the victim,” she said. “If MySpace is considered the victim, and any criminal charges can be brought against the Drews, so be it. I will be thrilled. I truly believe in my heart they should be criminally prosecuted.”

In an NBC News report on the story, Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, a former prosecutor, said it would be difficult to pursue such a prosecution, given the number of people who create fictitious identities online. “This is a very wide net,” she said, adding of Drew, “I doubt she’s the only person.”

Meier heard about the L.A. Times story on Tuesday, as she was finally packing up Megan’s belongings in her room, which had remained untouched since her death. She said she recently spoke at the first meeting of a state task force formed in Missouri to look into ways to enact new laws to keep others from being victimized by online hoaxes.

“It needs to be on a state level, not individual municipal misdemeanor laws so it can be a bigger impact, not just a little slap on the hand,” she said of regulatory efforts.

Meanwhile, she continues to see Lori Drew in her neighborhood and community. “I drove through the subdivision yesterday,” she told Vieira. “She was waiting to pick her son up at the middle school.”

Asked if she ever has any communication with Drew, she replied, “No, none. None whatsoever.”

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