As a result of the Megan Meier case, her home town of Dardenne Prairie, Missouri is voting on whether to make Internet harassment a crime in its jurisdiction.

Megan Meier is the 13-year-old girl who committed suicide on October 16th, 2006 after meeting a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans on Myspace. It turned out that the Evans profile was created by the mother of one of Meier’s former friends for the purpose of calling her names and harassing her.

The proposed ordinance would make online harassment a Class B misdemeanor in Dardenne Prairie, punishable by a $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail.

Although I see the need for measures to prevent tragedies such as this from happening I also see these types of laws as sometimes being too open ended. What will be defined as harassment? How will they determine the actual identity of the person harassing, etc.