You can’t turn on the news these days without hearing about yet another lawsuit being filed against MySpace.
Four families of underage daughters who were sexually abused by individuals met on the social networking giant filed suit against News Corp, the parent company of MySpace, at Los Angeles Superior Court on January 17. The charges allege fraud, negligence, recklessness, and negligent representation. At issue is whether or not MySpace did enough to prevent abuses to minors from occurring.
The cases involve a 15-year old Pennsylvania female, kidnapped and sexually assaulted; a 15-year old Texas female, drugged and sexually assaulted; a 14-year old New York female, given illegal substances and assaulted by two men; and two South Carolina sisters, aged 14 and 15, also given drugs, alcohol, and assaulted.
The question remains whether MySpace can ultimately be held liable for the actions of minors on the site.
MySpace requires users aged 18+ to know the full name or email address of users under 16 years of age in order to contact them, and underage profiles are automatically viewable only by those on the users friend list. While these measures are helpful, it does nothing to stop a child from lying about their age to bypass the very measures put in place to protect them. Plans are in the works to develop software allowing parents to view certain parts of their child’s profile, such as the age they claim to be, without viewing personal blogs or bulletins.
The bottom line is, the internet is inherently a place of strangers where caution must be exercised. The threat of child predators is not unique to MySpace, and online safety is not something any website can absolutely guarantee–nor should we expect them to. The first and best answer for keeping children safe on MySpace remains the same as in the 3-D world–education and parental supervision.
More Tips for Online Safety:
What Can Parents Do About Online Safety
WiredSafety – the World’s Largest Internet Safety and Help Group
Reporting Suspicious Messages at Families.com