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Teen Sues MySpace Over Sexual Assault

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tue Jun 20, 2006 03:19 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."
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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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Teen Sues MySpace Over Sexual Assault 25 Comments More /

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  • What they need. (Score:5, Funny)

    by OverlordQ (264228) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:20AM (#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, @03:30AM (#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, Informative)

          by Ron Bennett (14590) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:50AM (#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 EndlessNameless (673105) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @04:01AM (#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:What they need. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by HugePedlar (900427) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:30AM (#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?

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

      by jmv (93421) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:36AM (#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, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:36AM (#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.

  • mooches mooches (Score:5, Insightful)

    by filthy_mcnasty (958018) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:26AM (#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"

    • Re:mooches mooches (Score:5, Interesting)

      by solarbob (959948) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:39AM (#15567214) Homepage
      If she found the same info in the lonley hearts in the newspaper would she sue that paper? Of course not as they would take her to the cleaners by exposing her on the front page (well the british papers would). What about if you met someone in a nighyclub and same thing happened...
    • A 14-year old is suing the Internet for $30 billin, claiming that the technology failed to protect her from a 19-year old she met...
      wait, screw this parody.

      What the fuck is a 14-year kid old doing meeting a 19-year old she met om MySpace? I think she should sue her parents for not beating her enough.

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

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:27AM (#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, @03:28AM (#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, @03:34AM (#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, @03:41AM (#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?

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

    by kjart (941720) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:51AM (#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, @04:09AM (#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, @04:13AM (#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]

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

      by LiquidCoooled (634315) on Tuesday June 20 2006, @03:30AM (#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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