TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Reaction to the lawsuit

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Trench Reynolds

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Public reacts to MySpace.com lawsuit:

Local reaction, from Austin, Texas, about the MySpace lawsuit…

Reaction was mixed Tuesday after reports that MySpace.com is being sued for not doing enough to protect young users from predators.

Some say the girl’s parents should have known better.

Lowell Coleman likes to have coffee at the Spider House and frequently checks his MySpace.com account.

“It’s a friendly networking-type thing,” he said. “What’s great about it is you’re able to prescreen before meeting a person.”

But Coleman says he knows not everyone on MySpace.com is who they say they are.

“Then again, if you’re a sexual predator, it does give you the accessibility to go ahead and prey on a particular person.”

David Deschodt, who has an 11-year-old, wonders were the girls’ parents were.

“What was that kid doing on a website without any supervision?” he said.

Other parents KVUE News spoke to said children should always be supervised when using the Internet. Many weren’t blaming MySpace.com.

“I don’t know if MySpace.com can be accountable. I really think it’s up to the parents to monitor.” said Lacey Cominsky who has an 11-year-old. “There needs to be more personal responsibility. I think I know there’s punitive damages that encourage a corporation that makes a lot of money to change their policy. It’s not about the plaintiffs just getting that money.”

Your thoughts?

Comments

3 responses to “Reaction to the lawsuit”

  1. soobs Avatar
    soobs

    Well, I think the lawsuit is BS. But if you look at his website, he was last on in May, and yet it does say that he’s 19, and in a relationship. I wonder when he changed it?

    Reply
  2. Lilo Avatar
    Lilo

    Here’s my issue:
    The girl used the site when she was 13- willfully breaking the users policy.
    She said she only agreed to meet him because he said he was a senior and a football player according to one of the many local stories on it.
    She says he approached her, again according to a news story.
    With number one- she broke the rules leaving her responsible for even being on there to begin with,
    The the second one- are we to assume that HAD he been the 18 year old football player it would have been OKAY?
    And lastly, if she did clarify her profile and admit to being 14 at some point, most of us know that 14 year old’s have a auto block on their profiles. In my experience, you can’t IM or Email someone underage unless they add you to begin with.

    Reply
  3. Joyce Avatar
    Joyce

    I am Grandmother of a 12 year old…and agree the age needs to be a BIG factor. And even 14 and 18 would NOT seem to be a safe thing to consider in the first place. PARENTS need to know when their children are online and keep check on them. They are left on there own far to much. Unfortunately this is just not a safe world for any of us, and especially not a child that feels they know everything!! Which is the way most “under 15″s even ,seem to feel.

    Reply

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