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" I also am not sure if telling someone to kill themselves makes you 100% responsible for their suicide, but in this case I'm inclined to agree with the ruling because what this woman did was so low. For a grown woman to spend enough time and energy to create a myspace to harrass a child is just pathetic. I feel so sad for this girl and her family. "

" Excellent analysis MRK! I have suffered from clinical depression for many years, and it is frightening how many people simply brush it off. "

" TO: JELLOSHOT

"Those Who Would Sacrifice Liberty for Security Deserve Neither." Benjamin Franklin

"Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty." Ronald Reagan

"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."- Ronald Reagan

"Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan "

" Mixdown, I read about this unfortunate girl in Time or Newsweek, and Megan's parents did oversee her internet use. In fact, they controlled the password to her Myspace account and were strict about how often and how long she could be on Myspace. She asked for permission to login, and her parents were aware of her exchanges with a young man and thought it might be a turning point for her after her depression troubles. You can read about it all yourself, too.

While I agree with your point that the state shouldn't legislate someone's insults to make them liable for the recipient's actions, your comments about her parents providing a "stable, loving environment would have prevented this" dismisses her serious mental illness. Depression is real, and it is an illness. The girl was sick. The parents were not negligent, they tried to get her the help she needed, but this poor girl wasn't in a rational state of mind...she was ill. "

" To" workingtheopinionboard".. Why should myspace be monitored better? Is'nt it our job as parents to monitor our kids and know what their up too? If parents would really monitor their own kids and not just let them do what they want or EXSPECT someone else to monitor them we might not have all the gang problems and shootings,stabbings,kids having kids,etc....Do your job as a parent and monitor your own kids!!!!!!! "

" mixdown,
I think you hit it on the head, parents need to be more involved in their kids lives. I doubt that charges against the Drews will stick, but perhaps they will learn something from a few thousand dollars in legal fees. What they did was mean and inexcuseable. "

" MySpace is a trend I'm glad I missed. It provides yet another haven of anonymity for online predators while simultaneously granting them intimate access to the lives (pictures, locations, tastes, etc.) of numerous vulnerable teens. That's not to say MySpace is to blame; parents need to better monitor their children's internet usage. When I was a pre-teen and early teen, for example, I was allowed to do most anything I wanted on the family computer, with the exception of participating in chat rooms and obviously looking up smut. I didn't always like it and complained on many occasions, but I followed the rules.

Keep your children's computer out in the family room, making it easy to monitor the content and time spent online. Furthermore, dozens upon dozens of parental control programs are available to help those less computer-proficient than their children. If you're worried about them accessing certain types of sites behind your back, simply lock them out. Tell kids no and the reason for that decision, and they'll eventually come to understand. "

" While the suicide of any 13-year-old is gut-wrenchingly tragic, I cannot fathom how one can be legally responsible for the suicide of another, unless the person criminally accused made the suicide possible when it might otherwise not be possible [if - for example - he or she furnishes poison to a despondent person who otherwise did not have access to any]. "

" PART 2: And one final thought: We should wonder about the role Megan's parents had (or didn't have) in her life, that she was insecure enough to commit suicide over such petty statements.Life hurst sometimes, but it's no reason to kill yourself. I really believe a stable, loving home environment would have prevented this. Parents, don't blame MySpace, but rather be a part of it, and join in it with your teens! Show a little interest in what they're into, and your entire family will be that much better. "

" How far will this go? Do you all want the government reading everything we put on the internet whether it be on places like Myspace or in personal Emails

If it stops one child from being hurt....I 'd take the hit. "

" PART 1: "Sticks and stones" can not - and should not - be legislated. The line "the world would be a better place without you" is someone's opinion, and as such is free speech. Words are not a criminal act. Not everything wrong is illegal. How many teens have commited suicide because they couldn't handle verbally spoken comments from their classmates? How many teens scream ugly things at their parents, and vice-versa? Can we now arrest anyone who says something potentially hurtful to someone else? We might as well put every one of ourselves under house arrest right now; the jails could never hold all of us. MySpace is nothing but a cyber-reflection of culture itself. Don't hate MySpace just because you're afraid of it or don't understand it. "

" This is just another clear example of the police state getting involved in every possible area of our lives they can.
I got my first computer back in the early ninties. The first thing I discovered when I started communicating with people in chat rooms and forums was people lie!
It's not the governments or myspace's responsibility to control relationships between other people whether they be real or imagianary.
How far will this go? Do you all want the government reading everything we put on the internet whether it be on places like Myspace or in personal Emails?
Do you want to go to jail because you've written what someone may preceive to be a hatefully letter or comment about someone?
Everyone has suffered enough in this case. Local authorities tried to come up with a charge that would stick but couldn't. Everyone should let it die and the do good authorities in California should keep their noses out of it. "

" Harrassment happens in school. It's wrong, it's mean, but I bet it has happened in one form or another to everyone. It's almost a rite of passage into the adult world. The difference in this case is not that it was on the internet but that an ADULT was an active participant in the harrassment. That's just plain deplorable. "

" It is not myspaces responsibility to police the actions of kids, it is the parents of these kids. The parents who buy their kids computers, internet access, and then turn them loose for the internet to baby sit them. Parents are constantly wanting everyone and everything else to 'protect' the kids, but the parents will not do their part to protect their kids. "

" I hope she gets the maximum sentence. What was she thinking???? "

" mpsace should be monitored better. have you seen some of the pictures that 12-17 year olds are posting of themselves?! it's scary! "

" Kids at this age are extremely vulnerable and to perpetrate a hoax at someone else's expense is pathetic. Coming from an adult is even worse. My space is one of the most destructive teenage web sites around. Parents have more problems with teens on it than anyone can imagine. To try an make a teen understand the dangers of posting your entire life for everyone to see and read is hard since so many teens are signed up. I don't feel sorry for this woman, she is an adult and should have use better judgement. "