The systematic murder of a depressed teenaged girl
http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2007/11/11/news/sj2tn20071110-1111stc_pokin_1.ii1.txt
Basically, a 13 year old named Megan with a long and doccumented history of depression and ADD killed herself after the boyfriend she met on MySpace betrayed her. Turns out parents of Megan's former best friend created the fake profile to 'keep tabs' on what Megan was saying about their daughter.
"Keep tabs." Bullshit. Try emotionally rape and murder. The former BFF's parents pretty much admitted that they meant to use the bogus profile to publicly humiliate Megan. And Megan's parents aid the family knew she was depressed and taking medication. And don't tell me this was just a bad idea taken too far. That's crap. On what planet does any adult worthy of the word look at a child with depression and think, "Yeah. Making the whole town laugh at her won't really do any harm!"?
The real clincher for me, though, is when the other girl's mother said she "didn't feel as guilty" over Megan's death because the girl had tried to kill herself before. I can't even come up with a witty, sarcastic retort to that. The fumes of sociopathy are making me far too faint to try. Never mind that it's even debatable whether or not she ever attempted suicide (her parents say she never tried).
Of course, this article's tone and the tone of much of debate I've seen on message boards where people have posted it favor slapping more restrictions on MySpace (and the entire internet by extension) to stop killers like this. I don't think that young teens should necessarily be left to their own devices on MySpace. But it depresses me (in the true sense of the word meaning "brings me into a dysthymic state" as opposed to "makes me blue, as our culture can't tell the difference linguistially) that we think limiting freedoms across the board is always the answer when something terrible like this happens. The sad fact is that you just can't regulate human cruelty much of the time; all you can do is clean up after it. The internet is just the latest tool people have discovered they can use to hurt one another. Thirty years from now, they'll have found a new one.
It also depresses me that no temporal justice seems forthcoming for Megan's parents. And that the newspaper won't name the killers. Not because I'd love to see people trash their house (because what would that solve?), but because the rest of the neighborhood should know what they did.
I don't agree with killing murderers (I can't bring myself to use the term "death penalty"), but when I read articles like this I certainly understand why others do.
hat tip to rm
Basically, a 13 year old named Megan with a long and doccumented history of depression and ADD killed herself after the boyfriend she met on MySpace betrayed her. Turns out parents of Megan's former best friend created the fake profile to 'keep tabs' on what Megan was saying about their daughter.
"Keep tabs." Bullshit. Try emotionally rape and murder. The former BFF's parents pretty much admitted that they meant to use the bogus profile to publicly humiliate Megan. And Megan's parents aid the family knew she was depressed and taking medication. And don't tell me this was just a bad idea taken too far. That's crap. On what planet does any adult worthy of the word look at a child with depression and think, "Yeah. Making the whole town laugh at her won't really do any harm!"?
The real clincher for me, though, is when the other girl's mother said she "didn't feel as guilty" over Megan's death because the girl had tried to kill herself before. I can't even come up with a witty, sarcastic retort to that. The fumes of sociopathy are making me far too faint to try. Never mind that it's even debatable whether or not she ever attempted suicide (her parents say she never tried).
Of course, this article's tone and the tone of much of debate I've seen on message boards where people have posted it favor slapping more restrictions on MySpace (and the entire internet by extension) to stop killers like this. I don't think that young teens should necessarily be left to their own devices on MySpace. But it depresses me (in the true sense of the word meaning "brings me into a dysthymic state" as opposed to "makes me blue, as our culture can't tell the difference linguistially) that we think limiting freedoms across the board is always the answer when something terrible like this happens. The sad fact is that you just can't regulate human cruelty much of the time; all you can do is clean up after it. The internet is just the latest tool people have discovered they can use to hurt one another. Thirty years from now, they'll have found a new one.
It also depresses me that no temporal justice seems forthcoming for Megan's parents. And that the newspaper won't name the killers. Not because I'd love to see people trash their house (because what would that solve?), but because the rest of the neighborhood should know what they did.
I don't agree with killing murderers (I can't bring myself to use the term "death penalty"), but when I read articles like this I certainly understand why others do.
hat tip to rm