Cyber Bullying

Lacey Jones- Cyber bullying is a very serious issue in the United States. It is the use to text message, instant message, social networking, and etc. to harass, threaten, or intimidate other people. With the growth of technology, cyber bullying is becoming more and more common. In fact, cyber bullying has now become worse than traditional bullying because are constantly being harassed by text messages and social networks making the bullying almost impossible to escape. More than 13 million children in the United States have reported being victim of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying victims are almost twice as likely to commit suicide than those who have never experienced cyber bullying. This statistic is extremely shocking to me. I cannot even begin to understand how someone can be so insensitive to another person. One of the most known stories of cyber bullying is the story of Megan Meier who committed suicide three weeks before her 14th birthday. Soon after Megan opened a MySpace account in 2006, she began to receive messages from supposedly a boy named "Josh." The messages were actually being sent by Lori Drew and her daughter using a fake account. Megan found "Josh" attractive and they began to spend a lot of time messaging one another. After a few weeks "Josh" began to send Megan messages saying no one likes her because she was mean to her friends. Megan responded with a message saying "You're the kind of guy a girl would kill herself over." Twenty minutes after the message was sent, Megan was found dead in her bedroom closet where she had hung herself. Several weeks after Megan's death, Megan's parents were informed that Lori Drew and her daughter had created the fake account to mess with Megan and see what Megan really thought about Lori's daughter. At last count in July 2010, 44 states have passed bullying laws and 30 of those states have included laws of electronic forms of harassment. However, there is no federal law against cyber bullying but one has been proposed. The first federal cyber bullying bill, Megan Meier Cyber Bullying Prevention Act has made it to a House committee. The purpose of the bill is to "amend the federal crime code to impose criminal penalties on anyone who transmits in interstate or foreign commerce an intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person, using electrionical means to support serve, repeated, and hostile behavior." The bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security but has not been voted on yet. All charges against Megan's harasser, Lori Drew, were later dropped because the law simply did not state anything about cyber bullying. Lori Drew was convicted of violating the MySpace terms of service, but a judge overturned the conviction because it would allow anyone who violated a websites terms of service to be prosecuted. How much more is it going to take before the United States steps up and realizes they need to do something more to make this stop? The Megan Meier Cyber Bullying Prevention act will hold people responsible for their actions. If the Act is passed, cyber bullying will become a federal offense, cyber bullies will be charged and imprisoned for two or more years. I understand that by passing a federal law against cyber bullying, it will cost the country money, but to me its more important that these people be held responsible for what they have done rather than receiving a slap on the wrist. But until federal laws against cyber bullying are put in to action, it is important that parents monitor kids use to technology, as well as teach what to do if they are being bullied.