Kid sues myspace.com for not protecting children...uh..what?

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 12:00 am

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... space.html

Memo to people in general: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN ****ING ACTIONS!

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.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 12:22 am

1. Hey! Austin! I live there! And I thought we were getting news coverage for the teacher who got fired for posing in artful erotic images.

2. I don't think this has anything to do with mySpace. This is a 14 year old girl and a 19 year old guy who very well could have been in high school and/or 18 at the time of the incident, this girl getting in over her head because he's 18 and a somebody, and then this guy sexually assualted her. They could have met at band camp or through a friend, but instead it was mySpace. This guy doesn't sound like a sexual predator, he sounds like a young musclehead who doesn't know how to take rejection because he's too pumped up on testosterone. 22 & 14, 27 & 13, that's different.

3. If MY daughter isn't home after an hour after school, I'm damn well going to be on the phone looking for her.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:39 am

Shanti418 wrote:And I thought we were getting news coverage for the teacher who got fired for posing in artful erotic images.

GIVE ME THE GODDAMN PICTURES!

Hope they're not too artful tho, that stuff is for wusses.

3. If MY daughter isn't home after an hour after school, I'm damn well going to be on the phone looking for her.

I had no idea you were a father. Sounds like you're a good one too. So... in theory, if a 24 year old comes home with your 13 year old daughter, what would you say to him when he reveals his intentions to marry her?

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:03 am

I'm NOT a father, I'm speaking in hypothetical. I'm much too enamoured with promiscious yet safe sex to be in a relationship right now, let alone procreate.

But that IS what I would do with my daughter because I'm going to be horribly overprotective of my little girl since, being a guy, I know exactly what guys think about (see above), and I'll be damned if they're going to get anywhere near her. lol

Pissin' Poonani · Post by **Pissin' Poonani** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:31 am

I suppose the fact that she lied about her age to gain entry to a site she had no business accessing, or the failure of her own parents to monitor her internet usage, won't even enter into it.

It's always somebody elses fault, isn't it?

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:34 am

Hey, if you're gonna be stupid might as well start young...

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:50 am

"why hallo thar total stranger. lets go on a date *giggle*"
"Have you ever heard the word 'date rape'?"
"lol no. wut iz dat?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all. Let's go!

"

"muuum. i'm going out on a date with a total stranger. see you laterz!"
"Good bye human being whom I am responsible for."

Post by **Best First** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 12:17 pm

"We need to teach our kids to be wary of strangers."

wow, its almost as if that conept predates myspace isn't it?

Post by **snarl** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:32 pm

Any kid that gets nonced via an internet nonce...

Frankly...

They're as thick as **** and I have no sympathy.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:36 pm

On an unrelated topic, I'm 17 and play football for my school. I like maths and I want to study physics at university. Here is a picture of me:

Are there any 16/17/18 year-old girls out there who would like to go to McDonalds with me this weekend?

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:51 pm

ooh me! lol wuz up cutie

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:03 am

Guess it works both ways...

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.as ... 6CF9E6B65F

A Jacksonville man says he was duped and robbed by two girls after attempting to meet with a woman he met on the internet.

The victim says he chatted online with a woman, known on her MySpace.com profile as “Natalia”, for two weeks before deciding to meet with her. He says her profile showed sexy photos, and a blurb which said “just lookin’ for something fun”. That brief, friendly description was all he knew about her before they planned to meet.

"She sent me a message saying she thought she met me somewhere," says the victim.

They decided to meet at what she called her home at the Bentley Green Apartments.

“I went to [the apartment] and knocked on the door, and there was no answer. So I called her and said, ‘I'm here’ and there was no answer."

That is when two girls who were 14 and 15-years-old, approached him saying they knew Natalia, the girl he thought he'd be meeting. They also said they knew where he worked at what car he drove.

"This was not the girl that the picture was of on MySpace," the victim said.

Now sensing something was wrong, he was ready to take off, but was stopped by a shocking discovery.

"[One of the girls] took [a] gun out and put it to my head and told me to empty my pockets."

The girls didn't get much because the victim had forgotten his wallet. They let him go, unharmed, and he called police.

Police did a search of the area and found the two teens with another male suspect. They searched a purse and found two loaded handguns.

Myspace.com may have been developed for friends and music, but this victim had to find out the hard way that not everyone is logging on for the right reasons.

The so-called Natalia did tell the victim that she was 18, so he was shocked to learn he was actually talking to a 14-year-old. He says he has since removed personal information from his MySpace profile, like his salary and the kind of car that he drives.

Those teenagers are now charged with armed robbery and carrying a concealed firearm.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 1:15 am

Even though it's a complete double standard........that's just funny.

Post by **snarl** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:29 am

What a thick desperate loser!

That guy is surely too stupid to live.

hahahahahahaha!

Optimus Prime Rib · Post by **Optimus Prime Rib** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 8:34 am

snarl wrote:What a thick desperate loser!

That guy is surely too stupid to live.

hahahahahahaha!

HAHA yeah.. You tell em..

(continues to remove Myspace info.) Stupid people

Post by **snarl** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 8:53 am

I'm on it too mate

I know everybody that I've added though... Apart from Prince

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:39 pm

Professor Smooth wrote:He says he has since removed personal information from his MySpace profile, like his salary and the kind of car that he drives.

Isn't this the kind of thing that you're warned not to put on there in the first place?

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:48 pm

There's an option to put it on there, but in my opinion if you're really gonna put that much **** on your MySpace profile you've got to be some sort of ******* moron...

Or not used to the 'net, or just not overly cautious...

Nope, trying to have strong opinions on certain things just doesn't work when you're a professional fence-sitter.

Still... That's pretty damn funny.