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Megan Meier, a 13-year-old resident of Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, had an account on MySpace where she received a "friend" request from a user named Josh Evans. Evans, who claimed to be a 16-year-old boy, told Meier that he lived near her and was being home-schooled by his parents. At first, Evans sent flattering e-mails to Meier, which also suggested that he might be romantically interested in her. Soon, however, Evans's remarks turned from compliments to insults, and Evans informed Meier that he was no longer sure that he wanted to be friends with her because he heard that she wasn't very nice to her friends." Next, Meier noticed that some highly derogatory posts about her e.g., "Megan Meier is a slut" and "Megan Meier is fat" began to appear on MySpace. Meier, who was reported to have suffered from low self-esteem and depression, became increasingly distressed by the online harassment (cyberbullying) being directed at her i.e., from both the insulting MySpace postings and hurtful e-mail messages she continued to receive from Evans. On October 17, 2006, Meier decided to end her life by INFORMATION SYSTEM ETHICS AND LAW-CLW20103/DLW20103 hanging herself in her bedroom. An investigation of this incident, following Meier's death, revealed that Josh Evans was not a teenage boy; she was Lori Drew, the 49-year-old mother of a former friend of Meier's. 1