June 20, 2006
Dumbshit Dept.
Troubling MySpace lawsuit
A $30M lawsuit was just filed against MySpace for failing to protect a 14 year old user:
The lawsuit claims that the Web site does not require users to verify their age and calls the security measures aimed at preventing strangers from contacting users younger than 16 "utterly ineffective."
. . .
In May, after a series of e-mails and phone calls, he picked her up at school, took her out to eat and to a movie, then drove her to an apartment complex parking lot in South Austin, where he sexually assaulted her, police said. He was arrested May 19.
Ugh. What's wrong with this picture?
- It is not the responsibility of the Internet, or any one site in particular to keep your kids safe. If you want safe kids, you have to educate them to think and act safe. If your kid is dumb enough to get into a car with a total stranger met over the Internet, you as a parent have failed. Not MySpace.
- If a site does not verify someone's age, how can you expect to have any working system that prevents older people from contacting younger people?
- How much harm could possibly have been done that you need to sue for $30 million??
- Why should negligent parents by rewarded by wads of cash?
I see dire ramifications coming from this lawsuit -- what if these people win? I could see just about every web site where people could interact be required to do an age verification check -- we're talking about every forum, every blog with comments! This is a tremendous hassle, will cost millions of dollars and wont work. If this case goes down in favor of the plaintiff, it will make operating a web site in the US vastly more expensive and will drive more business out of the US. Hosting MySpace in India would make more sense -- I bet there are fewer laws in India about this sort of stuff.
More in the trend of the US and its citizens working hard to make it less competitive in the global economy.
Technorati Tags: myspace, lawsuit
Posted by Mayhem at June 20, 2006 11:33 AM
The alcohol and tobacco industries have done a LOT of work on this..and still not found a good way to do it. A lot of the tobacco stuff is firewalled behind logins..which is only available after the user has gone to an event and provided physical evidence of age. Alcohol has not got there yet, but have looked at many ways to verify age. The problem is there is are very few reliable ways..without having all knowing centralised databases and IDs and having that cost a lot of money.
It is actually easier than you think to require validation for a site like myspace. All you have to do is require a credit card. You can verify information about the users by the information provided by the bank. If you are a minor, you would have to get your parents to sign you up. That is simple enough. I don't think this would apply to all sites as you suggest, such as blogs. Only sites that allow you to gain so much information about minor children.
Jeff,
The problem is that many teenagers and people from lesser affluent countries simply do not have a credit card. So your solution doesn't work for the people who need it the most. :-(
Quote:
"How much harm could possibly have been done that you need to sue for $30 million??"
What price can one put on a young life? In my opinion, no compensation would ever be enough.
Well if a young life is priceless, then why are the parents asking for money? And how is money going to heal any emotional scars?
People are morons... Unless of course they're saying 30mil in the hopes of reaching a settlement where MySpace creates an age verification system and case dropped, but I doubt the parents actually care enough to do that.
This is so completely ridiculous that I imagine it will be thrown (or more likely laughed) out of court. If someone you're in a bar and someone slips you a roofie because you're not watching your drink, do you sue the bar? No. It's not their responsibility. If you're walking through an alley and get mugged, so you sue the police department for not providing adequate security? No. They can't be everywhere at all times. Sometimes, you have to take responsibility for your actions... it's sad and unjust, I know... but no one is going to hold your hand. Why you think Myspace should is completely beyond me. It's an Internet site with tens of millions of users. It has a larger population than most countries, why you think the site should be able to police all its members is beyond me.
Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid.
It's strange that she's not suing the man who assaulted her... call my cynical, but it's probably because he doesn't have any money.
The bottom line is that the mother in this case, like many parents in today's society, refuses to accept responsibility and accoutability for their childrens' actions. It is not the responsibility of the entire internet community to ensure the safety of your children, it is yours and yours alone. If you allow your children to roam the internet unsupervised, then you may as well let them roam Central Park at 2 in the morning alone as well. The risks are the same.
haha, oh man, didn't her mother ever tell her not to talk to strangers? ESPECIALLY online strangers? Even if they SAY they know who YOU are? Obviously not. Obviously the 14 year old wanted to meet someone from the football team, which makes me wonder about her intentions and personality, it makes me question the things her mother taught her, because it obviously wasn't values... Her mother obviously didn't sit down with her and say "Okay, if you meet someone who wants you to go someplace with them, make sure YOU know them not that THEY KNOW YOU, don't do anything you feel uncomfortable doing, don't go anywhere without being absolutely sure!"
She's lucky to be alive, and that should be enough that she learned a valuable life lesson the horrible and traumatizing hard way, which should be obvious and SHOULD have been taught to her before she was first allowed to leave the house or touch the computer.
If this 14 year old was in a park with payphones, and the phone rang, I'm confident that if she'd answer it and get told someone from the football team wants to meet her in a dark alley. She'd do it! Same thing. If she was slipped a note while she was eating at a public restaurant "Meet me at the football field after dark. Your secret admirer from the football team." She'd have gone! Myspace isn't responsible for peoples children, parents are, and I hope that bitch of a mother goes broke from failing to sue a fun and entertaining website that was worked hard on.
Raise your kids smart, and take some fucking responsibility for that. Besides, myspace does everything they can to make sure people are safe, such as private profiles, and constantly warning them about the danger they can get themselves into, and what they should do to prevent it. The fucking parents should have told their children, but myspace went ahead and added that in anyway.
That's all there is to it. That mother has to live with the fault of the poor raising she did with her now traumatized child who won't be able to save her innocence for the next wrong guy anyway. But I sure hope the guy who assaulted a 14 year old gets shot into space or something.
I was a little afraid to enter my name and email..afraid i might have to sue this forum because of not enuf tight security..ha this woman is absolutly ridiculous and its absurd...i think everything thats been said has been covered, so i wont waste my fingers. Just wanted to agree
This lawsuit is ridiculous. Like others said, do you sue the police if you get mugged because they weren't there to help you? I think there was another case where some fat people tried to sue McDonald's because they got fat from eating the food. NO SHIT!?
This only happens in America...because Americans refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Things like this just make me laugh.
ok when you sign up for myspace or anything in that matter there is terms and conditions now who reads those?
well nobody that i know but i guess somewhere in them files of terms and conditions there states that there isnt anyone that is going to hold your hand and tell you what to not do and do on this website.Ad that lifeguard isnt gonna be there once you get drowned by someone on it because it appranently wasnt mysace's fault.
(parents) its your fault you are doing this to your children and this woman is ridiculous for even saying such a ridiculous thing.shes crazy if she thinks that if here daughhter gets raped its myspaces fault.Bullcrap.
your crazy lady get a job like everyoen else.
I have to say it's a good post!
Parents should be aware of all the hidden dangers their children may encounter while on MySpace.com. Parents should learn what their child is doing online and find out if their child is at risk against predators as soon as possible before anything terrible happens.
Click on my Name to learn of a valuable eBook and 6 online videos that teach parents how to keep their children safe from MySpace Predators. Parents, learn what your child is doing on MySpace and find out if your child is at risk against predators!
Ummmmmmmm obviously that girl was stupid and met a guy on the internet... thats pretty stupid on her part. This is not myspace fault by any means. This could have happened on any site.
This is a classic case of parental laziness. I am sick and tired of the "let 'george' do it" attitude of some parents today. They always want to make the care and welfare of their children someone else's responsibility.
This stupid cow blames MySpace for her own failure as a mother, her failure to teach her child properly about stranger danger and her own
stupidity in allowing a 14-year-old to leave the home unchaperoned so that she could meet someone in secret.
My question is, where the hell was the mother when all of this was going on? What was she so very busy at such that she had no idea what her
minor child was up to?
I am sick of parents who want to blame webmasters whenever their kids get into trouble online. I agree with the poster who said that this 14-year-old was just as likely to go wandering off with any stranger she met on the street as to meet up with someone she met online.
I have a 15-year-old daughter, and she's on MySpace. But I am also a parent who takes the time to sit with her and see what she's doing there. I also joined MySpace so I could check up on the kids she has listed as 'friends' to make sure that none of them are troublemakers or
"kid impersonators." Yes, this means I must use up some of my precious time, but that's the price one pays for being a parent. When you bring a child into this world, you must take responsibility for them.
I sincerely hope that this no-account sorry excuse of a mother loses. I also hope that the
school district who is contemplating a suit against MySpace gives up the idea.
I believe that any parent who doesn't monitor their child's online behavior is guilty of neglect and child endangerment. Lazy parents like this woman are exactly like the parent who
allows a 5-year-old to wander alone in the street, or who fails to provide adequate food and shelter. Their neglect of parental duties puts the child in danger, and they should be prosecuted.
blame the parents? wait til your kids online doing something that you don't know about. then one day poof, they are gone. 30 million won't compensate for how that child's life is damaged. and 30 million isnt enough to make myspace really pay for the wrong they are doing to society.
ps i wonder why anyone would argue in favor of online predators
I believe that any parent who doesn't monitor their child's online behavior is guilty of neglect and child endangerment. Lazy parents like this woman are exactly like the parent who
allows a 5-year-old to wander alone in the street, or who fails to provide adequate food and shelter. Their neglect of parental duties puts the child in danger, and they should be prosecuted.
I agree!!
something is weird about this blog, you all have the same opinion, and how did this blog get to be #1 on a google search? Or maybe bloggers are just more likely to defend social networking sites.
Parents should learn what their child is doing online and find out if their child is at risk against predators as soon as possible before anything terrible happens.
There are so many sites on the net besides myspace where these things can happen.
The problem is the litigious nature of American society, where the idea has become common that no one needs to take responsibility. Just find a lawyer, blame some one else, and sue them.
http://lushforlife.com/more.php?id=221
