Last fall we heard about the case of a Missouri teenager who killed herself after being abused through MySpace, allegedly by the mother of a former friend. Missouri law enforcement officials did not file charges.

However investigators in Los Angeles pursued the case because MySpace's servers are located there, and MySpace was named as a victim in the case.

On Thursday this woman was indicted by a federal grand jury in California with fraud because she misrepresented herself through the MySpace account. She is also charged with counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.

This sad case raises various concerns including dealing with cyberbullying, overly “protective” interference by immature parents, and obvious flaws in the justice system.

With Internet law being so new there was not an immediately apparent way to deal with this situation. This left a lot of people angry and frustrated.

This reminds me a bit of the Matt Wilhelm case, in which the 1999 Uni graduate was hit and killed by a car when the driver was busy downloading ringtones and consequently not paying attention to the road. In this case as well laws were not yet written to deal with this new type of crime.

With technology changing the world, incidents such as the MySpace suicide and the Matt Wilhelm case can be used to set precedents for new laws.

But it takes time — change is gradual — and there are always obstacles. The Urbana City Council only managed to prohibit texting while driving; talking on your cell phone while driving is still legal. Likewise a charge against misrepresenting yourself on MySpace may not be popular because anonymity is valued.

The crime this woman is accused of committing was, however, not one of anonymity — it was deliberate and cruel deception.