Myspace Hoax Gone Awry

After reading the story about Megan Meier, it made me think of my own children. As a father of three beautiful girls, I can’t fathom what it would be like to lose any or all of them. It just amazes me first of all how the parents involved allowed their daughter, Megan, to create a Myspace profile in the first place. What’s even troublesome to me is that fact that Megan’s parents gave her the permission to have an online romance with a sixteen year old boy in the first place. The girl was only thirteen years old.

I believe that it comes down to parenting. If Megan had a disorder and her parents knew that she was mentally unstable, why did they allow her to get involved with someone in the first place? With any romantic relationship, emotions-both physically and mentally, are always involved. And having a young girl such as Megan, with some type of disorder, should have never been given permission at all to have a relationship. Let alone, a Myspace account. If Megan’s parents knew that Megan was bothered and upset, why didn’t they stop online privileges or discontinue her Myspace subscription? What the hell were Mr. and Mrs. Meier thinking? How could they call themselves parents? It makes me upset as a parent to see something like this happen. And because of it, Megan is no longer around.

As for the other party involved, I just think they were plain stupid and immature to harass Megan. How could the mother, who was reportedly responsible for the crime, become so consumed in her own daughter’s problems? Doesn’t she have a life? I’d love to go on and on about parenting, but have some common sense folks. People need to grow up. It should have never escalated to this in the first place. If the mother involved with supposedly creating a fictional “boy” did not do what she did and left the situation alone, we would still have Megan around. She should have never interfered in such a matter. Ethically and morally, it may have been wrong. “Both ethics and morals are concerned with standards of right and wrong” (Essentials of Business Law, Liuzzo/Bonnice, p. 19). I’m not sure if it was wrong legally since there weren’t any evidence to support that the other party intentionally wanted to physically harm Megan. Why didn’t the mother accused of driving Megan to her death just leave it alone? Whatever happened to the good ole days when we all grew up dealing with things person to person? Mano y mano. Back in the days, when anyone had a problem or “beef”, we would confront the person face to face and tell them our peace of mind. Yes, it may have probably gotten out of hand-possibly a fight or something, but it was taken care of. We grow up and learn from the experience and hopefully one day laugh about it all. Why make it such a big deal? I know times have changed, but I honestly feel that it should have never come to this. It is all this technology that has become a part of our daily lives. You either embrace it or not. It is a culture influenced by today’s society. “An individual’s values are significantly influenced by those held by groups to which he or she belongs.” (Essentials of Business Law, Liuzzo/Bonnice, p. 19).

In all, I feel that Megan’s parents are to blame in this situation. If they did not allow Megan to start a Myspace account, this would have never happened. Secondly, if an apology is what they need, then the other mother involved should be the better person and do so. After all that’s happened, Mr. and Mrs. Meiers have filed for divorce. It’s sad that all of this could have been prevented. What we should learn from all this is basically the way we raise our children. In today’s society, we need to be more in tune with what our children do. We need to keep them close and grounded. I think we’ve lost sight of that.