Open Blog, MySpace Being Sued for $30 Million

MySpace is being sued over an alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. How is that possible? According to an article written today by The Associated Press, the 14-year-old girl and her mother are suing the popular Internet networking site for $30 Million stating that the site does not adequately protect their underage members from sexual predators. The girl claims that she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man that she had met on MySpace, after he had gained her trust and phone number by lying in his personal profile on the site by stating that he was a 17-year-old high school student senior. The man was arrested last month and charged with sexual assault of a child but no further details of the alleged encounter have been released.

After reading this article I have one question. What about holding the parent(s) of the 14-year-old girl accountable? The parent(s) should be responsible for monitoring their minor child's Internet activity. The parent(s) should know who their child is socializing with and when. The parent(s) should be meeting any boy that they're 14-year-old daughter is dating or even thinking of dating, regardless of whether he's 17 or 19. You are the parent, not MySpace. It is your responsibility to police your child's activities and not anyone else's. I do believe that MySpace could take measures to enhance their security features solely based on the fact that the site is widely used by minors and therefore could be used as a means for sexual predators. MySpace should not be required to make these enhancements, it should be their choice and not because they are being held accountable for lack of actual parental control in each minor's household. If anything, the enhancements to security would benefit them for the simple fact that they would never have to deal with bogus lawsuits such as this one.

When asked for comment about the case, the chief security officer for MySpace had this to say:

"Ultimately, Internet safety is a shared responsibility. 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."
(The Associated Press, June 20, 2006, msnbc.com)

This may prove to be a tall order for some parents, not only will they have to actually involve themselves in the daily activities and associations of their children but they'll also have to learn how to operate the computer.