I know I’m going to take a large amount of heat for this - I imagine a lot of people will let emotions get the better of them and flame me to hell in the comments. With that in mind, I’m going to let you know the truth: this post is not a troll in any way, shape or form. I’m just sick of the hypocrisy of simple people who want to follow the law all the way until they’re emotionally invested, then abandon it like a blind date with the Elephant Man.

Let’s get the story out there for those of you who don’t have this fresh in your minds. As this article states, a 13-year-old girl was harassed to the point of suicide via MySpace comments by a neighbor posing as a 16-year-old boy. There’s no real transcript that states what exactly the comments were, but this MSNBC article paraphrases them as “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat.” (Other articles state that she was also told “the world would be better off without her,” but the police weren’t able to retrieve the message.) Not exactly the worst I’ve ever had said to me, but I guess it would be harmful to a 13-year-old.

But! Now that you have background, we can get to the meat of the argument: the woman who harassed this girl until she committed suicide is now being tried in federal court under various acts, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (for impersonating someone else online.) The hometown of the girl who offed herself is even trying to pass an ordinance against Internet harassment.

Since I get the feeling you’re beginning to grasp my stance in this idiocy, let me spell out the various flaws in the whole “Internet suicide” fiasco described above:

• The woman is being charged with harassment. Really? The fact that I even have to discuss this makes my head hurt. There is absolutely, positively no way a person should ever be charged simply for talking, whether it involves cruel or kind things being said. It’s just because the girl committed suicide over it that the neighbor’s being charged. If you could be charged for saying something cruel, I don’t think there would be any more YouTube commentators.
• The girl was listed as having depression. I’m not a psychologist, but from the way they describe her in the various articles (home-schooled, etc.) she was most likely manic. Any psychologist will tell you that, unfortunately, manic depression typically permanently ends before mid-life. I’m not shrugging the neighbor’s actions off by saying “meh, it was gonna happen anyways,” but this girl was severely troubled. MySpace probably wasn’t the best place for her to visit.
• The neighbor is also being charged with something that every human’s done. Well, some of us more often than others, if you frequent Craigslist for your romantic rendezvous’. If someone can be charged with a federal crime for impersonating someone else over the Internet, then the precedent for stupid lawsuits is set. Everyone who found out that “19/f/cali” turns into “47/m/Milwaukee” would suddenly be trying to litigate, grasping for money in a society that already sues for common stupidity.

Let me make my point clear: YOU CAN NOT ARREST SOMEONE FOR BEING AN ASS OVER THE INTERNET. I’m not judging the neighbor’s actions one way or the other - that’s for those of you who think morality means something - but she didn’t commit any crime under current law. To post comments like the first few people in the [H]ardOCP forum thread about the article, saying that the neighbor needs to be tortured, etc. for what she said just shows the hypocrisy of the people who say they actually believe the law helps.

So, flame time flaming flame flame?

Update: I found this article that at first seemed to be another call for “justice.” However, the article makes a great point near the end about setting a legal precedent for false information over the Internet.