Saturday, May 17, 2008
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Responding to the suicide of a Missouri teenager who was teased over the Internet, state lawmakers Friday gave final approval to a bill making cyber harassment illegal.
The bill updates state laws against harassment to keep pace with technology by removing the requirement that the communication be written or over the telephone. Supporters say the bill will now cover harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic devices.
It was approved 106-23 in the House and 34-0 in the Senate and now goes to the governor.
Many of the bill’s provisions came from a special gubernatorial task force that studied Internet harassment after the media last fall reported on the details of Megan Meier’s suicide.
Police say the 13-year-old St. Charles County girl hanged herself in 2006 after being teased on a social networking Web site.
A neighborhood mother, her 18-year-old employee and 13-year-old daughter are accused of creating a fake profile of an attractive teenage boy to determine what Meier was saying about the daughter online.