I'm John Hendron and this is my professional website. I write here about education and technology. I work by day as an instructional technologist for a K-12 school division in Virginia.
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Last year, I shared information concerning a trial that made national news concerning MySpace, a parent, and a girl who unfortunately committed suicide. The trial is now in the news, and may be of interest.
This story should remind us all of the importance of Internet safety.
November 21st, 2008 at 6:10 pm
This story should also remind we need to be responsible in our internet usage. Remembering that our choices and interactions on the web have direct and lasting consequences for others and ourselves is of the utmost importance.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
It’s such a bizarre case, legally. There’s sort of a gap in the laws to where they can’t really stick anything to Lori. She was just being a jerk, and 99.999% of the time, people don’t kill themselves when a jerk says something mean…so there aren’t any laws that say “you can’t say mean things because someone might commit suicide if you do.”
The feds are going after her, essentially, for breaking MySpace’s terms of service. If Lori is found guilty, she might go to jail for breaking a civil contract. And the legal experts are right, this would have a pretty bad chilling effect. If you’ve ever downloaded a video from YouTube so you could use it without going through the YouTube site, you have committed the exact same crime that Lori Drew is about to be tried for.
Don’t get me wrong, Lori Drew was a real jerk. Like, top five jerks of all time, maybe. She undoubtedly contributed to the suicide, but it’s pretty much impossible to prove that she could have had any idea Megan would actually kill herself.
Look at it like this: If a student has below-average teachers all through school and doesn’t graduate, does it make sense to fire the bad teacher he had senior year? That teacher was bad, yes, and they were sort of the last chance, but there were too many contributing factors to blame that one teacher for the student’s failure to graduate.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Dave,
Thanks for breaking it down in easy-to-understand terms. I think this case is interesting because of its bizarreness, but I am also hoping that folks see the whole picture when it comes to online safety, online behavior, and impersonating others.
This death, and the actions of this “top 5 jerks of all jerks” (as you suggest) is something I often think of, and use in examples when talking to students and our teachers.
Looking back, all three parties (two families, and the victim) had roles in this scenario that they might have changed course with, if they had had the foresight. And there are lessons for parents with kids using the ‘net, kids themselves, and those who act with hate or malice in their hearts.