MySpace sued over security negligence

 

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Posted on 19 Jan 2007 at 14:39

Lawyers for the families of five American teenagers have filed multi-million dollar lawsuits against social networking website MySpace and its parent company News Corp after the girls were sexually abused by men that they allege they met through the website.

The lawsuits claim negligence, recklessness, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

The plaintiffs, whose identities are protected, comprise: a 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl who was kidnapped and sexually assaulted - a man is awaiting trial on 12 charges of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor; a 15-year-old Texas girl who was lured to a meeting, drugged and assaulted - a man later pled guilty to sexual assault after the girl was found by the FBI and is serving a 10-year sentence in a Texas penitentiary; a 14-year-old New York girl who was lured to a meeting severely force-fed with alcohol and illicit drugs forced and then sexually assaulted by two men - one awaits trial while the other pleaded guilty and has been imprisoned; and two South Carolina sisters, one 14 years old and the other 15, who were lured to a meeting, force-fed alcohol and illicit drugs, and sexually assaulted and raped by two men - both have been arrested and are awaiting criminal prosecution.

Attorney Jason Itkin, of Arnold & Itkin, one of two law firms representing the girls, called for more to be done to make social networking sites safer.

'In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users,' he said.

Adam Loewy, of Barry & Loewy, said that these case show the realities of such sites.

'Blaming the families of abuse victims who were solicited online, as some have done, is a cynical excuse that ignores the fact that social networking sites can lead to heinous abuse by Internet predators,' he said. But he accepted that MySpace recognises the seriousness of the problem.

In April last year the site appointed a former prosecutor in the US Justice Department's internet child exploitation unit, Hemanshu Nigam, as its chief security officer and in December it said that it would soon be implementing new controls designed to identify and block convicted sex offenders.

In response to the latest lawsuits - which are not the first of their kind that MySpace has faced - Nigam said that while the website takes proactive measures to protect its users, security is not solely the website's responsibility

'We encourage everyone to apply common sense offline security lessons in their online experiences and engage in open family dialogue about smart Web practices,' he said.

Author: Simon Aughton