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Internet Harassment Seen as Tough to Tackle

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Missouri hopes to crack down on Internet harassment, but drafting legislation to fit the problem might be much tougher than first thought.

A special task force began reviewing the topic in light of the Megan Meier tragedy. Megan was the St. Louis County teen-ager who committed suicide shortly after being a victim of a cruel Internet chat room hoax.

University of Missouri law professor Doug Abrams is a member of the task force and has been guiding members through tricky legal waters. He says any legislation drafted this session must be able to stand up to a First Amendment challenge. Abrams suggests lawmakers concentrate on regulating conduct rather than speech. He says a good place to start is using the current harassment statute as a guide, because it has been upheld in court.

Even as the task force makes its recommendation to the legislature, members acknowledge that lawmakers might have trouble fashioning anything to fit the Megan Meier case. In it, Megan became a victim of a hoax perpetuated by adults apparently intent on getting back at Megan for the perceived snub of their daughter.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)

Teen-Age Suicide Could Lead to a Change in Law

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A teen-age suicide in St. Charles County drew national attention to a growing problem:  harassment via the Internet. A special task force hopes to give lawmakers guidelines on how to address the problem.

The tragic case of 13-year-old Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie woke up many to the dangers of anonymous chat over the Internet. Megan hanged herself, apparently after a boy she knew only through Internet chat turned from friend to foe. It wasn’t a boy at all, but adults getting back at Megan for the perceived snub of their daughter.

The Director of the Missouri Office of Prosecution Services, Brian Keedy, is a member of the Internet Harassment Task Force. He says there is a consensus among task force members that children, including teen-agers, must be protected from harassment originated by adults.

University of Missouri Law Professor Doug Abrams says any proposed law must speak to the state of mind. Prosecutors would have to prove a criminal state of mind and that the person broke harassment laws, either through intent or negligence.

Task force members believe the quickest route to address the problem likely is updating present harassment statutes to include 21st Century technology. Also under consideration is removing any language that ties the law to a form of communication and focusing solely on the communication without reference to how it is delivered.

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (1:20 MP3)

State Lawmakers Plan to Tackle Internet Harassment

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State lawmakers say they will tackle the difficult issue of Internet harassment during the upcoming session.

An Internet Harassment Task Force formed by the governor has been listening to experts and reviewing suggestions for legislation. Sen. Scott Rupp (R-Wentzville) has prefiled a bill adding telecommunications to current stalking and harassment laws. Rupp says the bill is a work in progress, but the current thought is that present law can prove effective if brought up to 21st Century technology.

Much attention has been focused on the case of Megan Meier, the 13-year-old girl from Dardenne Prairie who hanged herself after a boy she knew only through Internet chat turned on her, replacing praise with insults. The boy wasn’t real, but was the creation of adults getting back at Megan for snubbing their daughter.

Rupp doesn’t want the focus to be on the tragic Megan Meier case. He says that one was so unusual it would be difficult to base legislation on it. upp says the task force will do much of the work so that legislation can be ready for consideration during the session that begins next month. 

Download/listen Brent Martin reports (1:20 MP3)

Internet Cops Fight Online Sexual Predators

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The effort to protect children from online sexual predators is becoming more challenging as technology expands and the use of that technology expands.

Platte County Sheriff’s Department Captain Paul Carrill is the Officer in Charge of the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, a unit which serves the nine counties around metropolitan Kansas City. Carrill says the investigators on this task force conduct online undercover investigations to nab those who are trying to set up sexual encounters with children. The unit also tries to learn the distribution sources of child pornography.

Through investigative standards, those distributing child pornography are located. Search warrants are then obtained to enter a suspect’s home to recover evidence of any crime.

Download/Listen: Steve Walsh report (:60 MP3)

No Charges in MySpace Suicide Case

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St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas has announced there will be no criminal charges filed in what has become known as the MySpace suicide case.

13-year-old Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie hanged herself, last year, over an Internet hoax. The teenager’s parents say the suicide resulted from what they call harassment from neighbors who created a teenage boy who pretended to be interested in Megan before he turned on her.

Tina Meier, the mother of young Megan, understands the prosecutor’s decision not to file criminal charges. She realizes statutes regarding this particular aspect of the Internet did not exist at the time her daughter died. Two St. Louis area communities – Dardenne Prairie and Florissant – recently passed ordinances making Internet harassment a crime.

Download/Listen: Tina Meier, Mother of Megan Meier (:17 MP3) Thanks to KTRS

Internet Harassment Made a Crime in Florissant

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Florissant has made Internet harassment a crime. It’s the second city in the St. Louis area to pass such an ordinance. Both have acted in response to the story of a Dardenne P:rairie teenager who hanged herself after getting mean-spirited messages on her computer.

The Florissant ordinance allows for six months in jail and a fine for violators.  Dardenne Prairie’s ordinance establishes internet harassment as a misdemeanor.

 

Small Phone Companies Want Seat at Internet Access Task Force Table

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Missouri’s small telephone companies are making it known they are doing a good job of delivering high-speed Internet service to the state’s rural areas, and they want to be a part of the Rural High-Speed Internet Access Task Force ordered created by Governor Matt Blunt (R-MO).

Bill Rohde, General Manager of the Mark Twain Rural Telephone in northeast Missouri, is with the Missouri Small Telephone Companies Group which is made up of 35 of the state’s rural phone companies. He takes pride in a September report from two members of the Public Service Commission – a report showing smaller companies are much better than the larger telecommunications companies in providing broadband service to Missouri’s small towns and rural communities.

The study focused only on service provided by phone companies and not at what is available through cable or wireless providers.  But in many rural areas, high-speed Internet access is only available through the phone companies. 

Download/Listen: Steve Walsh report (:60 MP3)

Public-Private Partnership Helps Keep Kids Safe Online

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The State of Missouri has joined forces with the federal government, child advocacy organizations, and the private sector to promote an initiative aimed at helping to keep kids safe online.

The "I Know Better" campaign – spelled INOBTR as a reflection of the Internet lingo used in blogs, e-mails, and text-messages – was created by St. Louis businessman and philanthropist Steve Schankman in 2006. He believes the best way to reach out to young people is to speak their language, using young people who know what is on the minds of these kids.

Schankman says young people are reminded that anything they post on MySpace or any other Internet web page is something that juat about anyone can gain access to … and it is there forever.

Download/Listen: Steve Walsh report (:60 MP3)

Internet Gambling Company Leaving United States

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One of the biggest Internet gambling companies in the world has decided to leave the United States market. BetOnSports has settled a federal civil lawsuit filed in St. Louis by promising refunds to customers and cooperation in a separate criminal case. BetOnSports will ban accepting United States bets through all of its Web sites and telephone numbers. The company also has to turn over records that criminal prosecutors want to see.

Nixon Joins Project Safe Childhood

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The state’s lawyer signs on to the new effort to get rid of those who exploit children through the internet. Attorney General Jay Nixon offers his cybercrime and computer forensics units to Project Safe Childhood, a federal program that steps up efforts to find and prosecute internet exploiters of children. The says changes in technology have brought new challenges to law enforcement–none more heinous than cybercrime that focuses on the sexual exploitation of children. Nixon says technology has left children more vulnerable to pedophiles using chat rooms and instant messages. He says many children have no idea that the new “friend” that they have met on line is actually a predator who wants to hurt them. He says it is imperitive the crimes be aggressively addressed through a coordinated effort of law enforcement agencies at the state, national, and federal agencies. Nixon sys his office already has used its compuer forensic unit to track down sex crimes on the internet. He says the unit recently tracked down a man who used the internet to research statistics on high school athletes…and who then told them he was a college recruiter who needed nude photographs of the students that he said would help them get scholarships.