I know that hindsight can be 20/20, but this is just tragic event that was fully unavoidable.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — A Missouri mom was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in the death of a teen who killed herself over a failed Internet romance that turned out to be a hoax.

A federal indictment accuses Lori Drew, 49, of O’Fallon, Missouri, of using the social networking Web site MySpace.com to pose as a 16-year-old boy and feign romantic interest in the girl.

The girl, Megan Meier, committed suicide after her online love interest spurned her, according to prosecutors, telling her the world would be a better place without her.

Drew faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiracy and accessing protected computers to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.

The indictment, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, accuses Drew and others of registering on MySpace as “Josh Evans” and using the account to lure Meier into an an online romance.

Authorities have previously said that Drew set up the account to find out what Meier, who lived in her neighborhood, was saying about her daughter.

Prosecutors allege that Drew and the others violated MySpace’s terms of service by using false information to create the account so they could “harass, abuse or harm” Meier, according to the indictment.

The two corresponded for about four weeks before “Josh” broke off the relationship, authorities said. Within an hour, Meier hanged herself in her room and died the next day.

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I get wanting to protect your child, especially in the MySpace and FaceBook age. I applaud setting up accounts to keep a watchful eye over internet social networking. But just how delusional do you have to be pull a stunt like that?

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If you weren’t already convinced that the internet is fraught with perils for our kids, maybe this will convince you — North Carolina’s Attorney General is reporting that there are over 29,000 known sex offenders with pages on MySpace:

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office said in a statement that based on MySpace’s own estimates, the number of registered sex offenders with MySpace pages under their own names was four times more than the company’s previous estimate.

Cooper is proposing that North Carolina pass legislation to ban registered sex offenders from using social networking sites that allow minors, and strengthening other anti-child pornography and criminal penalties for Internet solicitation of minors and children for sex. The proposal also suggests that social networking sites’ underage users be required to get parental permission before registering and posting personal information.

Young people have been the early adopters and most avid users of social networking sites, making them targets for sexual predators.

And this only includes the geniuses that used their real names, who knows what the real count is. If you only have a vague awareness of what your kid is doing on sites like MySpace, you need to get more involved — they have the ability to post tons of personal information such as hometown, age, school, as well as uploading personal photos. And unless they have their accounts set to private, any registered MySpace user can view their profiles.

This concludes The Imperfect Parent’s “Give You More Things to Worry About” moment of the week.

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