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Common sense says MySpace is not responsible. These parents are just trying to place the blame on someone other than themselves.
MySpace is doing a lot to maximise the safety of underage people online. You can't search for people under 18, profiles are private, and so on. Now it is up to the parents to maximise their children's safety the same way, by supplying their kids with the tools to identify dangerous situations, and to monitor activity if they don't have those tools yet. The concept of stranger danger hasn't changed, although now it is without a face.
This reminds me of something I heard someone else say a while back. She said, "you ever see these 12-13 year old girls walking around the mall dressed like sluts? Ever see the proud look on their mom's face? Yeah, THAT's the problem"... so true too. I never noticed until I started to notice.
At the same time, MySpace is definitely not to blame either. The parents have to take any responsibility that the criminals haven't already taken. It's petty easy to see how this kind of thing could happen on the big bad internet these days...pervs and psychos are a dime a dozen on myspace...or any other sample size of 140 Million people!
What I think is most sad about Americans these days is that everyone acts as if "dollars in the millions" are going to make anything better. Notice they aren't pressuring MySpace to spend those millions on better safety controls--they want the money themselves. Is winning the lottery of a major suit like that going to take back that your daughter was raped? No, if you're truly outraged about myspace not being safe for teens, sue myspace into making the site safer, not into making you personally more wealthy. That's bullshit.
Where's personal accountability? Where's doing the responsible thing?
There's a condition called "not-my-child" that more and more parents are suffering from each day. And it will continue to get worse as more companies give in to irresponsible parents. I'm sorry for what happened to these teens, but time to wise-up.
I think the issue these days is that kids know more about the web than their parents, who see nothing wrong with letting them have computers in their bedrooms and use them without any guidance or supervision. Also agree with Ross: don't blame teens for being overly provocative on MySpace - there's *no* excuse for those crimes, and the parents should have been checking up on their kids.
However, if anybody is negligent, it is the parents for A) not teaching their children to be more responsible where the internet is concerned, B) for not keeping an eye on their online activities, and C) not keeping an eye on their children, period.
I've spent the last 7 years of my life on the net. I've met all of my best friends online, and have met over a dozen "net-friends" in person, and you don't see me being raped or kidnapped.
I'm not going to say that I'm smarter than these girls, just maybe a bit more cautious. I was taught better. From the time I was a little girl, my mother pounded one thing into my head above all else: The world is dangerous.
Parents these days don't bother to tell their kids that. They let them think the world is safe and nothing bad could ever happen.
It's the same problem with parents letting their daughters go to parties and the girls wind up overdosing, being raped, pregnant, whatever. Parents don't keep an eye on their children anymore, whether it be because they don't care or because they're too busy.
If anyone is negligent, it's the parents. Does that make it their fault? No. But they should take responsibility for the fact that they were neglectful instead of trying to shove their guilt off onto MySpace.
And really, that's all it is. Somewhere deep down, these parents know that they neglected their children's safety, and so they need someone to blame to help themselves feel less guilty.
I hope that judges (and more inportantly probably jurors, usually the dumbest of the lot) throw any and all lawsuits like this out. And if they don't, they at least require the plaintiff to go the full way and sue every single service that contributed - from ISP's on down - that will show (if it's not already evident) how absurd these lawsuits are.
But when people sign up for a Myspace account the MINIMUM age they should be is 16 - This is why 16 is the Minimum age you can put on a profile.
Myspace is NOT for 10, 12, 13year olds. I definitely don't blame Myspace as I'm sure these same things can and do happen on facebook, orkut, and similiar sites.
One more point... I don't know how Millions of dollars will help these girls and families make better decisions as money often times makes (irresponsible) people even more so.
heres a thought, let the parents sue myspace...and if they win (XX) amount of dollars I think judges should be able to decide how the money is disbursed.
I think Myspace (if they loose) should have to incur all legal fees of the plaintiff, Counseling fees of the girls for about the next 10 years or until a counselor deems necessary...and ALL the remainder of the money should go to "an Awareness education group"
If money was to be disbursed in such a way and the parents reaped NO GAIN off of their children's pain --- I don't even think they would sue.
A little common sense might suggest skeptism of parents who think myspace.com should be like a daycare center and is responsible for the trouble their kids find online AND offiline, and not themselves. Skeptism should flare as well when millions of dollars are involved in these law suits.
Just may end up that the true "predators" are the parents, and myspace and some of these boys the true "victims".
Plus I think the parents just want some extra cash , and I think they found a way to get it!
I blame our countries attorney's and the jury for letting this shit happen.
Furthermore, I actually feel bad for them I would hate to be in their shoes when that 'Day' comes. "What goes around comes around."
When I discoved a MySpace account in 2005 that was NOT allowed I took my daughter's computer away for half a year. She used the high school computer to communicate with the creep predator and said all kids could pass the "block". After he used her and tossed her away, she got depressed and killed herself !!! He was 28 and she was 15 !! I worked from my home and was HERE for my kids. I had to sleep JOELEX and my daughter left my eye sight when she went to school. Under my horrible circumstances of loss I would rather be me JOELEX than ignorant YOU !!
even through i am only 14 i know better then to sell appeal in exchange for attention.and when its too much , they cry victim! Really the average girls myspaces are crazy they look like they are trying out for playboy magazines. how more stupid could you get to in life! im not sayin its only the girls fault but u have to realize the guys must be sick minded and just gross to acually do this!
BAD PARENTS!!!!!!!
I could ride with that statement all day, because its only the truth.
Fucking
Parents
Need
To
Man
The
Fuck
Up
And
Beat
Their
Fucking
Children
If myspace wants to be proactive, then catch the first time and repeat offenders by (a) creating logs that can be viewed from the profile and a supervisory profile, (b) require any person under age 17 to have their account subordinated to the account of an adult during account creation, where the person authorizing the account can have their age verified through a credit card number or other comparable system, (c) Allow the supervisory account to view all activity of any subordinated account, and (d) Allow the supervisory account to set controls (such as age limits with which the subordinate account can communicate without express approval.