Slashdot Mirror
MySpace Sued by Families of Online Predator Victims
MySpace is facing more lawsuits, as the victims of sexual predators have filed suit against the social site and parent corporation News Corp. In total, four families from across the U.S. have joined together after their underage daughters were abused by men they met via MySpace. MySpace has responded to past allegations by putting in place educational efforts and partnerships with law enforcement. The company is also developing technologies to allow parents to have some measure of access to their child's account. From the article: "'In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users,' said Jason A. Itkin, an Arnold & Itkin lawyer. The families are seeking monetary damages 'in the millions of dollars,' Itkin said."
Probably not the same situation (I don't know if the girls knew the guys were older men), but when I was 17, I had a short affair with a 34 year old woman (a neighbor two houses down). I had a near perfect relationship with my parents, but do you think I told them about it? To this day they don't know.
Re: Where are the parents in these situations
Well, they've been reading Slashdot. They took our advice and didn't monitor their children's internet use, because we know that monitoring is fascist.
I'm thinking that perhaps they didn't go out looking for someone that will abuse them. That just who they ended up with this time. And what about all the normal girls that end up in these type of relationships? And anyway what is normal.
Good people can come from very dark family backgrounds. Bad kids can come from loving families.
If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
I hope the state brings charges against the parents for neglect, but thanks them for pointing it out. I think removal of their children and a couple (or more) years in prison would do it.
Please re-read what I originally posted. While I knew where the gun was....I only touched it that one time without supervision of my parents, and after the perceived danger was over, I dropped the clip, and took the chambered shell out, and put it back in the clip....clip back in gun, gun back hidden in my parent's room, and PROMPTLY called my parents and told them.
Maybe where you live it is a bit different, but, in the south in the US, MANY homes have guns in them, we grow up with them...protection, hunting, etc. My Mom and Dad put the 'fear of God' in me if I touched it for any other reason than if my life was in danger. He also took me out with him to target practice, so I knew how to properly use the gun, and also to respect that this thing could be dangerous, and was NOT a toy.
What I was alluding to in my OP, was my parents taught me to be responsible at a young age...
I had to come home alone every day after school, and was left alone every day during the summers when I was old enough to be on my own (12-13 I think). When I came home from school...Mom taught me some cooking basics when I was old enough. It might start by me putting in frozen veggies into the crock pot that she'd started that morning, and as I got old enough to use the stove, knives..etc...I had more responsibilities to help with the family meal. It is one of the reasons I'm a pretty decent cook to this day.
All I'm getting to is, that even if parents both work (like mine), they could in the past raise a child that could be trusted and had responsibility. I'm asking why parents today cannot seem to do that same.
I'm trying to remember how old I was when the gun incident happened...I must have been in like the 5th or 6th grade...so was about 12 or 13...maybe a bit later but, around that time.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I would like to see a law passed that allow companies to countersue stupid parents who blame other people for their lack of parenting skills.
1. It is impossible to monitor your kids all of the time. We were all kids once, and we know it is true. This has nothing to do with parenting skill.
2. MySpace has been operating for quite a while knowing full well that child predators are active on their site.
3. MySpace could certainly have done more to validate identity (registration through snail mail?), but that would have eaten into profits.
4. MySpace has made a pile of money (mainly by being bought) while operating in this manner.
So, from where I sit, MySpace has made a pile of money by being user-friendly to child predators. Why shouldn't they get sued again?
I'd just like to make a few points:
Anyone who believes that 14-16 year old girls don't go looking for sexual encounters--even with significantly older men--has never dealt with teen-age girls. This isn't as one-sided as people want to make it out to be. These men weren't forcing the girls to talk to them. Other than the one young man lying that he was still in high school (he's only 19, so that's not a huge lie), we have no evidence that there was any deception going on at all. The guy who drugged the girl can definitely be considered a predator, but it's fully possible that the other guys simply got involved in a 2-way relationship which progressed to a point where both parties were willing to meet and take it further.
I'm not saying that this was the smartest move on anyone's part, but considering that--depending on the states these people are in--the sexual encounters could have been entirely consensual and legal, the situation needs to be considered from other perspectives.
Having spent many years teaching high school students, I'm quite certain that there's more to the story than is being presented in the article or the law suits.