Via the Austin Statesman.com & SecurityFocus -
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 social networking site Monday for $30 million, claiming that it fails to protect minors from adult sexual predators.
The lawsuit claims that 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."
The sad truth is that the mother and teen are completely right....and yet equally at fault. Myspace security is a joke, given.
Last year, I contacted Myspace asking them why they didn't use SSL for login? No answer. Can they not afford a single SSL cert with all that ad money? Seriously.
The teen is at fault for giving information away to everyone on the internet, including sexual predators. She is at fault for getting into a car with a stranger and most likely hiding this fact from her parents. When I was young, girls didn't go on dates that young..and if you did, you picked them up at their house and met their parents - at the very least.
Myspace is getting rich off of young people and IMHO could really care less about the dangers presented by the site, so in a way I hope this suit makes them change their ways.
However, the 14-year-old girl could have met a sexual predator anywhere. The mall, an AOL chat room, the parking lot after school, a cheerleader party, a girl sleepover with some of the other girl's boyfriend's friends, LiveJournal......everywhere. So it is 100% Myspace's fault? I don't think so.
I am not even sure it 50% Myspace's fault...but lets hope this case makes them wake up and see change their tune.
But if Myspace ask for my DL number or credit card, am I going to give it to them? Hell no...so where is the line?
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