Local laws considered to stop online hoax that led to suicide

DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo. (AP) - It's too late for a 13-year old girl who committed suicide, but officials in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, are trying to enact a local law to prevent Internet harassment.

It stems from last year's death of the teen who'd been communicating with a cute teenage boy on the MySpace networking site. She hanged herself right after he broke off their month-long relationship, saying he'd learned she wasn't nice to her friends.

Eventually it came out that the boy was fictitious; the communications were from a family in the neighborhood trying to find out what the girl was saying about them.

The teen's mother calls the hoax "absolutely vile," and says police couldn't fit the case to any existing laws. So, local authorities are trying to create an ordinance that would protect children.

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