Lori Drew is Back Online
The big news this week (RE: online safety), other than The Great Twitter Crash of ’09, is the fact that Lori Drew, aka the cyberbullying MySpace Hoax mom, has been granted the privilege of going back online.
Drew had been barred from the Internet since June 16, 2008, when she pleaded not guilty to a federal conspiracy charge and three counts of illegally accessing a protected computer. Remember, the judge – George Wu – overturned the jury’s conviction of Drew in May.
Now, as if to slap the Meier family in the face one more time, Lori Drew’s lawyer says she has been offered a job that requires her to use the Internet. The lawyer asked Wu to modify Drew’s bail conditions so she can. He agreed.
So, for the record: Drew creates a fake MySpace account with the intent of harming a young teenage girl, because said girl had a falling out with her own (Drew’s) daughter. Things go a little too far and young teen girl kills herself over comments made by Drew. There are no laws that say the act of verbally abusing someone to the point they kill themselves is illegal. The only thing Drew MIGHT get in trouble for is a violation of MySpace’s user agreement. She is convicted of this, but the judge throws out the jury’s conviction. Now, he lets her back on the Internet…
Drew created a completely false MySpace account, convinced a girl to kill herself, and is walking away from 100% unharmed and untouchable in the eyes of the law. Meanwhile, the Meier family has lost their daughter.
Just remember that the next time your child signs on to MySpace… Do you know who they are talking to? You have to know… and you can, with our PC Pandora computer monitoring software…
And by the way, you mean to tell me that at the very least we can’t even force Drew to find a job as a janitor or some form of hard physical labor? Or even a Wal-Mart greeter? There is no need or place for this lady online.
July 6, 2009
Mom tried in cyberbullying case can use Web againST. LOUIS (AP) — A mother who was tried on accusations she was involved in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide has been told she can use the Internet again.
The lawyer for Lori Drew says she has been offered a job that requires her to use a computer and the Internet. A federal judge in California on Thursday modified Drew’s bail so she can.
Drew was convicted last year in the case where she was accused of illegally accessing a computer to harass a neighborhood teenager, Megan Meier. U.S. District Judge George Wu tentatively threw out convictions against Drew in July.
Wu said if Drew was found guilty, anyone who ever violated the social networking site’s terms of service would be guilty of a misdemeanor, and that would be unconstitutional.