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Teen Sues MySpace Over Sexual Assault

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tue Jun 20, 2006 02:19 AM
from the passing-the-buck dept.
Government The Courts The Internet News
kaufmanmoore writes "A 14-year old is suing myspace for $30 million claiming the site failed to protect her from a 19-year old she met through the site. The suit claims that MySpace doesn't verify a user's identity or age and doesn't do enough to protect users."
+ -
story

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[+] MySpace Not Guilty in Child Assault Case 228 comments
An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post reports that a Texas judge dismissed a $30 million case against MySpace for their role in a child assault case. 19-year old Peter Solis lied about his age on MySpace to gain the confidence of a 13-year old girl. The judge ruled, 'To impose a duty under these circumstances for MySpace to confirm or determine the age of each applicant, with liability resulting from negligence in performing or not performing duty, would of course stop MySpace's business in its tracks and close this avenue of communication.'" What do you think? Good call?
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  • What they need. (Score:5, Funny)

    by OverlordQ (264228) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:20AM (#15567135) Journal
    Dont they have an "Complete Moron" clause somewhere that says idiots cant sue for being terminally stupid.

    • How can they? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GFLPraxis (745118) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:30AM (#15567177) Homepage Journal
      The lawsuit is just plain stupid. I simply don't understand HOW someone can 'verify' their age over the computer. Short of requiring everyone to scan some sort of documentation of their age and requiring MySpace to hire a staff of thousands more people to daily comb through each user one by one as they register (simply not practical), there is no possible way MySpace (or ANY site on the internet that doesn't require a credit card for that matter) can verify it. They're basicly sueing MySpace for not doing the impossible.

      • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by tacocat (527354) <tallison1@twmi.r r . c om> on Tuesday June 20 2006, @05:06AM (#15567654)

        For the sake of humanity she really must lose the lawsuit.

        The internet is a wonderful social tool. It brings people closer. Including the people you don't want to be close to. Once upon a time in order to find a variety of people I had to travel many miles from my parents suburban home to find such culture and people. Today I can find all the culture I can stand in about 30 seconds and three clicks. Good and Bad people abound both on the internet and off. There are things such as "dark alleys" on the internet too. And just like it's the responsibility of the parents to keep our 14 year old daughters from roaming alleys and talking to predatory individuals, it's also our responsibility to keep them off the alleys and steer them away from certain areas on the internet. Where was Mom and Dad when the minor went on a date with a 19 year old? MySpace is not a surrogate parent or baby sitter and makes no claims to be.

        • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Ron Bennett (14590) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:50AM (#15567240) Homepage
          Many minors have credit cards; they alone can't be used to verify age ... furthermore, the major credit card companies make clear that credit cards are NOT to be used for age verification purposes.

          Verifying age solely on-line is darn near impossible ...

          A possible, but expensive, way MySpace could reliably verify age of new users is to open staffed registration centers (could be small staffed kiosks in malls, superstores, etc) throughout the U.S. and other various countries, in which new users would appear in person with a government photo ID / birth certificate, etc in hand along with a parent / guardian, if under the age of majority (gets a bit tricky, since "majority" can defined as something other than 18 in some jurisdictions; age 21 often works when in doubt)...

          Bottom line is that verifying age solely on-line is a near impossibility - to do so reliably requires some form of off-line verification procedure, which will require much resources and money to do ...

          A simplier answer is for parents to take responsibility and be more aware of what their children do; educate kids so they make smarter, more informed choices about how they conduct themselves.

          Ron

          • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Opportunist (166417) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:09AM (#15567314)
            There's a business idea in there somewhere...

          • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Informative)

            by ZeroExistenZ (721849) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:10AM (#15567317)
            Verifying age solely on-line is darn near impossible ...

            eID [belgium.be]. Nearly every Belgian has one.
            Just pop it into your cardreader, enter your PIN-code and your age is verified.
            Oh it also has digital signing and other neat gizmo's :)

            • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Informative)

              by houghi (78078) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @04:30AM (#15567553) Homepage
              Oh and for you people who are afraid of what this card can do and everything should be avaialable for everybody and this is so 1984: The source [belgium.be] and some Dutch [belgium.be] and French [belgium.be] info.

              SUSE has it as an eID-belgium RPM:

              Summary : Software for belgian eID card
              Description :
              This PKCS11 library can be used for cryptographic operations with the
              Belgian electronic identity card. For example, you could use it to
              authenticate yourself (e.g. on a web site) or for signing electronic
              documents with a legally binding signature.
              Distribution: SUSE LINUX 10.0 (i586)

          • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Jeom2 (983704) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:51AM (#15567456) Homepage
            Bottom line is. Will efficient age verification process protect anyone from being assaulted? Any girl could be raped by a bloke her own age for all I know. Further more it (efficient age verification) would give a false feeling of security and trust. Online Dating? not an easy problem at all.

          • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Funny)

            by houghi (78078) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @04:20AM (#15567533) Homepage
            A possible, but expensive, way MySpace could reliably verify age of new users is to open staffed registration centers

            You mean something like the way that minors can't get alcohol in the US?

        • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by EndlessNameless (673105) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:01AM (#15567285)
          MySpace was told to require credit card verification by no one who had any authority over them.

          If there was a law regarding identity verification that they failed to follow, then and only then are they at fault.

          Suppose this girl got dropped off at the mall to hang out with some friends, and she met this guy there. Should we sue the mall for its role in the situation? How is the mall doing anything differently from what MySpace does?

          Parents should teach their children not to run off alone with strangers, particularly older ones. The responsibility is shared between the guy for being a worthless piece of scum, the girl for being stupid, and her parents for not teaching her any better. If anyone should be sued, it is the guy... you know, the one who actually acted with malicious intent.

          But wait, he probably doesn't have any money, and that's what this is all about.

          • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by houghi (78078) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @04:42AM (#15567583) Homepage
            Parents should teach their children not to run off alone with strangers, particularly older ones.

            The sad thing is that the majority of sexual harassments are not done by strangers, but by relatives and family.

            That does not mean that strangers won't do such bad things. It is just that the focuspoint should be on preventing child abuse and sexual harassment in general, not just those that are done by strangers.

              • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Interesting)

                by geminidomino (614729) * on Tuesday June 20 2006, @05:33AM (#15567718) Homepage Journal
                I like the assumption that it was the guy who lied about his age... Nowhere in TFA does it mention which side gave the bogus info. Was he a pedo claming to be 15, or was she being a typical teenage girl claiming to be older than she is?

                  • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Insightful)

                    by geminidomino (614729) * on Tuesday June 20 2006, @06:28AM (#15567865) Homepage Journal
                    I haven't discounted that possibility either. The sad part is, it doesn't matter. As the comments here, by the supposedly "intelligent" cross-section of society, show, there is no way this guy is going to get a fair judgement.

                    She consented? No good, she's under 16, she's too stupid to make that decision. That capability doesn't magically appear until the day of her 16th birthday.
                    She lied about her age? Tough. He should have checked her ID.
                    He tried to break it off when he found out the truth and the whole "sexual assault" thing is typical teenage girl petty revenge? Well, sucks to be him.

                    Lots of possibilities here besides the simple "the guy is a sick pedo." But no one will consider any. He's better off just hanging himself in his jail cell right now. Even if by some miracle he's innocent and aquitted of wrongdoing, he's already been judged.

              • Re:How can they? (Score:5, Insightful)

                by stanmann (602645) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @06:22AM (#15567848) Journal
                Ok, Here's what I got from the story, Slightly precocious 14 year old freshman female meets Somewhat Non-precocious(being generous here) 19 year old Senior online instead of in the cafeteria or study hall, goes to dinner, a movie, and his place and does what seniors and freshman do. Buyers remorse Blah Blah Blah.

                happens all the time, in every school, in every city. The only difference in this case was she met him on myspace instead of "at the library". It sucks to be him, but its not the schools fault and its not myspace's fault.

    • Re:What they need. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by HugePedlar (900427) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:30AM (#15567181) Homepage
      Or even a "parental responsibility" clause. Why did her parents allow her to meet a total stranger without supervision? And why does Myspace have any more responsibility than ANY other community-based website or bulletin board?
      • And why does Myspace have any more responsibility than ANY other community-based website or bulletin board?

        Because they have more money to sue for.

      • Re:What they need. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ameoba (173803) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:46AM (#15567442) Homepage
        If I (hypothetically) were a minor and committed a major act of vandalism or property crime, my parents would be held liable for the damages because, as a minor, they are responsible for my actions. If, as a minor, I manage to get a credit card by forging my parent's permission and run up a large number of purchases & fail to pay them, my parents would be held liable. If I commit fraud, agree to a EULA that asserts that I am of a given age, why are they no longer responsible for my actions?

        This is exactly the kind of story that should be covered in an afterschool special. If the family wants money, sell the story, to hell with the courts.

        Personally, I think the family should be told to stuff it and she should be made an example of by the media as the stupid little slut she is. These stupid little girls need to be told, harshly, that trying to manipulate scuzzy guys with sex can very well get them hurt (or even killed). Instead, whenever it happens, the girls are never at fault and are always "good girls" who were unfairly victimized and could never do anything wrong - regardless of how trashy & loose they were.

        A great example is this highschool girl from my hometown - she was dating a 30ish drug dealer several cities away for some time. As girls her age are prone to do, she grew tired of him and decided to break up with him. As they are also prone to do, they are petty & vindictive towards ex-boyfriends, and threatened to turn him in. As bigtime drugdealers are prone to do, he kidnapped her, beat her & eventually executed her, burying her body in a shallow grave in the mountains. Media response? Obviously she was pure, innocent & unfairly victimized by a complete monster. Not that she could -ever- have any idea that bad things could happen to her for sleeping with a man twice her age in exchange for meth...

        • Re:What they need. (Score:5, Interesting)

          by DrWho520 (655973) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @06:48AM (#15567934) Journal
          It is funny you mention the phrase "afterschool special" and relate an anecdote about a high school peer. She was 14 and he was 19. Guess what? The same thing can and does happen at any high school in the United States. Freshman date Seniors because Freshman girls like the clout dating an upperclassman holds and Seniors date Freshman because they are naive and easy. This was happening decades before MySpace. Now, when Suzy Q comes home smelling of beer, cigarettes and cheap sex, she can blame MySpace. Now, parents no longer have to blame themselves, they can blame a corporation. Now, instead of teaching a valuable life lesson to their child, they teach their child to blame others for their problems and sue people.

          • Re:What they need. (Score:5, Insightful)

            by aronc (258501) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @04:53AM (#15567620)
            His point isn't that she deserved it. It's that by painting her as a pure innocent and glossing over the fact that she was engaging in some obviously stupid and dangerous behavior does a disservice to the rest of the community. Incident like that should scream to the rest of the kids in the community that hanging out with that kinda of person and that kind of lifestyle can get you hurt or killed. Instead the news/family paints it as a nearly random kidnapping more often than not.

    • Re:What they need. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jmv (93421) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:36AM (#15567201) Homepage
      I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that. Unlike 10-15 years ago, at least half of people with Internet access would probably fall into your definition of "complete moron" (and remember that you're probably a complete moron about at least one thing). At some point, "something" will have to be done because "bad guys" tend to learn/adapt faster than "complete morons". Should the solution be to make sites responsible (I hope not)? Have an "Internet license" (with a test required like for a driver's license? I've no idea what form it will have and I hope it won't do more damage than it causes, but eventually things will have to change. I guess teens in the ~12-16 range are especially vulnerable because:
      1) You can't monitor everything they do on the Internet anymore
      2) There's still a lot of things they don't know (but should)
      3) They think they know enough

        • Re:What they need. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by flumps (240328) <matt.corbyNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday June 20 2006, @04:03AM (#15567487) Homepage

          Up until the age of about 11 or 12 children should have no guaranteed privacy in terms of what they say and do, and if they've been used to loving oversight for all of their lives they won't have a problem with this.

          Man it's Nazis like you that take a childs trust and piss all over it - I don't care if you are dressing it up in nicey nicey language and giving a couple of half-assed exceptions to your draconian behavior. I give my child the privacy he wants, he respects me and listens to what I say and then he does it too.

          I warn him of the consequence, which is all I can do, and if he fucks up then its his fault. He knows he can talk to me if he does, he can talk to me about anything. I'm not going to start taking that freedom away and locking up his television/computer/bike when I dont think its right for him.

          Thats called LEARNING. You cannot cotton ball children, or chain them up and make them do what you want. They will just end up resenting you and then before you know it (because they won't tell you) they will be hooked up with some druggy taking herion.

          The next thing you'll know, mr/miss, is they're face'll be on the news found dead somewhere.

          Good luck, you're going to need it.

          • Man it's Nazis like you that take a childs trust and piss all over it - I don't care if you are dressing it up in nicey nicey language and giving a couple of half-assed exceptions to your draconian behavior. I give my child the privacy he wants, he respects me and listens to what I say and then he does it too.

            But how did he learn that trust and respect in the first place? It doesn't happen by magic. Sure, children need to learn from mistakes, but those mistakes need to happen in a safe environment to start with so that the consequences are limited. When children are learning to walk we don't let them wander all over town and across busy streets - they're encouraged to try walking from one person to another in the home, and then outside holding an adults hand. Their freedom to walk without direct involvement of an adult is gradually increased, and if a worrying trend develops their their freedom is reined back a little, for instance if they keep wandering into the road then they might be made to hold hands for the rest of that trip and that pattern repeated until they've learnt the lesson.

            Social interactions are no different, children gradually build up an understanding of how the world works and how to recognise danger in social situations. They aren't born with an innate ability to understand the world that would flourish if only parents didn't hold them back (as you seem to suggest). I can see your point: over-protectiveness can be just as damaging as neglect, but it's about being appropriate to the child's level of development. The majority of (but clearly not absolutely all) 14 year-olds are not ready to move about in the adult world completely unsupervised, be it virtually via the Internet or physically, as this story clearly illustrates.

            I warn him of the consequence, which is all I can do, and if he fucks up then its his fault.

            Yes - but a responsible parent will ensure that the "fuck up" will not do serious damage to the mental or physical health of the child. In the case of this story the 'hands off' approach has been shown not to work - the mental and possibly physical heath of a minor has been seriously damaged through sexual assult that should not have been possible if appropriate supervision had been in place.

    • Re:What they need. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:36AM (#15567203)
      Hey, this guy online said he was going to do me in the butt and then he did me in the butt. someone owes me 30 million.

          • Hang on... (Score:5, Insightful)

            by OverflowingBitBucket (464177) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @04:56AM (#15567627) Homepage Journal
            If a 19 year old takes you to dinner and a movie and you agree to go back to his place certain things are expected of you

            Whooooah there. Wait just one damn minute. You surely can't mean what I think you mean, do you? Please tell me I've misunderstood what you've said.

            If you go around to someones place, they may or may not be hoping for something of a sexual nature to happen, but there is never, ever an expectation on someone to "put out" just because you went to visit. Yes, it is a fair assumption that someone who has just wined and dined you is going to try to put the moves on you, but merely visiting isn't consent to take things as far as they want. The visitor can soak up the dinner and movie, drop over, drink their coffee and eat their chips, and at the end of the evening get on up and go, and there's not a damn thing expected of them.

            Having said that, I'd question the wisdom of heading back to a 19-year olds place after dinner and a movie because there's a good chance they've got something quite specific in mind. But bear in mind this is a 14-year old, and they don't always have the life experience to avoid making such a poor decision.

            My reply to you would be far, far more vicious if I thought you genuinely meant what you've written. It just seems so far out that I'm hoping you chose your words poorly; please tell me that I've misread your actual intent.

            • Re:Hang on... (Score:5, Interesting)

              by Tim C (15259) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @05:33AM (#15567721)
              I think perhaps that "expectation" doesn't mean what you think it means. "Expect" is simply a stronger form of "hope" - you "hope" for something when you'd like it, but you're not convinced it'll happen. You "expect" something when you're pretty certain it'll happen or know that it will.

              Neither hoping for something nor expecting it means that the thing is in any way obliged to happen. That is, in this case, the 19 year old can *expect* the girl to put out after the things he's done, but she is in no way *obliged* to do so.

              Change "expectation [cambridge.org]" in your post for "obligation [cambridge.org]" and you're spot on.

              So, calm down, deep breaths, he didn't mean what you thought he meant :) (Unless he is similarly mistaken about what the word means, in which case go ahead, rip him a new one)

                • Re:Hang on... (Score:5, Insightful)

                  by Tim C (15259) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @06:58AM (#15567955)
                  Looks like we have a difference in semantics then. I'm from the UK, and am assuming that you're from the US. Certainly, the dictionary I referenced is UK-based, while MW is US-based.

                  Here in the UK, I'd take "expected of you" to mean "someone is expecting something of you". Well, people can expect whatever they want, it doesn't mean that it's going to happen. Knowledge of that expectation may instill a feeling of obligation in the person concerned, but that's another matter entirely. In the context of the definition I referenced, the original phrase you quote would have a meaning of "If a 19 year old takes you to dinner and a movie and you agree to go back to his place certain (sexual) things are expected of you (the 19 year old hopes or believes that you will engage in these acts, but you are not necessarily obligated to do so)"

                  To my (UK) mind, an expectation is just a hope/belief, while an obligation is an expectation the non-fullfilment of which has consequences, including (as appropriate) the use of legal force to ensure the fullfilment and/or extract recompense for non-fulfilment.

                  Basically, me and the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary say that expectation is not the same as obligation. You and the Merriam-Webster dictionary disagree. It's a "two people separated by a common language" thing :)

                  Given that I also assume that the OP is American, I'll bow to your interpretation of his words, no matter how wrong it feels to me.

            • Re:Hang on... (Score:5, Insightful)

              by surprise_audit (575743) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @06:08AM (#15567817)
              Never mind what might or might not be expected after dinner and a movie - my question is, what the hell were the girl's parents doing?? They let their minor child be picked up by someone they've never met, taken to dinner and a movie?? Someone needs to slap them upside the head for lousy parenting.

              • Re:Hang on... (Score:5, Insightful)

                by geekdoc (672760) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @06:54AM (#15567945)
                Here's a fly-in-the-ointment of the entire lawsuit - did the 19-year-old lie about his age? If he is 19, and his MySpace page said he was 19, what would age verification do to prevent any of this?

                Part of me *hopes* this is a setup by the parents, in light of the "Palestinian runaway" and with MySpace being in the news an awful lot lately. It would make me feel better to think that her parents were trying to perpetrate a fraud than being just that hideously stupid. If your daughter is 14, you meet the people she goes out with, whether platonic or romantic. No exceptions.

            • Re:What they need. (Score:5, Insightful)

              by PhraudulentOne (217867) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @05:31AM (#15567713) Homepage Journal
              How about talking to someone in person? Does that allow you to hide your age? She says MySpace should have protected her by age verification, etc. SHE MET THE GUY FACE TO FACE. She then wen't out with him, had dinner, etc. So, she is suing MySpace for not verifying age, yet she couldn't verify his age herself, MEETING FACE TO FACE. How is this the fault of MySpace again?

                  If they meet on MySpace, that's one thing, but if they want to go and meet in person, no website in the world is responsible for that.

  • mooches mooches (Score:5, Insightful)

    by filthy_mcnasty (958018) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:26AM (#15567158)
    As much as I detest Myspace and would absolutely love to see them go down.... this is just another frivilous lawsuit with someone trying to play the scapegoat game. Encountering a sexual predator on Myspace is no different than any other million sites where this could have happened but if it weren't for the deep pockets myspace has generated there would be no lawsuit. The users of sites like these (and hell, users of anything in general!!!) are still responsible for THEIR OWN actions and while I'm sorry that she was victimized, this young girl (or rather, her lawyers / parents) is now trying to create another victim. Give me a break, accept responsibility for your own actions. This isn't because "Myspace didn't protect me"

  • Getting justice twice? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:27AM (#15567164)
    Doesn't she already get justice by having the 19-year-old jailed?
  • on the one hand, personal responsibility, and responsibility of the parents, surrenders: bad thing

    on the other hand, this could destroy myspace: good thing

  • Hi.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by hyfe (641811) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:28AM (#15567167)
    Hi, your honour.

    I am stupid. Please make them give me money.

  • Wtf (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eddm (983696) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:34AM (#15567194) Homepage
    I'm sorry, but MySpace are being expected to pay $30 Million to them for being idiots? I'll go hit myself on the head with a hammer and sue Black and Decker for supplying me with a weapon that gave me brain damage.

    • Re:Wtf (Score:5, Insightful)

      by plasmacutter (901737) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:41AM (#15567224) Journal
      This is a society of the irresponsible looking to point the blame at whoever they can.

      They expect others to make their choices for them, and to do it correctly.. thus the reason for laws designed to make other people raise your kids for you (video game laws, TV censorship/ratings laws, movie ratings, etc).. and of course if these other people and companies do it wrong they are held liable because well.. it wasn't their fault for being "stupid"...they outsourced their decision making to you so you are now liable.

      It sucks to be sure, but this is what an ignorant majority wanted, so this is what our society has produced.
  • MySpace says on a "Tips for Parents" page that users must be 14 or older. The Web site does nothing to verify the age of the user, such as requiring a driver's license or credit card number, Loewy said.
    Explain to me how verifying a 14-year-old's driver's license or credit card number is going to work.

    Age verification is fine for sites that require you to be 18 or over, but if you want 14-year-olds to use your site, I can't think of a good way to verify their age that doesn't have really disturbing implications.

    Solis contacted the girl through her MySpace Web site in April, telling her that he was a high school senior who played on the football team, according to the lawsuit.

    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.
    If they talked to each other on the phone several times before meeting in person, why is AT&T not liable for failing to protect her?

    Let me see if I understand this correctly: a 19-year-old claimed to be only 18 on his myspace profile, and this is worth $30 million?

    I'm not excusing the guy's actions. He knew she was 14, and that's not OK, even if she said yes, which I'm guessing she probably did. And lying about your age is generally not cool. But I really don't think MySpace could have reasonably done anything that would have stopped this from happening. Do you think she wouldn't have agreed to meet him, if she had known he was really 19?

    They started by sending e-mail, then exchanging phone numbers and talking on the phone; at what point do you draw the line and say what these people do is not MySpace's responsibility? If I find a (18+) girl on MySpace, send her e-mail, she e-mails me back, I send her my phone number, she calls me, we talk, we go out for coffee, things go well, we start dating, have dinner a few times, then one day we get into an argument and she punches me in the face - can I sue MySpace for failing to protect me from her?
      • At the age of 14 it is really hard for most kids to really understand the consequences of a sexual relationship. Now, maybe some few kids can actually comprehend this and thus provide a meaningful consent, but it's very few and there's no good test we can give them to screen the mature from the immature. So, a "magical age" was created where it was decided that most people would in fact be able to understand complex relationships. Yes, some people over this age don't really comprehend the issue, but the line had to be drawn somewhere.

  • Someone has to say it.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by kjart (941720) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:51AM (#15567244)
    OMG, $30 million worth of ponies!!!111one
  • I think I'm going to sue /. for not protecting me against wasting my time. That should be worth a few millions too, right?
    And if that fails I could sue my laywer for not protecting me against sueing someone for rediculous reasons.

  • Teen *didn't* sue MySpace (Score:5, Informative)

    by CaptainTux (658655) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:09AM (#15567312) Homepage Journal
    The teen didn't sue MySpace.com. Her mother did. Here's a link to the CNet story: http://news.com.com/2060-10802_3-0.html?tag=nefd.b l [com.com]

  • Well they have a small paragraph in the terms... (Score:5, Informative)

    by dlichterman (868464) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:13AM (#15567327)
    from the myspace terms and conditions
    ====
    Limitation on Liability. IN NO EVENT SHALL MYSPACE.COM BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFIT DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, EVEN IF MYSPACE.COM HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, MYSPACE.COM'S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO MYSPACE.COM FOR THE SERVICES DURING THE TERM OF MEMBERSHIP.

    Indemnity. You agree to indemnify and hold MySpace.com, its subsidiaries, and affiliates, and their respective officers, agents, partners and employees, harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the Services in violation of this Agreement and/or arising from a breach of this Agreement and/or any breach of your representations and warranties set forth above and/or if any Content that you post on the Website or through the Services causes MySpace.com to be liable to another.
    ====
    http://www1.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc. terms [myspace.com]

  • Maybe I'm old... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NotInTheBox (235496) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:33AM (#15567400) Homepage
    Why is a 14 year old allowed unsupervised access to the internet. I maybe getting old...

    The internet is the greatest market place in the world. People go here for trade, conversation, news/gissip and inspiration. There are public spaces where you can make a fool of yourself and there are dark back alleys where other people can make a fool of you. This is a place where everyone is treated like a adult with no regard for your age.

    How many parents would let their 14yr old children roam a big unknown city at night by themselves? How do children learn to recognize the good from the bad it their parents don't guide them?

    When someone has a private party (myspace) and is inviting children to join in... what may be expected? What is posible to expect?

    In this case, myspace had no way of knowing that this man could be treat to this girl. You can not assume that every 18+ male is a pervert. This relationship (if that's the word) developed mostly outside the control and supervision of myspace. I think that there is really nothing myspace could have done differently; except maybe, not to invite children to begin with.

  • What's in their heads? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jugalator (259273) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @04:17AM (#15567524) Journal
    "MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children online"

    The children are protected online. Their problem is protection offline beyond the realms of a website. MySpace is not revealing personal data at another member's request through their website. The children are protected online to the best of MySpace's abilities. This girl wasn't abused on the web in a session of cybersex where MySpace provided a button to electrochute her.

    How concerned her parents is on protecting her offline is a better question.

    Obviously, they can do the basics as verifying personal data, and we have a similar site in Sweden that does exactly that, but abuse still happens, because believe it or not, there still exist plenty of jerks who don't mind providing their real information. Most probably get away with it too, by threatening the girl to not speak. In the end, your own mind is your most powerful weapon against "online predators".

    "We feel that 1 percent of that is the bare minimum that they should compensate the girl for their failure to protect her online when they knew sexual predators were on that site," he said.

    The major flaw in their argument is that she was fully protected online, as MySpace does not allow members to get actual address and user information at request. Their problem is that she was not protected offline, and who's to deal with that if not her friends and/or parents. Have your first date at your parents home and have a talk in your room to get to know each other better for christ sake, not his apartment or something. Get some friends and go to the movies and have a good time while you get to know him. It doesn't have to be all "OMG, let's go to your apartment on our first date and have sex". Especially if you're just 14.

  • Daily Show Perfect Quote (Score:5, Funny)

    by emkman (467368) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @05:27AM (#15567706)
    Dmitri Martin on the Daily Show segment about MySpace and Social Networking sites:
    "On the downside they're loaded with sexual predators. On the upside they're loaded with sexual prey."

    • Re:Wait what (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LiquidCoooled (634315) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @02:30AM (#15567178) Homepage Journal
      I believe the lawyer is trying to call for more security for the 16s on the site.


      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."


      But the part of the article that really caught my eye was the following:


      Lauren Gelman, associate director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, said she does not think MySpace is legally responsible for what happens away from its site.

      "If you interact on MySpace, you are safe, but if a 13-year-old or 14-year-old goes out in person and meets someone she doesn't know, that is always an unsafe endeavor," Gelman said. "We need to teach our kids to be wary of strangers."


      This lawsuit is just ambulance chasing.
    • I didn't know Myspace was a pre-requisite for the exchange of emails and phone calls, nor that the going rate for "facilitating" rape was thirty fucking million dollars.

      Even if Myspace *was* a pre-requisite for email, the rape didn't occur on-line. She met someone on-line and then decided to follow-up with a personal get-together. Where was her mother when she was getting ready for her "date"? What kind of mother teaches a 14-year-old girl that it's OK to meet strange guys? Finally, what's to say that age-verification would have prevented the rape? Do they really think that she would have been totally safe if she was meeting a completely anonymous boy her own age?

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