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KMOV-TV JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI Responding to the suicide of a St. Charles County teen who was teased over the Internet, Missouri lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a bill making cyber harassment illegal. The bill updates state laws against harassment to keep pace with technology by removing the requirement that the communication be written or over the telephone. Supporters say the bill will now cover harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic devices. It was approved 106-23 in the House and 34-0 in the Senate less than an hour before lawmakers' mandatory 6 p.m. adjournment. It now goes to the governor. Many of the bill's provisions came from a special gubernatorial task force that studied Internet harassment after the media last fall reported on the details of Megan Meier's suicide. Megan had depression and attention deficit disorder when she started talking with "Josh" through their MySpace pages. After talking with him for several weeks, Megan suddenly began receiving cruel messages, including one stating that he did not want to be her friend anymore. Shortly thereafter, Megan hanged herself in her bedroom and died the next day. A neighborhood mother from Dardenne Prairie, her 18-year-old employee and 13-year-old daughter are accused of creating a fake profile of an attractive teenage boy to determine what Megan was saying about the daughter online. On Thursday, Lori Drew, 49, was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the teen. Missouri police didn't file any charges against Drew in part because there was no applicable state law. Sen. Scott Rupp said Friday there's no way to be sure his legislation would have guaranteed a conviction, but it would have allowed prosecutors to continue investigating without having to ship the case to a different state. "Without a good, quality cyber stalking and harassment law, which we don't currently have, we have to go to federal courts in other states to make a stretching leap argument," said Rupp, R-Wentzville. Sen. Harry Kennedy, D-St. Louis, said the law is "definitely a warning shot for those folks who want to use the Internet for harassment." There was no immediate response from Meier's parents, Tina and Ron Meier, of St. Charles County. Tina Meier earlier this year testified before a Senate committee urging lawmakers to pass the bill. During the hearing, she told senators "laws being in place are not going to save a child's life, but certainly no family should ever have to go through sitting here on a daily basis and knowing that these people are still next door and knowing what they've done." An attorney representing Drew said Thursday that a legal challenge to the federal indictment is being planned. Under Rupp's bill, repeat offenders and someone who is at least 21 years old could be charged with a felony and face up to four years in prison if they harass a minor. Other instances of harassment would remain a Class A misdemeanor, which carries penalties of up to a year in jail and fines up to $1,000. The bill also requires school officials to tell police about harassment and stalking on school grounds and expands state laws against stalking to cover "credible threats" not only against the victim, but also family and household members and animals. Currently, stalking is a misdemeanor, but the bill would let someone be charged with a felony and face up to four years in prison if they stalk more than once, make "credible threats," violate a court protection order and violate their probation or parole by stalking. ---- Cyber stalking is SB818. On the Net: Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov
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