Less than a week after a UK court made headlines for jailing a teen for cyberbullying, a Missouri woman, Elizabeth Thrasher, has been arrested and charged with felony cyberbullying.

Following the tragic suicide of Megan Meier, many states enacted laws to specifically deal with cyberbullying after Meier was stalked and harassed by Lori Drew and her daughter through MySpace. Drew was eventually acquitted, as she could not be found guilty of anything other than violating MySpace’s terms of service.

This case bears a striking similarity to the Meier-Drew case, since Thrasher is a 40-year old woman who was harassing a teenage girl. Thrasher, in an apparent attempt to get back at the girlfriend of her ex-husband, created a fake Craiglist’s ad for the 17-year-old daughter of the girlfriend, whose identity remains hidden to protect the victim. The ad was posted in the “Casual Encounters” section of Craigslist, a section reserved for highly sexual ads. When the girl began receiving illicit emails, texts, and photos from men, she phoned the police.

Thrasher is out on a $10,000 bond and could face up to four years in state prison, or a year in county jail and a $5,000 fine.

While we agree that education and not legislation is the best way to deal with cyberbullying amongst teens, we see no reason why grown adults who choose to target and harass children should not be prosecuted. Whether or not there needs to be special classification for online harassment is a matter best left to the lawyers and lawmakers.

Do you think what Thrasher did should be punishable by law?

Filed under: Internet Safety News