Mo. city makes online harassment a crime

DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo., Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Authorities in Dardenne Prairie, Mo., have made Internet harassment a crime following the suicide of a local girl who had repeatedly been insulted online.

Dardenne Prairie Mayor Pam Fogarty said that by outlawing online harassment, like the type suffered by 13-year-old Megan Meier, city officials were attempting to avoid similar tragedies in the future, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Thursday.

"It is our hope that by supporting one of our own in Dardenne Prairie, we can do our part to ensure this type of harassing behavior never happens again, anywhere," Fogarty said of last year's tragedy. "After all, harassment is harassment regardless of the mechanism or tool."

The teenage girl had been involved in an online relationship prior to her death on Oct. 16, 2006, with someone she believed to be a boy named Josh Evans.

Meier's online friend ultimately began sending her numerous hurtful messages before she committed suicide by hanging herself in her closet, the newspaper reported.

Her distraught parents later accused three local residents of creating the fake online profile in order to contact their child, accusations that directly led to the creation of the new local law.