I blogged last month ago about lawsuits filed against MySpace in the cases of four underage females who were sexually abused by individuals met on the site.
In the case of 15 year old Texas female, “Julie Doe,” MySpace was sued for $30 million dollars by the girl’s parents who levied charges of negligence against News Corp, the parent company of MySpace, for failing to protect underage members from online predators.
According to court documents, then 13-year-old Julie Doe lied about her age, claiming to be 18 when joining the site. She was contacted by college freshman Pete Solis, with whom she exchanged e-mails and phone calls, and met for dinner and a movie. Police reports say she was then sexually assaulted in a parking lot.
In a ruling appearing to be the first time a federal court has granted social networking sites the same broad free speech protections as Internet service providers, Austin, Texas, U.S. District Court Judge, Sam Sparks dismissed the case remarking, “If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace.”
Judge Sparks further stated MySpace could no more be held liable for the actions of it’s users than Yahoo Inc., was responsible for what people write on it’s message boards, and should not be penalized for failure of it’s voluntary safety measures.
Adam J. Loewy, the attorney representing the Doe family, said they were disappointed with the ruling and planned to appeal. “We were prepared for a very long battle in this,” he said.
Yet, as Loewy and Co. go to work on their appeal, public sentiment seems to side with an LA Times child safety expert who, upon hearing the ruling said, “A lot of people are angry about what kids are doing and what’s happening on the Internet. That’s fine. But it is not MySpace’s role to raise your child.”