Protecting Internet users

Saturday, July 5, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

Responding to the death of a 13-year-old girl who killed herself two years ago after being harassed over the Internet, the governor of Missouri this week signed a law that makes cyberbullying illegal.

Rather than creating a new law, the measure adds e-mail, text messages and other electronic and computer communications — including communications placed on Internet social networking sites — to an existing Missouri law that prohibits harassment via written or telephone communications.

“Social networking sites and technology have opened a new door for criminals and bullies to prey on their victims, especially children,” Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt said in signing the legislation into law Monday.

In addition to adding new electronic media to the law, the measure increases the penalty for harassment from a misdemeanor to a felony when the crime is committed by someone previously convicted of harassment. The stiffer penalty also applies when someone 21 or older harasses someone 17 or younger.

The changes were prompted by the 2006 death of Megan Meier, who killed herself shortly after receiving mean messages via an Internet MySpace page, ostensibly from a boy named “Josh.” It turns out the boy was a fictitious person created by a 49-year-old neighbor, a teenage employee of the woman and the woman’s teenage daughter to see what Meier had been saying about the daughter.

U.S. Rep. Kenney Holshof, R-Mo., has introduced legislation that would make cyberbullying subject to federal penalties. But for now, we think it best that punishments stay within the realm of states’ stalking and harassment laws.

And, of course, adults should remember that laws alone cannot protect children and teens from the evils of bullying on the Internet. It remains up to parents to keep watch over what their children are receiving — and sending — over the Internet.