Teen, Mom Sue MySpace.com for $30 Million

American-Statesman ^ | June 20, 2006 | Claire Osborn

[plan2succeed.org]

Teen, Mom Sue MySpace.com for $30 Million; Suit Filed in Travis County Claims Popular Internet Site Fails to Protects Children From Adult Sexual Predators.

By Claire Osborn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, June 20, 2006

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.

cosborn@statesman.com; 445-3871

[plan2succeed.org]

This article may be the very model raped and molested children can use to sue the American Library Association for the same thing, failure to protect minors from adult sexual predators. Only in the ALA's case, it may be worse, worthy of punitive damages, where the ALA may be skirting the law and the US Supreme Court case the ALA itself lost in 2003, namely, US v. ALA, on the very issue of protecting children from harm.

SafeLibraries.org will be watching this case closely. Please contact us if you have information we should consider as we bring this to the attention of the public, the very thing the ALA's Orwellian "Office For Intellectual Freedom" seems to be working for decades to suppress.

SafeLibraries.org - Are Children Safe in Public Libraries?

[A Troop 1-14 Cav]

Personal responsibility no longer means a damned thing does it?

[A Troop 1-14 Cav]

("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.)



The most intelligent thing said in the entire article.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

This lawsuit should not only be dismissed, but the judge should tell the girl and her sleazy lawyer to get bent.

[Hodar]

My dog got hit by a car; so can I sue GM?
My house burned down, can I sue General Electric?
I said something derogatory about 'Hawgs' in a Biker Bar, and got my butt handed to me, can I sue Harley Davidson?

When bad things happen, why does a person feel that someone owes them money? How about suing the perp?

There comes a time when personal responsibility has to come into play. It started with allowing the bartenders to be sued for selling a drunk driver a beer. Somehow, the drunk was not responsible for the alcohol he was purchasing.

Can I sue Microsoft because the PC that hosted MySpace was running Win2K3 Server?

[dc27]

Personal responsibility no longer means a damned thing does it?

Thanks to the civil courts, no it doesn't.

[A Troop 1-14 Cav]

(This lawsuit should not only be dismissed, but the judge should tell the girl and her sleazy lawyer to get bent.)



And since her mother is apparantly a vaccuous waste, the judge should tell her not to trust strangers.

[L.N. Smithee]

This article may be the very model raped and molested children can use to sue the American Library Association for the same thing, failure to protect minors from adult sexual predators.

As much as I detest the library libertarians who fight for the "right" of children to view pornography, I hope this suit fails because it places responsibility for the actions of a minor in the hands of a third party rather than the parent. I would rather not get the right people through a bad ruling.

[L.N. Smithee]

Why is this posted in "Religion"?

[phoenix0468]

My answer to the question of "are children safe in public libraries?" is yes, when you are either with them or keep them with someone you would trust with your life.

[phoenix0468]

No, he should charge the mother with neglect and sentence her to 2 years public service, following her daughter!!

[Dinsdale]

2 years public service, following her daughter!!

The kid was 13 assume shes 14 now...4 years following her daughter.

[phoenix0468]

I thought the article said she was 16. My bad. Yes four years.

[plan2succeed.org]

Really? Religion? I don't recall selecting that. It has nothing to do with religion.

[plan2succeed.org]

Sorry, you are incorrect. Being with your children is not enough where the libraries allow unfiltered access to the Internet. For example, here's a lady in a library with her grandchildren where one went to the bathroom and her life was changed forever: 8 Year Old Girl Attacked in a Public Library. I can't blame her for this, can you?

This is in part the very reason why SafeLibraries.org is in existence -- to counteract the pervasive effects of decades worth of misinformation from the ALA.

[plan2succeed.org]

Honestly, a potential case against the ALA would be similar to but not the same as this MySpace suit. The facts are a lot different as well. Parental supervision, as you suggest, is not the be all and end all, else why would there be CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) and US v. ALA (finding CIPA constitutional) in the first place?

[Jeff Gordon]

...can use to sue the American Library Association for the same thing...

People who push personal responsibility off onto others make me sick. I am surprised to see such a liberal position as yours being tolerated here on a Conservative web site. Try the DU. You will get more sympathy.

[plan2succeed.org]

You said, I hope this suit fails because it places responsibility for the actions of a minor in the hands of a third party rather than the parent.

You are missing the point. The actions of the minor have nothing to do with the minor being victimized where a public library patron is able to access the unfiltered Internet, left unfiltered despite the law at the direction of the ALA, then go on to attack the child.

Would you want this for your children? Is defending the ALA's agenda to sexualize children worth it, and I'm not saying that's what you are doing, by claiming it's the parent's fault? Was CIPA and US v. ALA a total waste because ultimately the parents are at fault for going to a public library?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

For example, here's a lady in a library with her grandchildren where one went to the bathroom and her life was changed forever: 8 Year Old Girl Attacked in a Public Library.

Where does regulating and monitoring Internet websites fit into this? The homeless man who tried to the rape the girl received a lengthy prison sentence. In other words, the law worked. Why try to exploit a sad situation to pursue an agenda, which you obviously have?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

The actions of the minor have nothing to do with the minor being victimized where a public library patron is able to access the unfiltered Internet, left unfiltered despite the law at the direction of the ALA, then go on to attack the child.

The homeless man is in prison for his crime. What does Internet access in libraries have to do with this case?