AOL Monitor Accused of Luring 15-Year-Old for Sex

Amy's Robot writes "According to the AP, an Internet chat room monitor hired by AOL to keep children safe from sexual predators seduced a California girl online and was about to meet her for sex when he was found out by a co-worker, a lawsuit charges. The incident happened 2 years ago, but has become public this week because the lawsuit was just filed by the girl, now 19. She accuses AOL of failing to supervise the employee and of falsely advertising that its online service was safe for children. Who's watching the watchers?"

First Post?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't that make her 17? Hey, if there's grass on the field, play ball!

Hmm...

[pwnage]

Original poster: A/S/L?

Re:Clarifying the numbers

[jerw134]

Thank you for clarifying those numbers. I was about to start complaining, since I haven't RTFA yet.

Only Human?

[tesseract5d]

I guess that means they need to move to AI bot monitors instead of those silly humans? I mean, if they can make bots in UT2004 that are that good....

AOL Chat

[Anonymous Coward]

You've got sex!

Re:Clarifying the numbers

[Monkelectric]

Posting anonymous for obvious reasons.

I think at some point in this country we are going to have an honest debate about age of consent. In most european countries it varies from 14-17.

We like to maintain this fantasy that our kids are NOT having sex -- but, Ive been in the back rooms, and the level of detachment young people have from sex took me until my late 20's to develop.

Who's watching the watchers?

[venicebeach]

Who's watching the watchers?

Sounds like they are watching each other.

Whos Watching?

[CarlinWithers]

Whos watching the people watching the watchers? What about watchers for those people?

Re:Clarifying the numbers

[fyngyrz]

Posting anonymous for obvious reasons.

Whoops. Whatever your reasons were, they're irrelevant now.

Re:Clarifying the numbers

[Monkelectric]

Yea ... im a capital bonehead :)

Crappy monitor

[Anonymous Coward]

Any monitor with a 2-year response time is going to be crappy for gaming.

From the article...

[AvantLegion]

>> Their conversations online and by phone became increasingly explicit, the lawsuit says. They were preparing to meet on the girl's 17th birthday when one of the monitor's co-workers became suspicious and prevented the encounter.

OMFG what a cockblock that was.

Should you really....

[PornMaster]

Should you really be talking up a Microsoft app/service and putting down IRC *on Slashdot*? :)

Re:So what?

[skingers6894]

You're a slashdot reader and you expect us to believe you've had not one but TWO girls at once...

I don't know about the article numbers but I think yours don't add up!

Re:I doubt she was 'seduced'...

[krumms]

wanted to have sex with herself

mod me up if you too like out of context quotes!

Re:First Post?

[Anonymous Coward]

And if there is no grass in the field, turn her over and play in the mud!

About baldness

[CSMastermind]

I say the following completely jokingly please don't flame me :-P :

If there's no grass than just play in the mud.

Man1: Hey I pulled a turtle last night.
Man2:How so?
Man1:I beat the hair.

Re:I doubt she was 'seduced'...

[C0llegeSTUDent]

15-17y old kids are having one night stands these days, so it's not they are into some weird thing. Why wasn't I informed of this when I was 15-17?

If there's grass on the field......

[simetra]

play ball!

Heh. ehhhh.

Re:Clarifying the numbers

[notthe9]

at least I can admit to my kiddie porn addiction anonymously!

Re:the Plato reference

[nacturation]

Qui Custodes Custodiat? is probably better translated as "who guards the guardians" than "who watches the watchers"?

I was thinking more along the lines of "Who cleans the janitors?"

Re:From the article...

[brlancer]

OMFG what a cockblock that was.

If he's not careful, he's going to need a whole lot of cockblocking very shortly.

Re:I will tell you why

[darkpixel2k]

kids will stop having sex and stop getting pregnant if you make it illegal

I didn't have sex until I was 18 because it was Illegal in my state...

*sobs*
Ok, OK! It's really because I was a loser in high school and couldn't get laid if my life depended on it...

possible solution

[WormholeFiend]

Require ppl to be 18 or older to access the internet.

Then no one will whine anymore about kids being predatored online.

Re:perfect job for pedofiles

[LighthouseJ]

... 17, in many, many, countries this is exceeding the age of consent so its either saying that american girls are typically more innocent then the rest of the world, or the people running the show in your country are a bunch of prudes.

... or the fact that our (American) society expects people under the age of consent not to be having sex. We aren't trying to be prudes or whatever warped reality you think we have, it's the level of society we've built for ourselves. In America, we all agree that girls and boys that are 15 years old should not be having sex, rather they should be having a full childhood. Once they mature as contributing members of society, then they inherit the freedom to be with who they want to be with (granted it's not with an underage individual, of course). Americans, both as children and adults see 15 year old girls and boys as children that go to school, participate in extracurricular activities and play sports, not exploring their sexual potential. When one particular American sees the latter, we punish those people and very few people (outside of NAMBLA [google.com] and related organizations) disagree.

It's fine if in Slovakia or whatever country you actually reside in (if it's different from where your email account is hosted) that your laws have a different age of consent because that's the society that has developed and I respect that. I'm asking, on behalf of the United States, for the same of respect for our laws in this regards.

Re:Clarifying the numbers

[aussie_a]

It's 14 here in B.C.

Yeah, but times have moved forward a couple of thousand years since B.C. Who cares what the age of consent was back then? I want to know what it is now.

19 years old?

[piecewise]

a/s/l? is she hot?

In all seriousness - What's best about this story is that she's actually a 40 year old man, much to the disappointment of the AOL employee.

Re:Only Human?

[pyrrhonist]

I mean, if they can make bots in UT2004 that are that good....

W00T!!! Which UT2004 bot allows you to pick up chicks???

gg

Re:Clarifying the numbers

[NanoGator]

"at least I can admit to my kiddie porn addiction anonymously!"

I hate to break it to you, but those Japanese schoolgirls aren't kiddies.

Re:About baldness

[menace3society]

Wow, it's been a long time since a joke made me want to stab my eyes out. Thanks!

Re:Watching the watchers?

[necrofluxneo]

Parents are probably a factor, if not the cause in this case as you claim. But AOL should have at least one employee for every online customer to read their conversations in case something like this comes up. They would then need a second teir of employees set up to watch those employees so that cases such as this are shut down before trouble ensues. I would further suggest 5 additional tiers of protection, a sort of check and balance system against untoward acts. To cap it all off there must be a final line of defense - a "high council" if you will - of people who have proven to be impecably moral, perhaps some of the Catholic Church's best, to oversee the entire operation. Surely then AOL's customer's parents can be confident their children are safeguarded against having to make any decisions for their own well being or god forbid have to take any responsibility for anything that happens in their lives. In this case I hope the parents make out with billions! That'd show 'em!

Re:Clarifying the numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

Give the guy a break. His rock-modem took 2000 years to get his post here.

Re:Obligatory Digital Fortress Quote

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

"This is my custard, are you the janitor?"

(failed Latin)

Re:I doubt she was 'seduced'...

[Phroggy]

Why wasn't I informed of this when I was 15-17?

When we were that age, girls didn't chat online, so we didn't meet them.

(Actually I did meet a girl from a BBS when I was about 14; we went to a laser tag arena. She was huge, and I didn't really talk to her after that. But now there are attractive girls using the Internet.)

the truth is

[lampajoo]

if you haven't lured, over the internet, underage girls to your house, then you haven't lived.

Let me be the first to say...

[SonicSpike]

"You've Got Jail!"

sorry yall... I couldn't resist ;-)

Re:Can of worms? No, more like a can of bullshit..

[milkman_matt]

Excellent. And now a court will decide if AOL was negligent or not. We'll see what happens.

Amazing how quickly you just summed up what everyone was arguing about for 400 comments or so huh?

Re:Can of worms? No, more like a can of bullshit..

[Moofie]

Yeah, I know. It's a talent. What can I say? : )

Re:I will tell you why

[Anonymous Coward]

ummm... being a loser doesn't just vanish away you know?

There is a good chance that you are still a loser but figure that since women settle for less as they age, that you're no longer a loser. It could just be that now that you're old enough to travel around and meet a much larger assortment of people, and more importantly drunken people, you're more likely to meet a girl with lower standards that doesn't mind losers.

I'm not saying this to be rude, I personally welcome critisicm of this sort, it keeps me in my place. I for example used to be and still am a loser. The difference is that when I was a teenager, I knew how to pretend to be someone cool by going to the other schools where they didn't know me :) That was effective.

I am still however a loser and managed to have a good sex and party life by hanging out with the older girls (4 to 5 years older), it's amazing how loser is often defined by how well you associate with members of your own age group. My wife is 6 years older than me an was one of the popular kids in school. She knows I'm a loser, but she's ok with that since I get a lot of leadway with her friends (since I'm American and they're not).

So to sum it up, never stop believing you're a loser. You should instead brag that you're able to overcome your loserness long enough to find a warm bed :)

Re:Can of worms?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it really shouldn't be legal to do much of anything until you're 29 or so.

Oh yes, delay adulthood to almost fsking age *30.* That'll be a real boon to society. Hows about we just put it off until 40 or 50 to make absolutly sure the little buggers are mature enough? Jesus, this sounds like Logan's Run in reverse.

Missing the bigger story here

[untaken_name]

AOL Monitor Accused of Luring 15-Year-Old for Sex

The incident happened 2 years ago

but has become public this week because the lawsuit was just filed by the girl, now 19

It isn't the seduction, or that it was an AOL monitor that did it. Nope, the biggest story is how she could go from 15 years old to 19 years old in only two years.

Spooky.

Now I need to figure out what she's doing, and do the exact opposite.

Re:Can of worms?

[Short Circuit]

Your username describes your position succinctly.

Re:Can of worms?

[clem]

AgeOfConsent.com lists the actual age where it's legal to have sex with anyone of any age. I can't quite check though as work blocks the site.

You don't by any chance work at AOL, do you?

Re:It's NOT about "good enough at killing"

[FurryFeet]

...in case of a war I'd actually get a squad or maybe a platoon of people, and I'd be supposed to lead them to their deaths.

That's a mighty weird battle plan you got there, Sarge. Say, you don't mind if I try and transfer to a different platoon, do you? ;)