The case of Megan, a 13 year old girl who committed suicide after being dumped by an online “boyfriend” is a sad and familiar one. They My Space boyfriend turned out to be a creation of another girls’ mother who created the character to find out what Megan was “saying about her daughter”. She created the boy to woo Megan, gain her confidence, and then find out what she was saying. Then the “boyfriend” cruelly dumps Megan who then kills herself.

Where to begin?

I am all for parents being knowledgeable about what is going on in their children’s lives and taking time to help them work through problems at home or school. However, there is such a thing as too much involvement. I think back to a mother of a middle school student I had a few years ago. She was out there in the parking lot every day, talking to her daughter and friends. Her language was indistinguishable from theirs and not in a good way. She got involved in every fuss, squabble, and feud that her daughter was in. She berated her boyfriends when they broke up with her and her girl friends when they were on the outs. It would’ve been funny if it were not so pathetic.

Girls this age will have feuds with their friends. My daughter has had many of them. Her friend is talking behind her back one day, causing her great anger and distress. Two days later the same girl is spending the night at our house, all sins forgiven. Why would a parent want to jump in the middle of that? Even more, why would a parent go to such extraordinary lengths as to create a fictitious online character and then use it to berate and harass a child?

The prosecutor says there is no crime this parent can be charged with. That is a shame. How would she feel if another adult had done this to her child? If she was that upset about what Megan might “have been saying” about her daughter, she could’ve contacted Megan’s parents and discussed the matter like an adult. Parents are the adults, the ones who are supposed to know better, the ones who are supposed to tame adolescent emotions with rationality and reason. We aren’t supposed to join them in going down the rabbit hole of teenage anxiety.

This parent has to live with the results of what her actions helped cause. Hopefully this will be a lesson to others.