After reading about the suicide of Megan Meier due to ridicule and a fake account on the computer, I became more aware of the negative effects about Myspace. As we disucussed in class, Myspace, or the Internet, has no laws regulating fake accounts, therefore, it is accepted on the Internet. Anonymity on myspace is not illegal. Different features of the Internet, including anonymity, information intensity, interactivity, and the quick exchanges of information all together allowed this to happen. Because of this, Lori Drew was able to create a fake account with her 2 friends and daughter, posing as an 18 yr. old boy named Josh Evans. Apparently, the mother was trying to defend and retaliate for her daughter, who was getting made fun of. This relates to Rheingold's topic of flashmobs, when a group of people can gang up on an individual, as they did to thirteen yr. old Megan Meier.
This topic draws up many different questions about what should be legal and illegal over the Internet. Should there be a law against gake myspace accounts? Should you need to type in an ID number or personal information to verufy that you are who you say you are? The topic of responsibility is also boughten up. Are the parents responsible for their underage children going onto websites on the Internet? Or is myspace or the IPS at fault for allowing this to happen?
I think unfortunately there can be no law to regulate situations like this over the Internet. If any law was made, it limits other situations that can be beneficial. I think if people are going to create fake myspace accounts, it should depend on their intentions for doing so. If their intentions are to "frighten, disturb, or harass" then I believe yes, there should be consequences. But then again, how can you prove what someone's intentions are?
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