While we are on the topic, I wanted to mention this story about a lawsuit that has been filed against News Corp. (the owners of the popular social networking site MySpace.)
Four families have sued News Corp. and its MySpace social-networking site after their underage daughters were sexually abused by adults they met on the site, lawyers for the families said Thursday.
I know, shocking right? Nevertheless, the debate rolls on whether society should hold organizations like MySpace or 107.9 The End accountable for incidents like this. The site provides the forum for chaos and mayhem, but people themselves actually provide the chaos and the mayhem, right?
“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.
Ah, interesting. But, shouldn’t the underage girls know better than to visit the site and chat it up with older dudes? I mean, no one puts a gun to these girl’s heads (if you read the story you’ll find that comes later) and forces them to log on.
MySpace has responded with added educational efforts and partnerships with law enforcement. The company has also placed restrictions on how adults may contact younger users on MySpace, while developing technologies such as one announced Wednesday to let parents see some aspects of their child’s online profile, including the stated age.
Some aspects of their child’s profile? Ugh.
It’s almost as if MySpace kinda sorta knows what goes on at their site, but kinda sorta let’s it slide because it’s a popular site and generates revenue. Much the same way a radio station would kinda sort let things slide because it attracts listeners and advertising dollars? Kinda? Sorta?
I don’t want to go off on a rant here, I want to know what you think, Sacramento…
The Sac Rag 
I was just going to hang out and drink some sweet tea!
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There is regular porn and slasher porn on cable. Guess who has to regulate a child’s exposure to those things. If you answered the parents, you are right! There are sexual predators all up in that internet. Guess who has to regulate a child’s exposure to said predators? You got it! The parents.
Possibly pointless anecdote – One of my coworker’s husband is a teacher at some private high school in Berkeley. He attempted to chaperoned a school trip to Italy last year. Girls went missing, one got it on with a sea captain on a ferry. Some brought drugs, many got drunk during the trip. And when they got back, a bunch of girls posted underwear clad pictures of themselves in various hotel rooms on myspace. The school now tries to review student myspace pages, basically what the parents should be doing. Point, well I never said there would be one, uh, we are living in a trashy, girls gone wild culture? Parents are so wrapped up in themselves and being eternally young that they couldn’t be bothered to raise their children? And future generations will only be worse? Bowdowknow. I guess myspace could stop minors from accessing the site altogether. Using some sort of adult verification, or perhaps allow parents to set up an account for a minor in the same way they would have to sign off on a body piercing or whatever. I certainly don’t think myspace should be liable though.
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To reply to the comment on top of mine about NOT holding myspace liable- oh no no no – myspace SHOULD be held liable for such things. Just look how many people are addicted all around us to MySpace- they can’t go a day without checking their “myspace”- which basically becomes their ’email’. Myspace should be held liable for all those lost hours people spend on MySpace- and i’m speaking from experience- i’m a college student at CSUS- and i last semester I got a 3.1 GPA instead of the 4.0 GPA i wanted- and you know why? Because of MySpace- if only people wouldn’t spend that much time on these social-networking sites and would instead meet people only in real life – i think the whole world would go round better.. But that’s just my opinion. I say we get rid of every social networking site- BUT – you also DO have to see the better side- some people get married through these so the bad things aren’t the only things that happen.
I say MySpace should be held liable..
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Daniel,
I think you should sue Myspace for damaging your GPA, since it’s totally all thier fault.
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Wow, this topic degenerated quickly.
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I’m going to sue my credit union for giving me a debit card so I can spend my money all over the place, rather than saving as much as I should.
We are in an entirely too litigious culture. People need to take responsibility for their own actions (and the actions of their children) and give some serious thought to potential consequences before making certain decisions.
We usually are angry & critical at the very things/people that are largely reflective of our own faults. I call my husband to tell him how the other chick yapping on her cell phone cut me off. Parents get mad at the myspace for not monitoring their children’s activities — why aren’t they monitoring their own kids’ activities?
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Again – a clear case of people having responsibility for their own actions. If you want to waste your life in front of the computer addicted to your “friends” on myspace then you are a sad person. All things in life are offered as choices and if we don’t have the sense to make the right choices then we should suffer the consequences. I do feel that all of us learned this basic concept in kindergarten and are just not remembering our time spent with “Ms. Lippy”. ALL of my students have myspace accounts. MOST lie about their age. MOST say they are bisexual… that is a whole nother topic about self esteem that I can tell you about another time. Bottom line is they are underage and their parents are responsible for their actions. I have many parents who just roll their eyes when I discuss their child’s time spent on myspace as if it is just one of those things kids do… well it is sick. They don’t take responsibility and then are shocked when something happens to their “sweet innocent baby” who advertises her love for men and women. Had the parents just taken the time to monitor their usage and read their kids messages they could have intervened long ago. I am just tired of people using the legal system as a way to make money off of their poor choices. Get a backbone – if you want a Nintendo – save up and buy one. If you need a friend – get a job and GET A LIFE! If you have kids – be a parent. And Daniel – wanting and earning are two very different things. With or without myspace you could have EARNED a 4.0.
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Somebody cutting you off in your car is different from your teenage daughter getting raped by a sexual predator. I’m just saying. Would you tell a parent in that situation to “get a backbone”? If I was in that position I’m not sure I wouldn’t want to go after MySpace.
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If it happened to my child I would feel really distraught and guilty over being a terrible parent. Even though we can’t watch everything kids do all the time I would still feel 100% responsible, and it would be very hard to live with. Last thing in my mind would be how to make a quick buck off the situation. That seems to be what differentiate people when these issues come up. There are grey area cases for sure, but I don’t see this as one of them.
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I know how this ends. They find teh CEO of “My Space” guilty of criminal negligence, in letting these things be posted, and ignoring warnings from fellow users about potential people who may cause threats to youngsters. Maybe you should spend less time on My Space and more time watching Law & Order, where this so ripped from the headlines case was recently solved.
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Surely you can’t mean 100% responsible. The rapist would be the closest to 100% responsible. I did not say that I imagine I’d want a quick buck, that’s your cynicism and callousness spinning the issue. I said I would probably want to go after MySpace, to make them be accountable.
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One could argue that the best way to affect change is to hit some one or some company in the pocketbook. Sure, lots of folks are looking to make money off these situations, but if a company in turn takes precautions to prevent situations like this from occurring as a result of legal action doesn’t that help society in the long run?
And why can’t we meet half way on this? Parents, you watch out for your kids and make sure they straighten up and fly right. Companies, you make sure your product or service is on the up and up and anything you can do to help benefit society would be greatly appreciate.
Done and done. Now, who wants a taco?
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amrit– you say that i could have earned a 4.0 with or without myspace… yeah. i probably could, and i would have if i didn’t spend the time needed to be spent studying, on myspace.
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Daniel – looks like you made a bad choice. Choose wiser next semester.
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i don’t see why we can’t all just agree with pointfinder. as with most things in life this requires some from column A, and some from column B.
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Yes, I really mean 100%. If I was not monitoring my child’s online activities or what they are doing or where they are going I would feel 100% responsible and I can barely imagine how horrible that would feel. Outside of shear greed, I think it would have to be the defense mechanism of quite an ego to shut down personal responsibility and assign the blame to an online network instead. I would certainly “go after” the rapist in a criminal suit, of course. And I would probably want to “go after” other careless parents such as myself and educate them about the need to monitor their children on the internet as sort of penance for my own negligence.
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CoolDMZ
I do agree, and pointed out a few simple things Myspace could do. Bad press will be much more likely to effect these changes than lining the pockets of a few families. If anything, the settlement agreement probably gags these families so that they can’t discuss the cases thus putting a lid on it.
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Good point, pointfinder.
Roger, I wasn’t comparing getting cut off by a cell phone yapping driver to what happens to kids — I was just saying that I complain about some of the very things that I do (mostly inadvertantly.) I meant that some of us should look in the mirror before assigning blame to someone else. Sing it, MJ:
I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
(If you wanna make the world a better place)
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
(Take a look at yourself, and then make a change)
(Na na na, na na na, na na, na nah)
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So Mark, you think News Corp should implement the changes you requested on this board, but that they should dismiss these suits out of hand because the parents were irresponsible?
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The parents weren’t necessarily irresponsible in this case.
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Simple – if you let your child loose on myspace it is your responsibility for whatever the outcome is. Some might even go to the extreme that you provided the computer and the internet connection – that right there gives you the responsibility to monitor their usage. If you choose not to monitor, then unfortunately bad things can happen. As a parent you need to be aware of what your kids are doing. It is tragic that something had to happen to the girls, but that is not myspaces fault. They provide (what I refer to as satan’s site) a “service” but do not force anyone to use it. If you choose to use it, then it is reasonable to think there could be consequences.
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Runnergirl, the problem I have with that is that we can’t throw out civil liability because of a few bad apples. Remember that a civil court is the only kind of court to acknowledge in any way that OJ Simpson slashed the throat of his wife and her boyfriend. You’re cynical about litigiousness, I understand that. But admit that you don’t know how responsible these parents were, and accept that there are many cases in which organizations/companies/whatever can do wrong by their customers/members and should be held liable.
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I agree with you to a certain extent, DMZ. I’ve known plenty of “good kids” who are accomplished academically, involved in the community, and seem to be the quintessential perfect child with parents who do, in fact, keep a watchful eye. However, these factors do not keep them from being KIDS who occasionally do some really stupid things. You’re right that there should be some safeguards in place.
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And of course you’re right that people need to be responsible and think about consequences.
“I don’t want consequences!!”
— my 4 year old
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Wow, look what happens when you take a lunch.
CoolDMZ-
I think Myspace could improve there legal ground to protect themselves against future frivolous law suits by either doing away with minors all together (except for the sneaky who whould have to hack the system in some way and would be breaking the sites user agreement anyways) Or require some sort of parent instigated and somehow verified user agreement.
Myspace is a public space, just like teenagers hanging out at the Bowling Alley and some, I’m sure have been raped behind the dumpster in back. Is the owner of the Bowling Alley negligent because he allowed just anybody from the public to come inside and he didn’t hire 10 babysitters to assist in the raising of the children that hang out in that space? Why refine your civil suit that much, why not also sue MUNI for allowing just anybody to mingle with the children on the bus (surprisingly I see a lot of young kids riding alone), the city should require that everyone who rides register and check in when they board as potential sex offenders. Still, while you are suing the city anyways, why not sue the City for allowing people to come and go in public spaces within the city limits..NEAR OUR CHILDREN! While we do not know to what degree, if any, the parents were negligent..if they did every little thing possible and this still happened you can seek justice against the person WHO ACTUALLY COMMITED THE CRIME. Hell, go after there money if you want some cash. Don’t sue Myspace.
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RG: Thanks alot for getting that MJ song stuck in my head!! It’s going to be a loooonnnnnggg Friday afternoon. I would like to retaliate by singing you some other song that would then be stuck in your head, but MJ is so stuck in my brain at the moment that I can’t even think of anything else to bring up. 🙂 There’s a joke to be made here re: MJ and child predators on MySpace. Too tired to make it.
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Oh, I missed a line in my hypothetical.. What if the pedophile initially spotted the kid on the bus on the way to the bowling alley..etc etc. Online that would be like somebody meeting while playing Call of Duty or some crap and exchanging myspace URLs, Whoever hosts Call of Duty should also be part of the law suit..right?
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Mark you’re not being serious. Either you do want to sue MUNI and the City of SF or you think nobody should ever be sued ever or you think somewhere in the middle. I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the middle, and that’s where we all are.
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CoolDMZ,
The hypothetical I used above was, to me, no more ridiculous than suing Myspace because your daughter was raped. Perhaps I could give you a better response if you would tell me what crime you think Myspace committed. Myspace is a public space.
Interesting that you previously referenced OJ Simpson. Yes, the family won the civil suit. At least they brought the suit against the person who allegedly committed the crime. This is the equivalent of suing the manufacturer of the knife OJ used..Isn’t it? I clearly state above that the family can sue the pants off Mister Rapist if it will make them feel better. Mr. Rapist probably doesn’t have very deep pockets though.
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“The law firms, Barry & Loewy LLP of Austin, Texas, and Arnold & Itkin LLP of Houston, said families from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina filed separate suits Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging negligence, recklessness, fraud and negligent misrepresentation by the companies.”
those crimes. I didn’t read the link either 🙂
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Haha, o.k. but I asked you what YOU thought. Not what some oportunist plaintiff’s lawyer thought.
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Oh, and if you agree with plaintiff’s lawyers..could you tell me what was fraudulant and what was misrepresented? Thanks.
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I’ll refer your questions to my lawyer.
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“Yah got me….YEAH!”
Clark Gable in “It happened One Night”
I gotta go check my Myspace account.
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(1) If MySpace is liable for kids being raped by someone they met on the site, SacRag is liable for the exact same thing.
(2) Am I really the only one who is completely spooked by the idea that kids need to be living in some 1984 world where their parents have their eyes on every piece of communication, where they have GPS monitors on their cellphones, where they *watch* everything their kids do instead of actually TALKING TO THEM?
How is a human being supposed to develop the personal responsibility we’re all arguing they should have if their parents don’t give them an ounce of trust?
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kit: no.
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Kit! Doh! When I was walking home from work it hit me like a ton of bricks. Good on you Kit..This freaking site is an open anonymous forum!! Further I have met here and corresponded with folks outside of this forum.. Well SacRag?? What’s your game plan? Got insurance? What are your moderators doing to insure that these things cannot happen? It could happen to you!
o.k., have a nice weekend. You rule Kit.
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Just adding another comment in hopes we can surpass the # of comments on previous record holders (Julie Durda and the plight of Paul & Jen)
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Thanks so much for the legal help, Mark!! May a lougie latte find its way to your lips very soon.
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Your Welcome! Don’t worry, I always switch my drink with someone else’s.
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What was the record amount of comments? CoolDMZ, I wish only the finest lattes for you. I would use a blend of Sumatra, Ethiopian, French, Italian and 10% Robusta to pull the best shots of espresso with perfect crema. I would use only the finest local organic milk with a fat content of your choosing. I would gently steam the milk to 145 degrees, and pour the milk into a Waterford crystal glass or a heavy hand blown clear Murano glass that would showcase the fact that I would then carefully float the espresso on top with half an inch of foam. I would then, if you like, grate the finest plantation, perhaps venezuelian, chocolate on top. I’m not sure why my latte has a lougie in it, makes me more than a little suspicious that you haven’t really bothered to read my posts. Seriously though, I would really make you that latte if I could. Why wouldn’t I? One line responses/curses welcome.
Sorry, I had that latte bit rolling around in my mind, but I really would make it for you, this was a fun debate.
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Mark: Flattered, but I’m married.
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Wow, your wife doesn’t let you drink drinks made by men? That’s the most homophobic thing I’ve heard in a while. Eating out must be a bitch.
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too far, party of one
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Huh?
Is it that the drink is made to well? Or to fancy? Should men make really crappy drinks for one another? Sounds like a third tier sit-com plot line to me. I guess I never get male locker room put downs cuz I don’t hate homosexuals.
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you are all idiots. first the topic went from myspace to homophobia..jeez, that’s a sweet ride. look, you people are sooo happy to find stuff at great prices online…”hey look…i got it on ebay.” but when the net becomes sour..”damn the net, and ebay!!!” we have to treat the net like we do physical places. men and women lie about sex, age, experience, education,occupation, everything we have to to gain ones interest…you though the net was going to be different? the same place where i can order a bride from russia…you thought that this place was safe?? the same place where i can find written explainations about bomb building and small weapons that i then can take to school…seriously, you thought this place was safe?
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rad comment, Talking Pocket!!!
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I think that if these girls choose to be fast and go meet older men off the internet then it’s the parents fault for not monitoring them. It’s like suing McDonlads because your child is obese. Responsiblilty is the word. These girls won’t learn a thing from this experience because they’re being allowed to get away with bad behavior. MySpace cannot monitor every little thing that goes on on their website even though they should. People need to realize that cyber space can be just as deadly as the real world.
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Thanks for chiming in, Tina! I think for the most part we’re talking about creeps who are lying about their age, and whether MySpace is liable for those guys being able to mislead their victims. Only the McDonalds-suing types would probably want to go after MySpace if there was no perpetrator lying about their age to meet underage girls.
Can I get a 50?
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Thanks to anybody in advance for reading this overlong post.
Yes this thread went way off topic.
I argued that the parents of these children need to protect their children and not blame Myspace for their failure to do so.
I too compared the internet to public spaces:
“Myspace is a public space, just like teenagers hanging out at the Bowling Alley and some, I’m sure have been raped behind the dumpster in back. Is the owner of the Bowling Alley negligent because he allowed just anybody from the public to come inside and he didn’t hire 10 babysitters to assist in the raising of the children that hang out in that space?”
Myspace warns users in their terms:
“Information provided by other MySpace.com Members (for instance, in their Profile) may contain inaccurate, inappropriate, offensive or sexually explicit material, products or services, and MySpace.com assumes no responsibility or liability for this material.”
Donald feels that Myspace should and could do more to protect their users (Donald is a representative of a public forum that currently does zero to protect users, being a hypocrite does not make his point any less valid as a murderer could state that murder is wrong and that would be absolutely valid). And yes, there is always more that can be done. What is the law? What is the industry standard? The spectrum of precautions includes doing zilch (sacrag), what many would see as reasonable, and on to the most ridiculous precautions the human mind can imagine.
Lets look at Ice Skating rinks. There is a sign “Skate at your own risk.†I find the sign to already be entering the absurd, I mean duh. BUT it still does nothing to actively protect the users, and people are going to still sue even though no further precautions are required by law nor are any other precautions an industry standard. The only precautions that could eliminate the threat of harm would be something crazy like strapping users into a rotating arm that skims your feet on the ice. And this doesn’t even address the fact that kids hanging out at the rink are in danger of coming in contact with anybody off the street. I assume that people know the internet is potentially dangerous for everybody just like I know skating on rock hard ice is dangerous. It’s not Myspace’s fault if a user fails to read the agreement that can inform those who do not know of the potential dangers therein. So yes, there is always more somebody/company could do, I feel that Myspace has done what is reasonable with the warnings in the terms and conditions and there active moderation of the site.
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