I think the mother of the girl should be held liable for $30 million dollars, and be declared world's shittiest mom. Anyone can make a mistake, but to teach your child that nothing is ever your own damn fault is unacceptable.

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So the left should take the socialist position that it's okay to blame gun manufacturers and tobacco companies when they recklessly endanger people, but switch to the libertarian position when a corporation that is profiting from their precious cyberblogspace is recklessly endangering people?

This is mindless. A week ago, bloggers were saying that the talk about MySpace being dangerous was overblown, that no one was really being hurt. Now someone is hurt, and the talk is all about the dangers of a "nanny state."

This is why the left is losing. No one could or should be confident in the leadership potential of people who can't think their way out of a paper bag. It's all about yelling in defense of your pet activity. No ability to balance your own needs with those of the rest of the population. This isn't politics, it's adolescent ranting.

Face it: social networking is a silly habit with no redeeming value. It's a substitute for actual involvement in local, physical communities. It's a hiding place for people who need to hide their insecurities behind a fake identity. It's corrosive of real social networks, and leads nowhere. There is a lot of talk about how it's creating all this limitless possibility - surprise surprise, just like the rest of the internet, it's a place for oversexed white men to get their rocks off, either sexually or ideologically.

My name is Ken Hymes. I live in Charlottesville VA. I am a working musician.
That's all true... or is it? You don't know for sure. And that is why the internet will never replace real life, nor should it.
It's not freeing, it's a trap. Get out of the freaking house and do something real with or for somebody.

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Oh yeah, I'm just imagining that the internet is cram full of hateful sadistic garbage, and oh yes, you're so right, it's much better to give up on people with disabilities and other disaffected citizens actually connecting with their local communities... you know, the people who are actually THERE, when they need a job or someone to help them in a crisis. Cause I'm sure you're all so THERE FOR EACH OTHER, that it doesn't matter that you don't know who any of each oterh actually are.

What a load of twaddle.

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The people who are defending myspace are so ready to turn their social lives over to a corporation owned by Rupert Murdoch.
It's pretty sad. Re: people with disabilities and others who are cut off from society - I bring this up because this is the argument that is always used to defend social networking sites every time anyone challenges their wonderfulness. THAT's the strawman, not the concerns I'm bringing up.

The failure of the left to get its ass out of the chair in front of the computer speaks for itself. The right is in churches, in city halls, in state legislatures, in local organizations (for actual, you know... grownups), while the left is in... fake world. We don't even freaking MARCH anymore, let alone start alternative institutions such as cooperative businesses, free clinics, labor advocacy groups.

Have you not noticed that all the noise in blogworld hasn't gained any traction in the REAL WORLD? It's all just words about words about words. You can't change anyone's mind unless they actually have reason to believe you are there in the world with them and share their concerns.

Say what you want about the right (and I've said it all at one point or another), but they ain't lazy.

This cybercrap is sucking up the time and attention and intelligence of an entire generation. The anger displayed by the responders to my initial post is par for the course. It's like little children being told they can't have their pacifier.

Someone, anyone, tell me what was the last thing they did that required physical effort, personal risk, investment of time in the same room with other people, to advance any of the progressive ideas people on this site supposedly support.

Politics is material, not virtual.

And by the way, if your friends are people you've never met in person, they're not really your friends. They're just "handles."

To say that MySpace has no responsibility here is absurd.
The left is NOT about unfettered commerce. This is NOT a free speech issue. Free speech is when a person speaks out, not when they hide in a chatroom and pretend to be someone else.
One poster told me that no one under 18 should be alllowed to use the site, and that I was an idiot for suggesting that this wasn't obvious. WTF? The vast majority of people using the site are under 18. You're making my point for me: MySpace should be limiting use to people who are above the age of consent, that is an absolute guarantee that children won't be targeted. Unless you think that now social networking sites are a NEED instead of a WANT, for kids. Add that to cell phones and handheld video games and cars of their own.

What a load of hooey. It's like LA - there's no there there.

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touche, lamar, i read blogs, and if something ticks me off, i talk too much.

but i also work for a food bank, am involved in building low-cost housing, and support cooperatively owned businesses. not nearly enough. i shouldnt get self-righteous, for that i apologize.

i still challenge the left: where is the alternative vision and institution building? we can't change the world from in here.

peace

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i'm 43, i play mmorpg's, my band is promoted on the web, i use email everyday. i don't hate the net. it's just not real life.

you called me sir... that's funny.

please don't cuss at me... it's so tacky :o)

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There's only two things at work here: the absolution of guilt over the lack of parental responsibility, and the targeting of a corporate entity for personal financial gain. The rest is "infotainment."

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MySpace was "started" by people under 18, and never would have grown to the 80 million plus size that is has without the kiddies.

Just shut up.

Please, just shut up.

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The majority of myspace users are between 18 and 25, and a simple google search turns that up so please stop the invention of facts? I know left-haters do that a lot but don't be a statistic, k?

And did I miss something, but didn't the girl GO ON A DATE WITH THE RAPIST first? It's not like they met up, she tried to run away, and then she was pulled into an alley/van and savaged, she met up with him, obviously discovered he wasn't her age (Unless she's, well... stupid, which, in light of this frivivilous lawsuit, is) and then CONTINUED to hang out with him. If there was any claim to 'false identity' there, it was gone when she met him and still went out with him.

You can't argue facilitation either because websites are exempt for content posted by their users under Section 230 of the Decency in Communications Act.

Myspace is a very useful website for doing extra "Social-Butterfly-ing" for those of us that want to, I've dated girls off myspace, met friends as far back as grammar school, even found an sibling given up for adoption 15 years ago.

So please, be quiet.

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I am baffled to see on this website the comment that in the U.S. "personal accountability is as quaint as the Geneva Conventions." It is?!
Sure, personal responsibility is a good thing but conservative influence in this country puts way too much emphasis on that all-American ideal of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. This insistence on personal responsibility often ignores the existence of societal, institutional, cultural, and historical factors. What about corporate accountability?
The myth of sue-crazy Americans belies the fact that the lawsuit is one of the few bottom-up forms of power we have.
I am not saying that MySpace should pay up, I don't think there is anything inherent in the site that makes it open to predators, but it should be up to the courts.
And you're blaming the mother? I think that is very sad and shameful. The mother and daughter are the victims- if they are not victims of wrongdoing by MySpace then you may be upset that they do not deserve $30million (who do you think decided on that amount- the mother or the lawyer?), but the mother certainly does not deserve your judgment of her parenting. MySpace may not be the bad guy here (obviously the rapist is) but how can you lay all the responsibility on the mother? Would you then advocate more parental controls on the internet as well?
Seriously, this article could very well have been written by conservative radio host Dr. Laura. She loves this version of personal responsibility- and her radio show and books are insanely popular. Personal accountability is not 'quaint' in America 2.0 it runs rampant.
When I signed up for an account on Alternet, one of the rules of posting told me not to respond to posts with conservative talking points but to report them, should I report this article that I see to be a conservative talking point?

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My Opinion:

Maybe parents should be monitoring what their children are doing on the internet and monitor who they are sending and recieving emails from and to. They also might want to monitor who they are calling and recieving calls from. What a concept. When something like this happens and the parent doesn't like it they need to go to bathroom look in the mirror and point the finger at themselves.

Sorry if people do not like my opinion but see that is what I love about this country My first Admendment right.

Amendment I:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

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I really do not feel that myspace is wrong in this situation, but as I am sadly one of it's users, I keep wondering if they filter their ads at all?? Everytime I log in I see a sexually attractive female trying to get me to date singles.
Am I receiving this because of my personal data, or is this a blanket ad?? My point being that with all the sexual provocation that is pushed on Myspace, perhaps there needs to be a seperate area for adults, and one for minors.
It would create a safer place for younger users to socialize.

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Myspace isn't the problem. Predators will always find new ways. You might as well sue yahoo too and any other chatroom/groups provider.
Or hey here's a novel idea- be aware of what your kid is posting online. Delete those slutty pics they like to put on their profiles. Make sure they aren't giving out too much personal info. Have them set their profile to "private" where you have to know the person's email or last name to be friends. Explain the dangers to your kids.
There is much more a parent can do besides call a lawyer.

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As a parent this is the sort of nightmare I've warned my kids against. That said if this suit is successful it raises all sorts of questions for the future. MySpace and other services could well decide to ban minors altogether, is that what we want?

My youngest plays a online game where the players can chat and email each other, will that disappear? Or will this result in much higher fees for extra insurance carried by the site owners?

What happens when larv... lawyers decide this is the precedent to use when a minor is assaulted (or worse) by someone they met at the mall, at a roller skating rink or even a friends house?

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My comment is i reference to the suggestion that socialism is responsible for this incident. This exposes a lack of knowkedge about socia;osm which is an economic system in which the tools of production either are owned by the public through its governmental structure or are closely regulated by the public. While their may be a mindset which accompanies this economic system such a mindset has little to do with socialism itself. In fact socialism resembles Democracy closely.

Capitalism also has a mind set which influences the way people act and behave which is usually aside from the economic system. I am a capitalist and am quite aware of the negative ideas and actions which have acclimated to capitalism much like negative ideas which have attached to other economic systems.

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You have to be 16 to join MySpace anyways... the girl shouldn't have been on it in the first place.

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I must admit that I didn´t like the idea that Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace (he´s hardly a socialist, but one of the biggest and most right-wing capitalists of our time).

Still, there do exist programs whereby parents can keep their (underage) kids from visiting certain websites. We can´t protect our children from everything, but IMO, the Mom could have done more to protect her child. I believe internet can have a very positive effect in young people´s lives, with parental guidance. One last comment: I don´t believe the comparison with gun control is valid. I am for gun control, because I believe the possiblities for tragic consequences occurring in a household are much greater, varied, and more difficult to control than any possible similar problems due to the availability of internet in a home.

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When I worked at a toy store, people would try to drop their children off while they went shopping---or even while they went to work! At stores I've seen parents put their kids in food courts and toy areas and tell them to stay there while they did other things. I'm not talking about 12 year olds, I'm talking about 5 and 6 year olds. When my mother taught parents would routinely drop their kids off at 7 (school starts at 8:20) and not pick them up until 5. Some even had the nerve to say the school needed to extend after school program hours to 6 p.m.! This summer the library is filled with children whose parents leave them in public places all day and expect nothing to happen to them. If they do, they'll blame us. I say, no---You're the crappy parent, not me. The whole job of being a parent is to parent, to be with your child, to steer them as they develop and grow, not to watch on the sidelines like it's a freak accident in the carpool lane. While it sucks that a child was hurt, it was due to crappy parenting, not myspace. If it weren't for myspace the girl would have had some other problem that stems from parental neglect, it's just there would have been no one there to sue.

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Mom seems a little bit on the ruthless side, there.

That poor daughter, caught up in this.

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Comparing MySpace to the gun industry is absurb. Was this girl raped with MySpace? No. When someone is shot by someone who arrived at the scene of the crime in a taxi, no one blames the taxi! When a girl is raped after hooking up with a guy in a bar, do we try to close the bar? Guns serve no purpose other than to kill.

If you would believe the media, MySpace would serve no purpose other than for teen girls to hook up with predators. But how many of these cases do we really hear about? I feel like I've heard about 5, and a few of them don't count (who cares about an almost-17-yearold flying to Israel to meet some 20 year old!). How many people use MySpace? Millions.

Ken, do you know how many girls are raped each year? I'm talking real life. I'm talking, you know, what you would consider a GENUINE social event (like a party). Yeah. These are where girls get raped. Not the internet. If anything, social networking sites are keeping kids SAFER. They spend less time driving in cars around suburbia (thousands of American teens die in car crashes each year - but no one really cares about that). They spend less time hanging out, doing drugs, drinking, loitering, and getting into trouble.

In short, there is absolutely NO EVIDENCE that MySpace is dangerous. To think so is no different than to think Iraq caused 9/11. It's just BS that the right and the media feed us.

Since when did statutory rape (yes, I know this girl was apparently actually raped, but usually we're talking consensual) become our nation's biggest problem? I live in Detroit. We have MUCH BIGGER PROBLEMS than statutory rape (yes, let's stop calling these people sexual predators, ok? That's a right-wing term. If he's a rapist, say rapist. If he's a statutory rapist, then say that). I DONT CARE if some 14 year old hooks up with a 21 year old. That happens every freakin' day, and has been long before the internet. There is NO psychological evidence that sex between a dude in his 20s and some 14 or 15 year old that is consensual causes ANY psychological harm. It's just right-wing, anti-sex BS.

Why does the media care so much about this? Because the internet is a big threat. Young people hanging out, communicating, has always been a big threat. Do you think revolutions are driven by 40 year old dudes with mortgages? No. The youth is a powerful force for social change, and the right and the corporate elite are terrified that the internet will create solidarity among our nation's youth.

The internet is where we get all sorts of information about how crappy our government is, stuff we just didn't have access to 15 years ago. Now we have tons of FBI officers scouring it for "sexual predators". Do you really think that's all they're doing?

This is a war on youth. If you're under 30, you've been screwed. Your wages are the lowest they've been in 50 years. You can't afford housing. College is insanely expensive and a degree means pretty little. Advertisements for money wasters like iPods are being rammed down your throat at every turn. There are no protections for you if you can't make ends meet. Credit card companies are lining their pockets with your mistakes (well, they're not really mistakes if you need to use a credit card to buy food or pay for utilities).

The solution? Punish them. We need to VOTE EN MASSE, take away social security, raise their taxes, and disrupt their business until WE GET RESULTS. They do not deserve to live comfortably on pensions, retirement savings, and social security while we struggle just to make ends meet because of mistakes THEY made - like voting for a president who took us to war twice - like voting against health care - like failing to stop the government from taking waay all the basic protections (economic and legal) that THEY had when they were young.

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I agree that MySpace should not be held liable. Also, I agree that the mom should have been monitoring her daughter's internet use, and whereabouts, more closely. But let me throw this in.

My mother was a rigid authoritarian who kept very close tabs on me. This was 30-35 years ago, before the internet. I didn't have a car and lived in a small town. Even so, I managed to evade my mom's watchful gaze from time to time, and get into some very risky situations. Her restrictions made me more likely to hide from her what I was really doing.

My point is that the last paragraph of the story sums up the situation. Sometimes the only person to blame for sexual assault is the perpetrator. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens to him.

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1) A 14 year old LIES about her age to sign up for an account on a service that doesn't allow people to sign up until they are 16.

2) An adult mother is unaware that her 14 daughter is doing this.

3) The same 14 year old girl meets an adult male on this service and agrees to meet him (likely aware that this is potentially dangerous and most likely against her mother's wishes).

4) Her mother is unaware of her 14 year old's meeting with a 19 year old male that she met on this service (by lying about her age).

5) The 19 year old takes her out for dinner, a movie, but then decides to sexually assault her.

6) The mother and the 14 year old now want to sue the SERVICE in the amount of $30M for failing to protect the lying 14 year old from the 19 year old man who sexually assaulted her while she was "on a date" with this man that she met by lying to the service (and likely her mother).

So, here we have three people:

A) A fraudulent 14 year old girl;
B) A predatory 19 year old male; and,
C) A neglectful adult mother.

The now the issue being raised is - Should the service be responsible somehow for what happened?

Right....

I hope the Judge slam dunks all three of these people for what they have done and then apologizes to the service for wasting their time in court.

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At 14, the girl should know better. At that age, I knew better than to talk to any male that I did not know. And to maintain a certain distance from the ones that I did know. If a man wolfwhistled me in the street, I would walk past them - not react in any way, not turn my head - just keep walking.
If something like that had happened to me, my parents would have been sympathetic. They would have supported me, been furious at the guy who did it, and wanted him charged. At the same time, they would have made it quite clear that I should have been old enough to know better - they had made sure that I knew the facts of life. And I would have lost my freedom - and the most important thing a teenager can get from their parents - their trust.
I have no doubt that if I were a teenager today, they would have allowed me considerable freedom. I would have had a cellphone, and fairly free access to the Net. At the same time, they would have expected me to have some common sense, and not to abuse their trust.

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they are using predators to attack our basic liberties. HOW THE HELL CAN A WEBSITE LIKE MYSPACE POSSIBLY PROTECT ANYONE? What exactly would they have to do? Shut down the entire internet, that's what. That's the only way to protect everyone.

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I haven't heard one word about the father's responsibility in this.

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And just when MySpace was just beginnig to give Progressives a dynamic voice...

What are the odds?

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It says "sexually assaulted". Likely, this was consensual sex, the mom found out, she had a fit.

So NONE OF YOU SHOULD CARE. Do you know how many girls have sex at 14? A lot. Not most, but a big fraction. Who cares if the guy is 19? Do you think 19 year olds are less safe to have sex with than 16 year olds? (16 year olds are less likely to use a condom and more likely to transmit an STD).

The real damage done here? The fact this guy was arrested. Forced onto a sex offender registry.

19 year olds have been having sex with 14 year olds forever. 14 year old girls, believe it or not, GET HORNY. The left needs to take a lesson from Europe on this one. We are letting the right define when it's okay for our children to have sex. That isn't ANY of their business.

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What can I sue the mother for after she wins $30 mil? All the attention this story is getting is encouraging sexual predators to use myspace, and thus endangering my future, but non-existant, children.

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