In the first case, a federal jury convicted Lori Drew, age 49, of three misdemeanor charges of computer fraud.
Ms. Drew, and her then 13-year-old daughter, Sarah, and a friend the same age worked together to create a false persona of a teenaged boy named Josh Evans on MySpace. "Josh" got into a romantic relationship with Megan Meir, Sarah's "enemy." When "Josh" emailed Megan "the world would be a better place without you," Megan committed suicide.
Experts point to the fact that some teenagers put too much weight on Internet relationships with people they have never met in person. Others point out that Megan is not the first child to commit suicide because of "cyberbullying" - and the fact that her harasser could only be convicted of a misdemeanor indicates inadequacy in current laws regulating the Internet.
In the second case, a 19-year-old college student committed suicide in front of an Internet audience. Abraham Biggs of Pembroke Pines, Florida, took a lethal dose of drugs while a webcam broadcast his actions. Some in the audience may have egged him on.
Dr. Jeffrey Cole of the University of Southern California compared the Internet audience to the crowd outside the building with the suicidal person on the ledge.
"Sometimes there is someone who gets involved and tries to talk him down," he said. "Often the crowd chants, 'jump, jump.' They can enable suicide or help prevent it."
Dr. Jon Shaw, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine believes Biggs would not have committed suicide without the audience.
"His doing it for the group [involved] a very complicated process we don't really understand," Shaw said. "Would he have carried it out without the audience? Probably not."
Posted By: Aspen Education Group