Many people have been weighing the pros and cons about social networking ever since the Megan Meier hoax on MySpace in 2006. MySpace has faced some serious scrutiny as to safety measures that need to be taken in order for this type of thing not to happen. The Megan Meier hoax has affected all sorts of people, from company owners to parents and children all over the world that have used and continue to use social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook. Let’s take a brief look at the effects of the Megan Meier MySpace suicide and how it as impacted users today.
How the Megan Meier suicide has affected the Drew family
Lori Drew is the name of the woman who was accused of killing Megan Meier after she created a false identity on MySpace to allegedly find out what Megan was saying about her daughter. Under the name of Josh Evans, Lori began emailing back and forth with Megan to form a relationship of trust. She then began sending cruel emails to the girl which eventually led to her death. How has this whole ordeal affected the Drew family? Well, it began very innocently; the girls were friends and not and then friends and then not again. Typical teenagers right? Well, things began to turn sour when Megan reportedly started saying things about Lori’s daughter on the Internet and spreading nasty rumors. As a mother she tried to protect her daughter but attempts failed so she created a fake profile in order to keep tabs on Megan. After the horrifying tragedy, the Drew family has suffered backlash from the community and even local law enforcement for the unfortunate turn of events. The media had a field day with the mom who killed a teenage daughter on MySpace and they will probably continue to suffer because of this for the rest of their lives.
How the Megan Meier suicide has affected the Meier family
Tina and Ron Meier were living happily with their daughter Megan when an unfortunate turn of events on MySpace took place. Their daughter committed suicide over a “break up” with a boy. A fake profile had been created under the name of Josh Evans and Megan had formed a friendship with the profile until things turned sour. After the suicide of their daughter, their marriage fell apart and things have never been the same for them since. They place complete blame on Lori Drew and will probably never forgive her for her role in the MySpace hoax. Their family was plastered across the media and community members either sided with their family or the Drew family. They will never have their daughter back and so this unfortunate event has truly changed their lives forever.
How the Megan Meier suicide affected MySpace users
MySpace users became much more aware of their profiles and making sure that they had their security settings in place. Parents perhaps became the most concerned for children using MySpace and other social networking sites and began to take action into their own hands to ensure the safety of their children. Parents became much more aware of who their children were talking with online and teaching them how to set up their profiles so that no unauthorized users could access their profile page. MySpace itself has also taken measures to try and raise the bar on social networking safety.
As you can see, this brief look at the effects of the Megan Meier MySpace suicide has reached far beyond the two families that were in the middle of it. It has reached social networking companies all over the world and forced them to raise the bar, social networking users, and parents with young children that use social networks.