Legal Responsibility for Child's Internet Usage

yuggoth writes "According to this NY Times article, a father is being sued for negligence because his under-age son created a defamatory web site about a classmate. The classmate seeks damages of more than $50.000 because the father didn't always supervise his son while surfing on the 'net." Sounds like the plaintiff is grasping at straws.

Comments

Re:Article text--bypass creating another bogus ID

[sjames]

I can think of several things more dangerous than a computer that they will have to consider: Any piece of wire cord or rope (strangulation), a pencil (far more potential for a fatal stabbing), baseball bat, or a rock. All can be lethal.

And let's not forget: 'In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife... :-)

Dangerous Weapon

[Jeremy Erwin]

Whats's interesting about this case is that the plaintiff is claiming that the internet is an inherently dangerou article, akin to blasting caps.

If succesful, this suit could also provide ammnition to those who want to mandate censorware.

Countersuit in order . . .

[acceleriter]

And lots of publicity and mirrors for the "defamatory" website. Then the whole world can know what an asshole the "defamed" guy was, not just the people who happened upon the website before the suit.

Then the original suit gets dismissed, and everything's fine.

IANAL, yada yada yada.

Strange, but perhaps understandable...

[Kasreyn]

It's strange that, as stated in that lengthy article just above, there's no basis for this in legal precedent, but judges go ahead and make wrongheaded moves like this one.

The best reason I can come up with is that it's confusing to them. They don't really know what a computer is, what the internet is, what it can be used for, who is doing the using and how it is done. Without this information, they're effectively making their decisions blind. Imagine, if you will, making decisions on gun control but not knowing: a.) what a gun is for, b.) how one is operated, or c.) what types of people are involved with them. It'd be sheer folly to even try! But they do it all the time with "internet control" rulings.

I think we need some better educated judges, so people will stop seeing this area as a field day for spurious lawsuits like this one. The U.S.A.'s judicial system has 2 battle cries these days: Get Me Off the Hook and I Want Your Money. The latter is overhauling the former in popularity rather rapidly, too. ;)

-Kasreyn.