An ex-boyfriend threatens to put a compromising video of a woman online if she breaks up with him. A teenage girl is harassed on MySpace and kills herself.

From text messaging, social networking sites, e-mail, tweets — and who knows what's next — the Internet offers an ever-evolving array of options to bully, stalk, intimidate and harass.

It's not just a personal problem, but a legal one: Even with anti-harassment laws on the books, it's not always clear how the latest technology applies. When 13-year-old Megan Meier of Missouri hanged herself in 2006, there were no local laws that could be used to prosecute.

Federal prosecutors used computer-crime statutes to obtain convictions against Lori Drew, who harassed the girl through a fake MySpace identity.

This illustrates why local harassment laws should be updated to deal with this problem, which appears to be growing along with the Internet. As Advertiser reporter Rob Perez reported last year in the award-winning series, "Crossing the Line," claims of high-tech harassment are turning up more frequently on petitions for restraining orders.

House Bill 615, expected to clear the Legislature this week, is a good effort to address the problem. It expands state law to include electronic communications, as defined in statute, as among the tools covered in definitions of harassment and stalking. The bill has the support of Honolulu police and prosecutors, who need a law that's broad enough to be effective against cyber-criminals.

The Internet has become embedded in our society. Basic rules of common decency and safety, enforceable under the law, should be embedded, too.