MySpace Hoax

Whether the neighbor, Lori Drew, intended for Megan to commit suicide or not, she is still sick and wrong for creating a fictional character on MySpace to keep in contact with Megan. It’s just cruel for any person, especially a 49 year old mother with a daughter of her own, to play such an immature hoax on someone who is only thirteen! I wonder how the mother would have felt if someone was doing the same exact thing on her daughter. I know life as a teenager is hard, especially teenage girls. There’s so much change as it is in the world, especially for Megan who has attention deficit disorder and who is mildly depressed. I don’t know Megan, but nobody deserves to be treated the way she did. People are all different. Some people might not even care if people wrote mean posts about them on MySpace; others take it personally, like Megan. It’s not fair. It’s quite a relief that Drew will be facing sentences from probation to a year in prison and a fine of $100,000 for every misdemeanor account.

In my opinion, what Drew did is known as a tort, “A private wrong that injures another person’s physical well-being, property, or reputation” (Essentials of Business Law, Liuzzo, Pg. 31). She definitely did do a private wrong and injured Megan’s physical and emotional well-being. Also, I believe that what Drew did is a slander, “Slander is the term that describes almost all defamation that cannot be classified as libel. Slander includes spoken words, gestures, actions, and even omissions. Most cases of slander involve thoughtless statements that reflect on another person’s good name and reputation” (Essentials of Business Law, Luizzo, Pg. 47). Drew, her daughter, and her assistant spread damaging words and ideas that ruined Megan’s reputation; which is the definition of slander. I really do hope that Drew does get convicted of the felony charges and does face up to 20 years of prison.