Well, that’s what the headline says. However, if you read the entire article from ABC News, you might form the same the opinion I did; Irresponsible parenting leads to teen’s suicide. How terribly sad that parents are not taking responsibility when it comes to the time their children spend on the internet.

To summarize, we have an innocent 13 year old girl, Megan, suffering from depression. Her parents claim that she has low self esteem but for some reason fail to connect the fact that they are separated with plans to divorce as having anything to do with Megan’s depression. I like to refer to that as burying your head in the sand, or Ostrich syndrome.

For some reason, Megan’s mother allows her to befriend a cute boy on MySpace (keep in mind that Megan is only 13):

When a cute boy befriended Megan on the social networking site MySpace, the two formed a quick connection during their more than month-long relationship.

“She got this e-mail from this boy named Josh Evans,” Tina Meier said.

Evans claimed to be a 16-year-old boy who lived nearby and was home schooled. But what began as a promising online friendship soon turned sour, as compliments turned to insults.

I’m sorry? I guessed I missed the part of what on earth possesses a parent to knowingly allow their 13 year old depressed daughter, already taking medication, to befriend a complete stranger online?! Oh, it gets better:

Evans said he didn’t have a phone and so Megan couldn’t talk to him. But the two continued their communication online, despite some red flags Tina Meier said she saw.

“It was just that nervous mom,” Tina Meier said. She called police to find out if they could determine if a MySpace account was real. They couldn’t.

Hello?!!! Anybody home?!! Now, all of a sudden Tina Meier believes she is intelligent enough to protect other people’s children from online predators and hoaxes? To be fair, this seems to be a pattern in the lives of idiots. I mean, haven’t you seen it before? Parents do a crappy job of raising their own children and then all of a sudden they’re signing up to be foster parents. I always find that so entertaining. I guess they’re mission in life is to see how big of a black mark they can leave on the earth before departing. Sheesh!

Still, all seemed to go well between Megan and Josh until an unsettling message started a tragic chain of events.

“Megan gets an e-mail, or a message from Josh on her MySpace on Oct. 15, 2006, saying, ‘I don’t know if I want to be friends with you any longer because I hear you’re not nice to your friends,’” Tina Meier said.

Someone using Josh’s account was sending cruel messages and Megan called her mother, saying electronic bulletins were being posted about her, saying things like, “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat,” according to the Associated Press.

Well, there never was any Josh in the first place. Only an two worthless parents destroying the life of one beautiful, naive, innocent child.

Tina Meier discovered her daughter’s body in a bedroom closet on Oct. 16, 2006. Megan had hanged herself and died a day later.

But six weeks after Megan’s death, the Meiers learned Josh Evans never existed. A mother, who had learned of the page from her own daughter, told the Meiers a neighborhood mom had created and monitored Evans’ profile and page.

Sad. Two mothers with less common sense than one slug.

“When emotionally vulnerable young people get online, they can be very easily manipulated,” said Nancy Willard, executive director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use.

Yes, that’s true. However, responsible parenting can prevent tragedies such as this from ever occurring. We need to pray for children we know of personally who have poor excuses for parents.