Although usually mocked and severely underestimated, online bullying is as real and as harmful as the real-life one. Written words can have the same impact as spoken ones. The explanation is that you are unsure of the tone used and imagine the worst case scenario, and also written words stay on your screen until you gather the strength to close the window. Online bullies are in some respects even more dangerous than the real ones, because you never know who is behind the computer screen. Most of the people who bully others over the internet are victims of real-life bullying.

Sometimes, even adults get involved in this twisted game of power and manipulation. Such was the case of Lori Drew, a mother who persecuted a former friend of her daughter’s on the popular social networking website, MySpace. It seems that Lori Drew created an account where she was impersonating a 16-year-old boy, by the name of Josh Evans. Through “Josh”, Drew contacted Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl who used to be friends with Lori’s daughter.

Apparently, the purpose of creating the account was to find out if Meier was badmouthing her daughter after the two had fallen out. Unfortunately, Drew took it too far with some of the comments she made. After pretending to be interested in Meier, “Josh” told her that the world was better off without her.

Sadly, such comments pushed Meier over the edge and the girl hanged herself in her room. Meier’s mother told the investigators that her daughter had had issues with her self-esteem and had even gone through depression.

Apparently, Drew was not the only one with access to the “Josh” account, and she claims she wasn’t the one to send Meier that crude, final message. Drew is only being charged with conspiracy and accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress, which violates MySpace’s terms of service. Opening arguments could begin on Tuesday.