February 15, 2007

Judge Dismisses MySpace Suit

I’ll say it right now – I don’t like MySpace because of some of the extremes to which my students (and other young people) go online. At the same time, I don’t see how MySpace can be held responsible for the misdeeds of some users – unless we are going to also hold the phone companies responsible for perverts using the phone to get together with teens as well.

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the social networking Web site MySpace filed by the family of a 13-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met online.

The $30 million lawsuit accused the site of having no measures to protect children who use it. The lawsuit also named MySpace's parent company, News Corp., and the 19-year-old, whose criminal case has not yet gone to trial.

In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said MySpace is protected under the Communications Decency Act and cannot be expected to verify the age of every user because that "would of course stop MySpace's business in its tracks."

The decency act cited by Sparks generally grants immunity to interactive computer services such as MySpace so that they are not liable for content posted by users. Without immunity, companies such as MySpace "would be crippled by lawsuits arising out of third-party communications," Sparks wrote.

How far would they like to take this logic? Should the local mall have liability if a kid meets a creep there? How about the local motel, in the event said creep takes his prey there? Why shouldnÂ’t such places also be held to this standard of liability if they lack means to verify they are not being used by sex predators out to feed their unnatural appetites?

And I’m curious – what degree of liability should be laid at the door of parents who lax supervision and negligent raising of their children allows such abuse to occur?

Posted by: Greg at 12:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 333 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I have to be honest - I have some sympathy for the parents and their child.  It is a more difficult world in which to bring up kids - the protections seem nonexistent, and, everywhere you turn, there are slimeballs eager to wreck those kids' lives.

However, it is every parent's obligation to be the main person in charge of their child's safety.  My eldest grandchild is 13, and, although his father works as a networking specialist, our John is not permitted to access the Internet, except in a carefully restricted way.  If he needs to do research, he must use his dad's computer, and he is aware that his actions will be monitored.

A couple of things can help:

1) A parent should set themselves up as the first user on the computer, with administrator status (don't forget to give yourself a password).  That way, it's easier to double-check your child's online activities.
2) Computers for kids should be used ONLY in public access areas - where their actions can be seen.
3) Regularly check the history - what sites are they accessing?  Are there some that need to be blocked?  SOME of the "blocking" software is OK, but most of it is less than useless.  Kids can get around the restrictions, and they lead parents to believe that the kid's safe.  It's false security.
4) Set up a log file to collect information about where your kid has been.  Check it.
5) Learn the lingo - POS - if your teen uses that code, it means Parent over shoulder.  Don't let on that you know, just keep in mind that the kid may be hiding something.

Posted by: Linda F at Sat Feb 17 05:28:39 2007 (kj1Qe)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Comments are disabled. Post is locked.
7kb generated in CPU 0.008, elapsed 0.0169 seconds.
21 queries taking 0.0115 seconds, 30 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
[/posts]