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

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.