Friends on the Other End - Essay Example

Friend Game Introduction Over the recent past, there have been reported incidences of fraudsters of the internet who apparently pretend to be ‘friends on the other end’. The fraudsters are reportedly known for their convincing ability on social media as friends, business partners or pretend to be job lenders who later on are found to be fraudsters who are only after satisfaction of their own interests. The fraudsters are close friends and unknown people who befriend their targets over the social media. In search of friends but with hidden agenda and disguised in fake account with fake identities, which hide their true identity. In the Collin’s article ‘Friend Game’, we identify the abuse of internet services by teenagers who commit suicidal behavior leading to the death of one teenager by the name Megan Meier. The article explains the different roles of each individual in the death of the girl, by sending malicious messages to her which frustrates the girl leading to her sudden death. Despite Tina’s endless trials to find justice for her lovely daughter, she does not get justice, and in return she turns to make the life of Lori Drew miserable. The Drew’s are aware that their daughter is responsible for the death of Megan, but they deny that fact blaming her that she actually took her life. Justice is denied to the Meier’s despite the endless efforts of the reporters who do the investigation to reveal the reality. Meier is a teenager who needs to be protected from malicious actions, and she is protected by the enforced privacy laws and laws governing the use of social media. In my view, she was denied justice is justified by the reasons discussed in the main body of the essay. Statement of the problem Abuse of the social media has been a problem for a long time which has become a global disaster to manage. The abuse is done through the internet harassment which is often done by sending of hostile messages to individuals over the social media. In the ‘Friend’s Game,’ article by Collins, we identify how a young girl of thirteen years is harassed by receiving hostile messages from friends, through her MySpace account. There are various people involved in the death of the thirteen year old girl involving even older people than her. The research tries to determine whether or not the woman did the cyber-bullying should be prosecuted or imprisoned. This is a problem that needs to be stopped with effective policies and laws governing social privacy. The laws should be enforced and enforced to be used in a court of law to determine cases of the same caliber. Objectives; Main objective - to determine whether or not the woman who did cyber-bullying should be prosecuted Other objectives; To identify reasons as to why the principal offenders should be prosecuted and imprisoned for their ‘crimes’ To indentify the influence of the offenders on the girl’s death To identify the laws and policies available and responsible for regulating use of internet and social media, governing the users’ privacy. Analysis and discussion In the analysis of the events and circumstances surrounding death of Meier Megan, a thirteen year old girl who commits suicide at her home. The girl is a victim of internet harassment. The aim of the study is to determine whether or not the woman who did cyber-bullying should be prosecuted. Objective to be discussed aims at obtaining reasons for prosecution or imprisonment; to determine the impact of the offenders on the death of the girl and to identify the laws and policies reasonable for enforcing internet privacy. Megan as an individual lead a natural lifestyle despite the challenges she faced due to her illness, but her parents were in hand to help her cope with the situation. Lori Drew and Megan lived in the same neighborhood, and they were long time friends who played together during their child hood. She was thirteen years and a volley ball player and to crown it all a Chihuahua manic. Despite all this, she led a gloomy lifestyle as she hated herself and could at times need her space something that pissed off her friends who felt neglected when she was not in the mood to play. Like any other girl, she and her age mates lead a social life that they valued so much to their sense of status and acceptance. Through this, she made new friends and exchanged messages about their social life. The sites allow users to rank their ‘top friends’ for shifting alliance clique can be seen by all in the post, in more like popular ledger.  In short, Megan like any other girl led an ordinary social life. In the neighborhood, she was known to be a fearless girl and had a sense of humor. She was also seen to be a good hearted girl as she acted as personal self appointed guardian or teacher to eye handicapped boy in her school through showing him the way and between classes. The investigators determined that the Drew’s actions if cruel had not broken any laws. This was a statement that Tina Meier was not at peace with as she felt that despite the fact they did not physically come to her homestead and tied the belt on her neck they must be held responsible as they exchanged hostile messages with her daughter something that led to their daughter committing suicide. Pokin’s story about the involvement of adults’ rape the 13 year old having or not having mental problem was seen to be a terrible conduct in the society. In her seventh grade, Megan and the Drew’s daughter maintained a fickle relationship. According to the society’s view, the Drew’s daughter was seen to be obedient and responsible while Megan was in the other hand taken to be wilder and to have a more domineering personality. Rona and Tina, parents to Megan wanted the best for their daughter and even advised her on how she should carry herself while with neighbors and their concern whether their daughter should open a MySpace account and how she should run it. This is evidenced by Tina’s remarks to Megan requesting her to be good to her friend and seconded by her parent’s action to transfer their daughter in her eighth grade to an Immaculate Conception Dardenne where life was better as compared to public schools. The Drew’s daughter, Lori Drew was the one who secretly set up the MySpace account with a fake identity of Josh Evans and befriended Megan. She sent him a friend request with a picture of an adorable boy that Megan could not hesitate to be associated with. The purpose of the fake account, ‘Josh Evans as later revealed through the Drew’s testimony to Jack Banas, was to determine whether Megan made nasty comments about their daughter who were called lesbians by Megan previously.Lori allowed other impersonators to use the fake account by giving them its password, for example, Ashley Grills a recent high –school graduate was later found out to be the most active of Josh’s online impersonators. He often send hostile messages to Megan which is evidenced when he actually send messages expecting to reach Megan only to find it was her Tina Meier on the other end. Megan further received messages from other impersonators like Michele Mulford’s daughter from the Mulford’s home computer. She was introduced to the use of the account at the Drew’s home by someone who told her about the Josh Evans account and encouraged her to join in the game. She exchanged hostile messages with Megan something that actually upset Megan. Kids were mocking Megan through the Josh account, and this is revealed as she goes into the tears after reading their malicious messages. Once, when Tina came back from work she found Megan in a state of superheated distress as she had broken into an insult war with her friends and Josh. The insults contributed to Megan’s decision to hang herself in her closet with her belt. Immediately the news of Megan’s death reaches the neighbor Lori Drew was the first to call her friend, Mulford’s daughter to inform her to keep silent over the case. In three weeks since the Steve Pokin’s article appeared, public opinion against the Drew’s was harsh and verging on violent, and in specific Lori Drew. She even called the police at one moment and wished to inform about her role in the death of Megan. In her report, she admitted having been actively involved in the Josh Hoax, and she felt that her incident contributed to Megan’s suicide, but she did not feel guilty after finding out that Megan tried to commit suicide before ( Dubovsky 56-84). In the above analysis we find that Meier was a victim of circumstance. She opened MySpace account against the will of her parents at a tender age. She further disobeyed her parents by befriending Josh Evans who turned out to be an impersonator. Megan and her parents agreed to use the internet under close supervision of her parents something, that she often failed to observe. She further commits suicide after reading messages from her friends. This action makes Lori Drew feel that even if she was responsible for the death of her friends she should not be held responsible as Megan took her life. Lori Drew on the other hand, her first mistake was to open a fake account which she used to harass her friend, betraying their friendship. Lori drew was not to reveal the password of the fake account to others to use. Hostile messages were sent to Megan, her friend. Mocking Megan Meier something that upset her to commit suicide. Lori Drew and her parents involvement in the case and their denial. Lori Drew was older than Megan and she should have protected her instead. Further, the offender s tainted the laws governing internet users’ privacy as they interfered with Megan’s. In consideration of the given facts, we find that Lori Drew and her friends had a role to play in the suicide of the girl. Despite the fact that Megan committed suicide it was as result of impact of harassment that she received from her friends. The policies governing MySpace website allows users to open account with real or fake names but does not permit for room for abuse of others or interference with their privacy. Thus the offenders are liable to prosecution and imprisonment for their role in the death of the girl. The Drew’s knew that Megan was young and was under medication but they still went ahead to mock her despite her state. This makes them responsible for Megan’s death. According to the ‘internet protection act ‘that was introduced by Michigan about the protection of the privacy of social media, it requires that no individual should interfere with once privacy over the use of social media. This means that an employer or institution cannot require that you provide them with your username or passwords for the sites used like Facebook, twitter or MySpace. I was then not justified that Lori Drew could open a fake account with Josh Evans handle and later on gave its password to her friends and befriended Megan who she sent hostile messages that led to her death. That is to say that the law holds that everyone should not disclose their personal information either credential either digitally or manually, activities or content absent a legal preceding that requires it. Cyber law or internet law is a term protects the legal use of the internet. It incorporates the following fields; privacy, expression freedom, usage and access to the internet and jurisdictions (IARA). Conclusion It is the utmost goal of all parents to prevent and protect their children against cyber crime, and thus there is a need to place measures that protect the children against any abuse or bully in the internet or while using it. Cyber crime does not require the children to be highly skilled, and that as so it can be done by any one despite their educational background or social status and despite the location. In my conclusion, Lori Drew was liable for the death of the Meier’s daughter and should be prosecuted by the mere fact that even she informed the police of her involvement. Lori’s parents should also be prosecuted as they were protecting their daughter from the prosecution yet they already knew of their daughter’s involvement in the case. This argument can be justified by the enforced laws governing the internet usage as it protects is internet citizens over their privacy. Lori Drew despite the fact that she had a fake account was not wrong but by the fact that she used it to interfere with Megan’s privacy was a crime. This is further justified by the society’s view to the case as they viewed the Drew’s to have done wrong to the Meier’s and were inn fear that the injurious conduct can be taken by others. Lori’s prosecution will be a lesson to the society and justice to the Meier’s (Gibson 25-36). The objective to find reasons for prosecution of the offenders was justified as there were many reasons that held her liable. The offenders should be prosecuted or imprisoned. There are various laws and policies that are responsible to maintain privacy of internet users. In any court of law crimes are warranted to prosecution thus leaving no cyber bullies untouched. Therefore, bullying of individual in any form should be prosecuted in court of law to prevent the reoccurrence of crimes accompanied by it. Bibliography Gibson, Owen. Warning to chartroom users after libel award for man Labeled a Nazi. New York: The Gurian, 2006. Print Schmitt Michael. Tallinn manual on the international law applicable to cyber warfare. 2013. New York: Cambridge University Press. Print Steven Dubovsky, MD. "The Impact of Loss of an Adult Child through Suicide." New England Journal of Medicine. 2013. Print Read More