St. Louis Public Radio News
(2008-01-08)
JEFFERSON CITY, MO
(St. Louis Public Radio) -
A task force created by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt to combat cyber bullying has released its list of recommendations, which includes proposed legislation that would make it a felony for an adult to harass a child through electronic media.Public Safety Director Mark James, who chairs the task force, says the legislation focuses on punishing the perpetrator, not the owner of the medium.
"We did not want to create criminal statutes that would inadvertently hold an Internet service provider responsible for activity, criminal activity that occurs via that means of communication," James said.
Penalties would range from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class D felony, depending on circumstances surrounding the individual crime.
The task force was created in response to the 2006 suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie, who had received cruel messages on her MySpace page.
Colonel Jim Keathley of the Missouri State Highway Patrol says the legislation would make what happened to Megan a criminal act.
"A typical harassment, for instance, committed by a person 21 years of age or older against a person 17 or younger would be a 'D' felony...that would be the situation where you would have some adult portraying themselves possibly to be a juvenile, and harassing another juvenile by (the) Internet," Keathley said.
The task force also recommended that harassment be added as a mandatory reportable offense under current safe schools statutes. © Copyright 2012, St. Louis Public Radio
