To lead into my thoughts on this I'd like to say that I value the fact that the internet is something of a frontier in that it is a deep dark black hole of entropy. Why? Because from this abyss some really great things are born, like free forums of anything and everything that includes the deft and the daft on any topic imaginable. These dialogues connect such a critical mass of people as never could be joined otherwise. Not to mention chat rooms, blogs, music sharing, explanations by wikipedia about circlular velocity that puts my college physics book and professor to shame. And all we have to do is ignore the easily ignorable triteness. If we impose regulations on the internet to strangle that freedom then the we should be prepared to accept the risk that the internet may turn into a sterilized lifeless corpse.
Tangeant thought: People seem like they want to charge Lori Drew with murder, but they can't so they try to bend the law anyway so they can get her convicted of something, like lying to myspace or whatever as long as its something. Doesn't this strike anyone else as a perversion of modern law? On the other side of that coin I guess they did get Al Capone on tax evasion, but it was probably for the better that things turned out the way they did, rather than having him running loose.
There are a lot of ways this story could be dissected. but after some reflection, it seems to me that the real question is accountability. And accountability leads to this question: "Was Megan Meier mentally ill?" if the answer is yes, then blame should be placed on the government or Megan's caretaker. And it seems self evident to me that holding her mother responsible wouldn't be the right thing to do, and it seems a little unreasonable to ask the government to lock everybody up on suicide watch because of some suicidal tendancies. So lets ask ourselves again: "Was Megan Meier mentally ill?" if the answer is no, then she must be responsible for her own actions. Don't get me wrong, I think it's despicable that Lori Drew did what she did and she should be racked in shame in multiple capacities and on multiple levels. But we must catch ourselves in a bad habit of our society: Don't be so ready to blame and exact vengeance. Because if we continue to do that, our society will degrade far below the intangible rottenness of the dark side of the internet.
Disclaimer: if you are easily offended then you should skip this next paragraph and the following links. Seriously this is offensive.
edit: I have since read this paragraph and decided it was too much so its gone now.
But seriously I think that since Megan did commit suicide she was probably (in my nonprofessional opinion) mentally ill, but I don't think her mother accountable for what happened. And I certainly do blame Lori Drew for being a despicable person, but not a murderer.
Like I said, "the world is a twisted place."
