Moral Panic - Social Networks

Although the internet and social networking has introduced allot of positives to our lifestyles there is still moral panic around the internet. Cyber bullying is now a big problem and is circling around the social networks between teens and young adults.

A great example is the Megan Meier story and cyber bullying in MySpace. In October 17th 2006 Megan Meiers committed suicide due to mean and abusive comments, "the world would be better of without you".
As the story evolved and investigations where carryed out, it was found that a classmates mother created the page to spy on Megan. She created a made up persons profile, named Josh Evans. She befriended Megan as Josh, and convinced her he has a crush on her.
Later when she got more information about the girls rows, she turned this made up character nasty and started writing abusive comments. Later that day she took her own life.




The biggest moral panic around this incident is the fact that no one can be convicted as there is no actual proof the profile was deleted.
There is no guarantied safety from online predators and unwanted contact, as much as social networks build barriers to prevent this its unavoidable and has to be considered.