DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo. — City officials unanimously passed a measure Wednesday making online harassment a crime, days after learning that a 13-year-old girl killed herself last year after receiving cruel messages on the Internet.
The six-member Board of Aldermen made Internet harassment a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail.
Mayor Pam Fogarty said the measure followed the death of Megan Meier.
“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.
Several dozen people broke into applause after the measure was passed.
Authorities have said they could not find a crime to charge anyone with in the case of Meier, who thought she had met a boy on the social networking site MySpace last year. But he began sending mean messages and others joined in, her family said, then ended their friendship.
Megan hanged herself within minutes of receiving the last messages on Oct. 16, 2006, and died the next day.
Megan’s parents, Ron and Tina Meier, learned about six weeks after Megan’s death that the boy was not real. He was created by a mother down the street who wanted to know what Megan was saying about her daughter, who had had a falling out with Megan.
