Web sites glorifying Columbine High School killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold became a virtual meeting space for two teens a world apart who planned their own high school massacres, authorities said.

Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, who fatally shot eight at his Finnish high school before turning his gun on himself last week, and Dillon Cossey, 14, who reportedly admitted planning a school shooting near Philadelphia, connected in cyberspace.

London's The Times newspaper reported that Auvinen and Cossey made contact through two groups on the social-networking Web site MySpace: "RIP Eric and Dylan" and "Natural Selection."

And Cossey's lawyer, J. David Farrell, said the two also connected through the YouTube video- sharing site and found that they shared common interests: Columbine, violent videos and video games. A YouTube video titled "RIP Eric and Dylan" was removed from the site.

They traded e-mail, exchanged posts about the Colorado killings in 1999 and likely chatted online, Farrell said.

"They had discussed certain video games and shared videos with each other," Farrell said. "Obviously, Columbine was a shared topic of interest."

Parent not surprised

The parent of one Columbine victim said it's not surprising that the two suspects were communicating with each other. Brian Rohr bough, whose son, Daniel, was murdered at Columbine, wondered if information seized in one case might have helped avert the other.

"In every school shooting, there are people who know," he said. "(Suspects) are always bragging about the things they are going to do. We know with the historical data on school shootings that they don't happen in a vacuum."

Cossey, 14, was arrested in October for allegedly preparing an attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in suburban Philadelphia. The attack never took place, but he has reportedly admitted to planning it.

Auvinen, 18, killed six students, a nurse and the principal Wednesday in Tuusula, about 30 miles north of the Finnish capital, Hel sinki. He then shot himself in the head and died hours later at a hospital.

Farrell said Cossey was "horrified" that Auvinen, whom he knew only by his online tag "sturm geist 89" had carried out the attacks.

A rifle and other weapons were found in Cossey's home, but his attorney said he was living in a morbid fantasy world.

"My client didn't encourage him in any way," Farrell said. "He had no indication that somebody he was communicating with actually was formulating an intent to commit a violent act."

'To outdo Columbine'

A University of Colorado professor who has studied school shootings said it is not surprising that other school shooters sought to emulate the two Columbine High School students who killed 13 people at the school on April 20, 1999, before killing themselves.

Nor was he surprised that they connected via an Internet site set up to pay homage to Klebold and Harris.

"There have been multiple, very specific attempts to outdo Columbine that, for the most part, have been averted," said Del Elliott, director of the Boulder-based Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

"Columbine does stand as a benchmark for the ultimate assault upon a school as a school and not on a targeted individual," said Elliott, who has tried to apply lessons learned from Columbine to help schools prevent future shootings.

"Eric and Dylan did have a hit list, but it's very clear that that's not what happened when they went into the school."

Elliott said not much is known about what converts such teens from specific anger toward individual students to a more generalized hatred of the school itself.

While school shooters are often students who have been marginalized by others, Elliott said it is a misconception to think of them as loners.

"That's more the exception than the rule," he said. "More often, they are in a group of outsiders who share that feeling of being picked on and marginalized."

So it is not surprising, he said, that Cossey and Auvinen would have met online.

Farrell added that many nonviolent teens are drawn to the same things that brought Cossey and Auvinen together online.

"You can be sure that there are thousands and thousands and thousands of kids that are accessing these Web sites," he said.

Teen left suicide note

Finnish police said material seized from Auvinen's computer suggests he had communicated online with Cossey.

Finnish investigators have said Auvinen left a suicide note for his family and foreshadowed the attack in YouTube postings. On Monday, Rabbe von Hertzen, a detective in the case, said Auvinen is believed to have written the suicide note on Nov. 5, suggesting he had planned the attacks for at least two days.

Police have described Auvinen as a bullied teenage outcast consumed with anger against society.

Cossey told a friend that he wanted to pull off an attack similar to Columbine. Prosecutors and Farrell have said Cossey felt bullied.