The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, seem to be in the news a lot these days -- for good, bad & ugly reasons.

In the good department, I read an article today on the use of a social-networking site as an aid to find a missing friend. In A Web tool in search for missing, it was reported:

When Daniel Scagnelli's best friend went missing this month, he turned to an unusual source for help - Facebook, the ubiquitous social-networking Web site popular with college students and young adults.

Scagnelli asked more than 400 friends linked to his Facebook page to spread the word about Kyle Fleischmann, who disappeared Nov. 9 after leaving a bar in Charlotte. So far, about 56,000 people have joined Scagnelli's Facebook group, and more than 1,700 messages have been posted.

The exponential reach of Facebook has fanned national interest in an otherwise routine missing-person case. Hundreds of volunteers have combed Charlotte for signs of Fleischmann, 24. A retired police officer from Burlington conducted searches using tracking dogs. Firefighters have volunteered for several searches, Scagnelli said, and the offices of the governor of North Carolina and the mayor of Charlotte have contacted friends and family.

The Today show and America's Most Wanted have publicized the case, as have newspapers, Web sites and radio and TV stations in North Carolina and beyond. Donors have contributed more than $30,000, which has been used to post a $10,000 reward and hire private investigators, Scagnelli said.

"This is a unique way to use Facebook," said Fleischmann's father, Dick. "It's been incredibly valuable to us."

Next up is Facebook on the bad side as well. I recently wrote about Facebook's use of personal information of its users for advertising purposes, without sufficient consent or disclosure, see Suckface. Fortunately, there seems to be a backlash building over the misuse of private information, Facebook: The fine line between personal and private. Moveon has started a petition campaign, Facebook must respect privacy, so that Facebook will revise its policy to explicit approval prior to using subscribers names or information to endorse products on the site.

Then there is the ugly. That, of course, is the case of 13 year old Megan Meier, who committed suicide after she was subjected to on-line bullying by the creators of a fake MySpace persona, named Josh Evans. The St. Charles Journal explains the story in a moving account, A real person, a real death.

As the LATimes reports, In MySpace suicide case, community fights back:

For nearly a year, the families who live along Waterford Crystal Drive in this bedroom community northwest of St. Louis have kept the secret about the boy Megan Meier met last September on the social networking site MySpace.

He called himself Josh Evans, and he and 13-year-old Megan struck up an online friendship that lasted several weeks. Then the boy abruptly turned on Megan and ended it. That night, Megan, who had previously battled depression, committed suicide.

The secret was revealed six weeks later: Neighbor Lori Drew had pretended to be 16-year-old Josh to gain the trust of Megan, who had been fighting with Drew's daughter, according to sheriff's department records and Megan's parents.

Adults giving children a bad name. I just can't imagine the self-righteous individuals who could engage in this type of behavior, all the while justifying their conduct as in the "best interests" of their own child, no doubt. However unintended the consequences, it still cannot excuse this horrific tragedy.

And now, to add to the horrendous episode, the parents who instigated this cannot be charged with any type of crime, since there is no statute that covers this conduct. So the outraged community has decided to take action itself:

In an outburst of virtual vigilantism, readers of blogs such as RottenNeighbor.com and hitsusa.com have posted the Drews' home address, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and photographs.

Dozens of people allegedly have called local businesses that work with the family's advertising booklet firm, and flooded the phone lines this week at the local Burlington Coat Factory, where Curt Drew reportedly works.

"I posted that, where Curt works. I'm not ashamed to admit that," said Trever Buckles, 40, a neighbor whose two teenage boys grew up with Megan. "Why? Because there's never been any sense of remorse or public apology from the Drews, no 'maybe we made a mistake.' "

Local teenagers and residents protest just steps from the Drews' tiny porch. A fake 911 call, claiming a man had been shot inside the Drew home, sent law enforcement officers to surround the one-story, white-sided house. People drive through the neighborhood in the middle of the night, screaming, "Murderer!"

The internet. Sometimes it reminds me of that child's rhyme:

When she was good, she was very, very good,
When she was bad, she was horrid.

Tags: News, Facebook, MySpace, Megan Meier