MySpace Faces More Lawsuits
Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:34PM EST
See Comments (23)
It's been a big week for MySpace news. The latest story is about what the popular social-networking site has been angling to avoid: lawsuits.
The families of five teenage girls who were sexually abused by adults they met on the site have filed separate lawsuits against MySpace and its parent company, News Corp., seeking millions of dollars in damages and charging negligence, recklessness, fraud and negligent misrepresentations. Their lawyers said the companies took too long to put security measures in place to protect underage members on MySpace. One plaintiff is a 15-year-old Texas girl who was lured, drugged, and assaulted by an adult MySpace member who is serving a 10-year-sentence for the attack.
This suit follows another filed by a Texas mom of a 14-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old who she says lied about being a high school senior to win her trust and her phone number.The lawsuits are inevitable, but the best service they can provide is to spark more talks between parents and teens who spend time on MySpace and other social-networking sites. I think that's happening more and more even without this latest flurry of legal papers. The most recent findings by the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that more than half (55 percent) of kids age 12 to 17 use social-networking sites. And of them, 66 percent say they limit access to their profiles and do not make them open to everyone. You can see more of the findings on this PDF page.
In an effort to make it a safer space for underage members, MySpace has added more educational and safety tips on and off its site, restricted members 18 and older from contacting younger members, and will make software available this summer that will alert parents when their teens change their age or other basic profile info on MySpace. But all of that is no substitute for good judgment by teens and strong communication between parents and kids about how to socialize safely online.
Related links:
MySpace Move: Notification Software for Parents
A "24" Approach to MySpace Safety
MySpace to Screen Profiles for Sex Offenders
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Comments on MySpace Faces More Lawsuits
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Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
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2 Posted by chaessigbikerboy on Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:20PM EST Report Abuse
Myspace is a great website. It should not be myspace's problem , to be in charge of all underage internet usage. Parents should be in control of there kids.
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3 Posted by cleankiks on Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:29PM EST Report Abuse
My Space should not be held accountable for the actions of underage children using their website. The parents of those children should be. It's not My Space's fault if you don't have enough sense to teach your children not to "hook-up" with strangers. Stalkers, rapists and pedophiles are a very unfortunate part of life, but punishing others (as in assigning blame to My Space) after the fact is useless. Anyone who commits crimes should be punished, please don't get me wrong - but suing My Space? Where's the responsibility? Where's the accountability on the part of the parents? Keeping your children safe starts at home. It starts with instilling good common-sense values into their way of thinking from day one. The problem here is that these parents don't know how to teach their children not to do foolish things that put themselves in these types of situations, so in actual fact the root of the problem is much, much deeper than most people realize. Fewer vengeful lawsuits and a lot more education on the subject of communication, and how you can apply it to raising your children, and we wouldn't have this type of situation.
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4 Posted by titalei_69 on Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:41PM EST Report Abuse
I agree with organbuilder272. I bet they enjoyed having adult conversations with these people and weren't thinking of what could happen to them. I bet they gave out personal information too. Teenagers now days are very hmmm...how do I say it??? Naughty...They talk nasty, dress unreal and like to tease especially the young girls, they like to see how far they can get with guys and then turn them down. Soooo SAD!!! Parents don't teach them better. Now days, parents just let their kids go. Minimal parenting going on now days. Come on now kids use your common sense, you should know right from wrong!!! And Parents, Get more involved!!! Myspace has nothing to do with this, it was their choice to talk to these people. What were they doing on Myspace unsupervised. If not on Myspace they'll find a way to talk to people, there are alot of other Chatrooms and adult sites. I'm pretty sure they check them out too. So PARENTS be aware of what your children are doing and be more INVOLVED!!! Don't let technology be a babysitter for your children make time for them! What ever happened to family values and morals??? In other words, what ever happened to FAMILY??? You know there IS a deny button on Myspace!!! And you can chose your friends and who you talk to. You can set your profile to private. A-duhhhh!!!
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5 Posted by josephtiracohandyman on Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:48PM EST Report Abuse
there is software available for the price of a tank of gas that moniters all activity of a computer in a house but really all this is caused not only by those who are looking for kids to kids to prey on but by those who intrust their childrens safety to others to moniter how about taking responsibilty fopr your own for a change and not blaming everyone else for your non vigilance ???
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1 Posted by organbuilder272 on Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:16PM EST Report Abuse
These lawsuits are interesting. It seems that kids who do not use common sense and do a bit of investigation on their won, as well as parents who, in this age of danger, do not counsel their children about strangers and what can happen - even before the age of the PC we were warned - feel that multi millions will make up for taking responsibility for their negligence and the results. Today, children ad far to independant, parents are shirking their responsibilities and there seems to be no communications betweern generations. Money will not change this, nor will it solve any problems. It seems that, today, instead of wisdom, the answer to all bad events is to sue. How about that ounce of prevention.