to those of you who didn't hear. MySpace was sued by a 14 year old and her mom for $30M. claiming that MySpace failed to protect teens from sexual predators.
"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." — read more here.
i believe the responisibilty in this case lies with the parents. if you let your kid surf the web, use IM, chat, webcam, use social networking, etc. without monitoring his use you are an irresponislbe parent.
everytime there is a new technology that enables people to communicate on the internet, there are these cases who make the headlines, and there are calls to restrict use of these technologies. it was the case with bulletin boards, chat rooms, IRC, mailing lists, IM and now social networking. as virtual worlds (e.g. second life, habbo hotel) will get to critical mass it will happen there as well.
the answer in my opinion is not to legislate and regulate, but rather to educate. and this is the role of the parents. they should talks with their kids about the danger of speaking with strangers online, and try to give them tips on how to identify suspicious users. and whenever they have a doubt to come and talk. and whatever relationship you have with your kid (and how much you trust him), from time to time ask him to take a look at the IM buddy list, MySpace buddies, etc.
needless to say i think this lawsuit is without real merit and greedy.
MySpace can enhance its age verificiation, provide monitoring tools to parents and more, but it should not be told to do it by the courts or the legislator.
) And Look! I’m still in one piece and and thus far never been attacked by an internet predator. I never would have dreamed about meeting some stranger online- I still don’t.
