“Four families have sued News Corp. and its MySpace social-networking site after their underage daughters were sexually abused by adults they met on the site, lawyers for the families said Thursday.” (Jessica Mintz, AP/LA Times, Jan. 19). Earlier: Jul. 19 and links therein.
Update: Link fixed.
7 Comments
So Myspace will be a registered sex offender in Georgia now like the Mother who didn’t do enough to stop her 15 year old daughter from having sex?
Now, Myspace doesn’t let you claim to be under 18 in your profile, or search for under-18-year-olds. They don’t require proof of being over 18 (does anything, besides social security numbers, really tell this? Some under-18s have credit cards, I doubt they could tap into a driver’s license database, etc).
So what is this “more” that they could do? If a 14-year-old claims to be 18, gets a myspace, meets an adult, and gets abused, well, (s)he’s just defrauded myspace. Victims of fraud, in general, ought not to be legally liable for not seeing through the hoax.
Many of these sad stories involve telephone contact at some point. Why doesn’t anyone sue the phone company for facilitating such contact?
Why stop there. They traveled and probably fornicated in cars made by giant multinational corporations.
Good idea, Nevins– technically, it was all those cars that were violating the old Mann Act, transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes.
Plus a good dose of litigation like this could really stick the last nail in Amtrak’s coffin.
Only one hole in the idea, though–if the GIRL went on HER own, in whatever way, and SHE went to HIM, HE couldn’t be prosecuted even under the Mann Act.
“Why stop there. They traveled and probably fornicated in cars made by giant multinational corporations. ”
Classic one coyote. I might put that on my wall.