Negligent Parents Blamed for MySpace Assault, Tom is a Free Man
Be thankful that when it comes to blaming the web for offline crimes, one judge has it figured out. The Texan parents who tried to sue MySpace for $30 million when their daughter was sexually assaulted by another MySpace user have had their case dismissed. What’s more, the judge said that the parents were negligent, not MySpace.
We mentioned this case briefly yesterday, but now we have the details. The 12-year Texan girl lied about her age on MySpace (she said she was 18) and met a 19-year-old man last summer for dinner and a movie. Afterwards, it’s alleged they had sex in a parking lot. The girl’s parents tried to sue MySpace for a whopping $30 million, accusing the site of negligence - but as we pointed out recently when a number of these lawsuits were filed, the parents must also have been negligent to some extent. That led to a debate in Mashable’s comments, with most people pinning the blame on the parents.
As it turns out, the judge in the Texan case agrees. Judge Sam Sparks was fairly blunt with his comments, saying “If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace.” It’s also worth noting that the girl lied about her age, and that a lot of the correspondence seems to have happened via email and phone calls. The phone company, incidentally, isn’t being sued (maybe they didn’t have $30 million lying around). A child safety expert in the LAtimes was even more damning: “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.”
This case may set a precedent, meaning that MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and the rest can’t be blamed for the actions of their users, just like ISPs aren’t to blame if you use your internet connection to commit a crime. We’re not really sure what motivated the parents here: guilt, perhaps, or just greed as they contemplated that $30 million payout. Hopefully all the coverage of this event will encourage some parents to keep closer tabs on their kids - Fox’s upcoming MySpace tracker should do the same.
Failing that, Ted Stevens will save us.
