$30M MySpace lawsuit

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Teenager and her mother sue MySpace.com for $30 million:

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 Internet social networking site Monday for $30 million, claiming it fails to protect minors from adult sexual predators.

The lawsuit claims 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, its parent company News Corp. and Pete Solis, the 19-year-old accused by police of sexually assaulting the girl.

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. She told him she was a freshman in high school and gave him her cell phone number, the lawsuit said.

In May, he picked her up at school, took her out to eat and to a movie and then drove her to an apartment complex parking lot in South Austin where he sexually assaulted her, police have said. He was arrested May 19.

A month before Solis initially contacted the girl on MySpace.com, representatives of the Internet site told CBS News that they protected users younger than 16 from being contacted by people who didn’t know them, according to the lawsuit.

“That is obviously false,” Loewy said. “There are ways to contact them.”

The lawsuit includes news reports of other sexual assaults in which victims 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.

Why do I get the feeling that this attorney is going to be the Jack Thompson of MySpace?

lawsuit MySpace

Comments

19 responses to “$30M MySpace lawsuit”

June 20, 2006

michelle

I’m trying to understand why they feel the need to sue myspace. Seems to me if her mom had been monitoring her online behaviour, she wouldn’t have been in that situation. What’s her mom doing letting her meet strangers off the internet anyway? It’s really not that hard to monitor your kid’s online activity, if you really want to, provided they are doing this sort of thing from your home computer.

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June 20, 2006

soobs

Why sue My Space when SHE gave out her own cell phone number, to someone she didn’t KNOW? And who allows their 14 year old to go out on a date with a high school senior??

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June 20, 2006

Morty

Apparently the mother wants Myspace to raise her kids for her. Why? Because she’s too busy being a complete horses ass! I hope the courts not only throw this one out, but also fine the mother for the frivolous lawsuit in the first place. Oh. And throw her in jail for being a negligent parent.

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June 20, 2006

paul

I can’t see how they can pull this one off, If they are attempting to get the site on neglect won’t they have to prove there is an adequate way of varifying age on the internet.

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June 20, 2006

gretch

She wants to sue MySpace when she was the one that gave her cell phone number away?
And plus, if she did indeed set MySpace to her own age, in her case 14, others can not view her profile let alone messege her unless they add her.
How stupid can she get?

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June 20, 2006

Steve

This is like opening up a can of worms, it is not like people are not suing over everything as it stands. Fast food restaurants, etc, add this to the frivolous lawsuits lists.

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June 20, 2006

Mimi

ohhhhhhhhh so now its a power outage??
what is going on..someone please let me know….im 37 yrs old and think i should be allowed to do as i want on my page??

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June 20, 2006

Trench Reynolds

It is in most states however in a lot of states there is a 2 to 3 year “buffer zone” for people under the age of consent.

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June 20, 2006

mrbmom

Morons. Since when is it myspace’s job to protect kids? Seems like that’s always been a parent’s job. So should Google and Yahoo and Microsoft start “protecting” us from ourselves, too? Insanity.

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June 29, 2006

jiminicrickette

the girl lied about her age on her profile. her profile said that she was 17 which, in tx, is the age of consent. the man accused of raping her says that it was consentual (the multiple times they had sex that night) and even has proof of text messages between the two of them for the following week after the incident occurred.

methinks mom found out about it and got mad but as soon as she was through being mad, she saw dollar signs. the dollar signs begat lawsuit, lawsuit begat ranting blogs, ranting blogs begat ranting replies. alas, this is how the world works.

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July 28, 2006

Samantha

I agree with the person above me.
the girl is acting like the many 14 year old myspace sluts.
you know the kind. dress and act older then their age.
it was HER responsibility to keep her selfcontrol in tact.
she was asking for it. she wanted the attention.
what i think is that myspace should countersue for slander.

it is HER and her mothers fault that this happend. we are all responsible for protecting ourselves.
which is what an adult, or rather any one with a logical mind does.

it is proven that she is, neither.
she is a CHILD.
and children should not be able to accsess the internet without adequate parental supervision.

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August 3, 2006

nikol

The young girls mom suing myspace please ground your daughter and take her computer away you dumb old broad. Seriously sorry your daughter was allegedly assulted but come on your daughter should not be on myspace at that age anyways and meeting a guy that age she should know better. You want to sue them for 30 million why not just for your daughters anguish and mental distress is 30 million the magic dollar amount that is going to sweep it all under the rug. People like this that make ridiculous lawsuits like that make me sick. Get over it already it is not myspaces fault she went with him willingly you moronic woman. Don’t have the computer raise your kids you should be. I was raped by a guy I met on AOL I didn’t sue AOL neither did my family. Sad things happen to good people unfortunatly but don’t go after myspace for something she did. If I write anymore about this I am goin to scream with frustration at this dumb women suing so I am out…

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August 20, 2006

myspace user

It is comply ridiculous the even consider that myspace is to blame for the girls rape. My heart goes out to her for what she has been through but 30 million dollars is not going to change the fact that her mother is an irresponsible parent who cant control her child and what she looks at on the internet. The only person to blame should be the parent for her lack of knowledge on what goes on in her childs life and sadly the child for being so blind to the fact that rapists and perverts do this everyday on the web. Its no secret or a new thing. Everyone knows this and she should have also. She may be a child but she does have a brain. Common sense should have told her this. Dont talk to strangers means, DONT TALK TO STANGERS!!! Its no different on the internet. Myspace is not to blame. Blind parenting is.

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August 22, 2006

Daniel

Who cares? The girl is a slut……myspace rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY TOM!!!!

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August 23, 2006

myspace addict

exactly- everything everyone said is soo true
GO MYSPACE!!!!
kudos for tom 🙂

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September 12, 2006

DaTa

Okay i’m going to say what everyone else is saying,it was her own fault if she’s dumb enough to go off with a stranger that she met on the computer then she got what was comeing,i bet he didnt sexually assult her,i bet she asked to go to the appartment and i bet she asked to have sex,then her mom fount out and decided to make a little money and sue myspace when it was partly her fault too,i mean she should atleast look over her daughters myspace every once in awhile and watch where she lets her go,me myself i’m only 13 and i’m smarter then to go off with some stranger i met on myspace no matter what they say they can say bullshit like “i really wanna meet you” or “just to dinner” or “just to hang out a little” or what the fuck ever your just a dumbass if you fall for that shit okay?and how is myspace concerned on makeing money?its a free service isnt it?it doesnt charge money to join so they cant make that much money 🙂

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September 13, 2006

Isenia

I do think it was the mother’s fault for allowing this to happen. She should have monitored her daughter’s internet activities. Although I wish I could sue myspace for a different reason. I’ve asked them repeatedly to do something about a 20 year old woman posting my 5 year old’s picture on her profile page. She has it surrounded by profanity and pornography promoting images that no child’s picture should be around. It’s a welcome sign with my son’g picture, to sexual predators. They have done nothing, nor did they even resopond to my requests. I think they are taking too much advantage of the 10th ammendment of the constitution.

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November 24, 2006

Dennis

Myspace does NOT take reports of underage girls seriously at all. Three days ago I reported an underage girl. Her profile says she is 18, but in an email message to me (on myspace) she admitted to being 13. She belongs to an Adult Sex Group “Sexy Gurls That Love Older Men”. That Adult Sex Group (on myspace) has a Moderator who is only 14 years old. I have reported these facts to myspace three times in the last three days. The 13 year old girls is still a member of myspace and a member of that Adult Sex Group. Could somebody please tell me the name and telephone number/address of the lawyer(s) who are currently suing MySpace. It is important for that lawyer to know about this matter. Thank You. Dennis

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December 7, 2006

victoria

i yhink this is soooo ridiculous, her parents are at fault, not myspace. first off this could happen anywhere on the intenet period it doesnt matter if its myspace or any other site. there is no way they are gonna win. the mother should of been watching what the girl was doing. 14? why would she be going on a date in the first place? this is crazy. get a life lady. i wish i could be going around sewing for random reasons

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