AOL Monitor Accused of Luring 15-Year-Old for Sex 851
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?"
Clarifying the numbers (Score:5, Informative)
Re:perfect job for pedofiles (Score:3, Informative)
Graham said AOL puts its chat room monitors through "rigorous screening and training procedures," including a criminal background check.
and
The man, who was 23 when he met the girl online, has not been charged with a crime.
Re:That's some weird maths (Score:4, Informative)
She is filing now when she is 19, for her own reasons, obviously.
Re:Age of Consent (Score:2, Informative)
MSN (Score:4, Informative)
A shame that a few bad apples have spoiled it for the rest of us. MSN Chat was a great way to meet everyday people instead of the geeky IRC chat.
What is the crime? (Score:5, Informative)
As for AOL being liable, that's a stretch too. They probably disclaim all liability in their terms of use, and unless she can prove some fraud or negligence on the part of the employee, I don't see how they can be held liable.
This whole story smacks of a frivolous lawsuit by somebody who just realised that she might be able to embarass a big company into settling rather than face publicity.
Re:Age of Consent (Score:1, Informative)
Re:What is the crime? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:She's suing whom? (Score:5, Informative)
In this case, if the AOL employee was, say, a tech support person or something cruising the chatrooms during his breaks or after hours, then it is unlikely that AOL would be on the hook for his intentional conduct. However, this guy's JOB was to cruise chatrooms -- is more likely that a court would find that his behavior, even though intentional, illegal and not within company policies, to be behavior "within the scope of his emplyment" and therefore AOL will likely be on the hook. So will the guy -- but AOL will end up paying up, and will have to go after the guy for reimbursement, if he has anything.
This is standard agency stuff -- employers carry a lot of responsibility for the actions of their employees. As another poster noted, the reason for this policy is to keep a company from intentionally hiring pervs to cruise chatrooms, or hiring drunks to lead AA meetingds, or whatever -- if you are hiring someone, you have to make sure that they are not a bad seed for the job, and you have to keep your eye on them to make sure they don't change...
Re:Clarifying the numbers (Score:5, Informative)
In Florida, for example, there's a two-year "safe zone" (a 14 year old can legally consent with a 16 yo, etc...)
Re:Can of worms? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:perfect job for pedofiles (Score:1, Informative)
In quite a few US states, as well.
Been waiting for years to post this site (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.ageofconsent.com/ [ageofconsent.com]
Yes, in Virginia too. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Clarifying the numbers (Score:2, Informative)
Don't ask why I know.
Re:Pregnate 12 year olds? Nature is Telling Us... (Score:3, Informative)
Up until the 19th century, the average age for settling down and getting hitched or makeing some kind of arrangments to assure the kids would be taken care of seems to have run consistently only about 18 months past onset of fertility.
Now, average age of first menses is actually under 12 in most of the industrialized world. Kids are expected to wait until at least age 18, often 22-24 to start having kids of their own. That 18 month gap has become 10 years or more! Plus, the kids are younger, and therefore less experienced, when they have to face the decision! No wonder it's a bigger problem - but it has little or nothing to do with people rallying against nature (and did you mean "railing"?). This is an impact of something artificial.
Some reasonably well educated and credentialed people even think there are other, less benign technologies than just better medical care and neutrition involved, and cite trace hormones found in beef and poultry from modern industry farm techniques as pushing the average age down still further.
Re:While she's at it... (Score:1, Informative)
No it doesn't. It raises the question.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/begs.html
Re:Can of worms? (Score:5, Informative)
More importantly, she never met him at all, and it didn't come to almost meeting him till she was 17. The slashdot headline and even summary is, as usual, bullshit.
AoC for many states, countries here (Score:2, Informative)
Re:OH NO, NOT SEX (Score:3, Informative)
Canadian Law is Drastically Different... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Can of worms? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's NOT about "good enough at killing" (Score:3, Informative)
And there's a helluva lot of difference between _maybe_ 1 in 10,000 soldiers doing something stupid in the army, and 9 in 10 students doing stupid stuff in college. You know, as in: several orders of magnitude of a difference.
The vast majority of people _are_ responsible in the army. The vast majority of people are dangerously irresponsible in college. And here's the fun part: it's the same people in any country with conscription.
Re:Clarifying the numbers (Score:3, Informative)
You see, laws like this exist to prevent women like you from being taken advantage of. It's not wrong that your fiance is 5 years older than you, but 14 year old girls, on average, can not distinguish what love is. How many other men have you dated? You'd be suprised how what you once thought was love can be reproduced by a good portion of the population. Moreover, young people are weak willed and easily manipulated.
So, by dating a 14 year old he's effectively rejecting our culture's rules. Because he couldn't wait for you to grow up, he's adding clout to any man who want to seduce a young girl because 'it might work out'. Yea, that's healthy. Morals are grey enough as it is, the least we can do is try to let people experience life for as long as possible before they have to make hard decisions. I mean hell, I've met tons of 19 year olds who don't have the maturity to have a serious relationship, and every relationship I know of that started before college and has been going on for years is creepy, trite, and uncomfortable because they weren't ready for it.
Your fiance *is* a pedophile by definition, as he was attracted to you while you where a child. You could have easily been a victim, and incredibly selfish to say that because you're in love with your fiance that 14 girls who get hit on by older men are not victims.
I ain't a conservative nor do I have the best ethical record either, so I rarely preach values, but it's just disgusting, wrong and stupid. It shows a complete lack of responsibility as a member of a society.
If he really had respected you, he would have waited, and if you had respected yourself, you would have waited.
Here is my reply/stance on this (Score:2, Informative)