Megan Meier Case Prompts Missouri Legislation

A Missouri lawmaker wants to make it a felony for adults to harass children.

This is a reaction to a case we've been following regularly on this blog...a mother, her daughter, and an employee set up a fake MySpace profile which was used to send harassing messages to 13-year-old Megan Meier. Meier committed suicide after receiving the messages.

The neighbor, Lori Drew, was not charged in the case. Neighbors and friends of the Meiers reacted in outrage after prosecutors could find no applicable laws.

It's a tricky thing to try to regulate free speech on the Internet. I note that the Representative proposing the bill initially targeted the Internet, but now is simply trying to strengthen existing harassment laws.