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Article: In Several States, A Push to Stem Cyber-Bullying; Most of the Laws Focus on Schools
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- January 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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In California, a hateful Internet campaign followed sixth-grader
Olivia Gardner through three schools. In Vermont, a humiliated Ryan
Halligan, 13, took his own life after being encouraged to do so by
one of his middle-school peers. And in perhaps the most notorious
case, Lori Drew, 49, was recently convicted on misdemeanor charges
for posing as a teenage boy on MySpace to woo and then reject 13-
year-old Megan Meier of Missouri, who later hanged herself in her
closet.
Such are a few of the anguished stories of cyber-bullying that
are increasingly cropping up around the country, as more and more
children and teenagers wage war with one another on computers and
cellphones. The phenomenon has ...