Posted on 06/20/2006 8:53:38 AM PDT by Lunatic Fringe
A 14-year-old Travis County girl who said she was sexually assaulted by a Buda man she met on MySpace.com sued the popular social networking site Monday for $30 million, claiming that it fails to protect minors from adult sexual predators.
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."
"MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children online," said Adam Loewy, who is representing the girl and her mother in the lawsuit against MySpace, parent company News Corp. and Pete Solis, the 19-year-old accused of sexually assaulting the girl.
Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer for MySpace.com, said in a written statement: "We take aggressive measures to protect our members. We encourage everyone on the Internet to engage in smart web practices and have open family dialogue about how to apply offline lessons in the online world."
Founded in 2003, MySpace has more than 80 million registered users worldwide and is the world's third most-viewed Web site, according to the lawsuit.
Loewy said the lawsuit is the first of its kind in the nation against MySpace.
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.
The lawsuit includes news reports of other assault cases in which girls were contacted through MySpace. They include a 22-year-old Wisconsin man charged with six counts of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a 27-year-old Connecticut man accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
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.
To create an account, a MySpace user must list a name, an e-mail address, sex, country and date of birth.
"None of this has to be true," the lawsuit said.
Attorneys general from five states, including Texas, have asked MySpace.com to provide more security, the lawsuit said. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sent a letter to the MySpace.com chief executive officer May 22, asking him to require users to verify their age and identity with a credit card or verified e-mail account.
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."
Loewy said he was confident about the lawsuit, which he said seeks damages worth 1 percent of the company's estimated worth.
"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.
Sounds to me like "Mom" has the same concerns, and lack of.
Who taught this girl to arrange liasons with strange men online?
??? Is that kinda like Batman?
Follow the money.
myspace is owned by NewsCorp, which owns FOXNEWS.
There are other prominent online communities owned and operated with less oversight than myspace ... but are owned/operated by more liberal organizations. i.e., google, yahoo, msn, aol etc etc.
And this is Myspace.com's fault... Yeah.
More like Bartman...
Can My Space countersue the mother?
Most of the female postings have pictures that indicate that most of the girls are wannabee porno actresses.
This is a crock. It's no more MySpace's fault this happened than it would be Sears's fault if they had met in the mall instead. How about taking responsibility for yourself saying "I should not have done this" instead?
Of course, that will not happen. It kills the chances of hitting the Lawsuit Lottery.
I think we should sue the daughter for felony stupidity.
Nailed it.
You know i'm all over this one... must dig... need more input.
I doubt he sexually assualted her as much as she gave it up but since she cant consent so they busted him
also ...
"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"
And what steps did the 'parent' take to prevent any of this, or the school, or even the child when she MET the guy at the curb. It was all a lark until then.
geesh.
Ping.
Really, why doesn't the mom sue the phone company too? Some people think the world should be one big, padded bubble.
LOL
Buda is a little town outside Austin. I always thought it was a weird name for a town!
susie
Somehow I find it hard to believe that the little girl was non-complicit. Dinner, the movies, back to his place...
Most likely she went on this date with an older man, had sex, got home late and spilled the beans to "Mom" to deflect punishment.
I have grandchildren whose parents do their job and restrict their internet use and certainly block MySpace.
Oh, bad me. I have forgotten that "we" don't have to take personal responsibility any longer in the Republic of Vote myself anything I want. The land where financial planning, for most folks, is totally wrapped around winning the lottery or having a "good" law suit.
Although it will be interesting to see if this one makes it into court. If it does the Internet, as a place to meet for the free exchange of ideas, will cease to be.
Actually, come to think of it, I am surprised it has lasted as long as it has.
We need legal minds... a schmoina like myself would think whoever regulates the web would be in the suit as well.
I don't know if I'm ready to blame Mom for this automatically. The girl had this guy pick her up at school, that tells me she was making sure Mom didn't know. She snuck around behind her Mom's back, and now they both want a multi-million dollar pay-off for the results of the decisions she made.
the capitol of Hungary, Budapest, used to be two cities, Buda and Pest. This US city, like many others, has taken its name fom an old world one.
Most likely.
Let's arrange to meet in a back alley. I'll even let you beat me up. As long as we arranged the fight on Free Republic, Jim Robinson is responsible and I can sue him for millions!
That would be mom's job as a parent. Case dismissed.
Oh, interesting! Thanks for the info. We used to drive by the sign all the time, going from Austin to San Marcos. lots of little odd named towns out there.
susie
Probably the attorney, who wants a mega jackpot award and his 40% cut !!!
Unfortunately, the lawyers will charge such an outrageous fee to defend that Myspace.com will end up settling.
So, let's run this down:
1. Teen girl gets MySpace account.
2. Teen girl posts photos of self on MySpace account.
3. Teen girl answers messages from "boy" on MySpace account.
3. Messages progress to phone calls.
4. Date is arranged on MySpace.
5. Mom thinks it's OK for teen daughter to go on date.
6. "Boy" is man. Assaults teen girl after dinner and movie.
7. Mom sues MySpace.
But wait...MySpace did nothing here except make some bandwidth available. MineralMan is confused.
She should sue Bill Gates, too. "my daughter used a microsoft computer to access myspace."
Yeah, but did Mom do anything to monitor what she was doing on the computer? She's certainly more at fault than MySpace. And of course, the fact that she's ready to sue them tells me what sort of a person she is.
suise
No kidding...plus Playboy has an edition out called "The girls of myspace."
Younger girls are looking at the older girls websites and etc...thinking this is how you get guys and how a girl should act. Kinda scary.
Parent's fault.
Prolly real insensitive to even ask the question (that's just me , I guess), but where is dad in all this?
"but where is dad in all this?
"
Dad? Dad? Oops...No dad.
Can I watch? I'd like a little Emotional Distress/Psychological Damage payoff.
Parents don't watch their kids. Feel guilty when something happens. Avoid thinking of their own guilt by suing someone.
I saw this article on the news.
What the print article fails to disclose is that the girl gave this guy her cell phone number in an email.
So, yeah...how is this MySpace's fault?
True. I don't have any children, but increasingly I'm thinking that if I did I'd be afraid to have a TV or computer in the house at all.
"My lil girl is a loose idiot!!! Give me 30 million!!!"
Daughter AND mother are both idiots. Hopefully, she won't get a penny for her asinine lawsuit.
And the perp in this case was a PEST from BUDA!
-----> *speechless* <-----
All I can blurt out at this point is that stupidity should be a jail time criminal offense.
And that *@^@%#*#)*^%$ opportunistic leech mother should be charged with criminal negligence and child abuse...
Password the computer (or have the computer in a common area) and don't let the child use the internet unless under direct supervision. I know parents who do this...of course, that would require the parents to actually be involved in their children's lives.
Ah yes. Fourteen year olds with cell phones. I say we sue whoever thought THAT was a good idea...
Not mine! (Of course, mine are a bunch of costume and weapon shots.)
I continue to believe that the worst predators without question in incidents like these all have law degrees...
??
No pics of Scott Ritter in tears?
Companies should be able to sue for poor parenting and faulty judgment or lack of judgment and caution on the part of the girl.
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