Public Perception of MySpace has always been quite different from the thoughts of those on the site and MySpace had some trouble with how the app was presented from very early on. While the site’s user base continued to expand rapidly, some parents, community groups, and state and local governments worried that young teenagers—among whom Myspace had become ubiquitous—were being exposed to potential sexual predators. In 2006, the company began detecting and deleting profiles of registered sex offenders and partnered with Sentinel Tech Holdings Corp. to develop the first national database of convicted sex offenders. In addition, to issues with sexual predators, MySpace was confronted with one of the first cases of suicide directly linked to the site. 

Meghan Meir was a 13-year-old who committed suicide just three weeks shy of her 14th birthday due to threatening and harassing messages from a boy named Josh Evans who she had met through MySpace. One whole year later, it was revealed that this “Josh Evans” was really fake and that neighbors of Meghan had made up the character to harass her. The main suspect, Lori Drew (49), was then tried in court with 3 misdemeanors of computer fraud in the country’s first-ever cyberbullying case. During the duration of the case, much scrutiny was placed on the website for its failure to protect Meghan, and many parents, adults, community groups, etc. began to have a worse outlook of the website.