How Will The Megan Meier Case Affect Your Social Networking?
Now that the Megan Meier/MySpace Suicide case is under way, a number of legal questions have come to light, and some of the answers could affect the way we all network on sites like MySpace and Facebook. One of the biggest challenges the case poses involves the inherent anonymity of the Internet in general, and on social networking sites in particular.
The case against Lori Fields involves her fraudulent use of the MySpace network. Fields has admitted to creating - along with her assistant - “Josh Evans”, the fictitious 16 year old boy who stole Megan Meier’s heart and then - allegedly - drove her to suicide. The use of this false identity is one of the key points that the prosecution is pinning their case to. But what could this ultimately mean? I am friends with the social commentator Camille Paglia on my Facebook page. More to the point, I am friends with “Camille Paglia”, an anonymous fan who has created a page that represents the controversial author. I am also friends with Hunter S. Thompson. Mr. Thompson has been dead for years. What about befriending fictional characters like Bart Simpson or Indiana Jones? What about the habit of law enforcement officers of posing as young children online in order to catch sexual predators?
One of the most fascinating aspects of this case is the way that it is throwing so much of our online behaviors into question, and -although we can’t predict the affects- it is sure that they will be far reaching.
