MySpace is being sued because some of their juvenile female members have inadvertantly met adults there and were subsequently assaulted. Their parents are suing with the contention that the site waited too long to install control measures that could have prevented the assaults, although nearly anyone knows that you can't keep pedophiles from plying their perverted obsession at will. Should the courts allow these lawsuits to procede?
Your thoughts?
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Kevin Haendiges
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RE: Should websites be held liable for their member's crimes?
IMO, hell no they should not be held liable. But, this seems to be the way things are going now days. It's not the parents fault/responsibility that a kid is failing school, it's the teachers fault. It's not the drivers fault they got a speeding ticket, it's the COPS fault, etc, etc. Seems that folks don't want to take responsibility for the things that they should...always blame the bad on someone else.
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RE: Should websites be held liable for their member's crimes?
If it an be proved they had knowledge of said crimes and done nothing.......
BURN THAT REAR-ENDOUS WITH THE SWAMP STOMP
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RE: Should websites be held liable for their member's crimes?
Yes, HNI is GUILTY!!!
It doesn't surprise me to hear about parents suing a third party (and a large, successful corporation), but it's a crock. MySpace provides a medium for people to communicate--that's all they're in business for. They're not parents, not law enforcement, and not society's watchdog.
I feel very badly for the girl and her parents, but it's nobody's fault except for the criminals who hurt the children in question.
Location: On an Island in the west coast of New England
Posts: 13,132
RE: Should websites be held liable for their member's crimes?
Yes they should be punished. Some sitesusediscriminatory tactics on characters like....ummmmmStealthy et al, Tardfarmer and many others. There should be a peoples court made up of .....members. Ok the jury is in and"The Czar"needs to do some community service. Start with septic tank pumpout at a canned hunting ranch using a teaspoon. No nose clips or bootsallowed.
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Too busy with fishing to spend much time here.
RE: Should websites be held liable for their member's crimes?
It's interesting that there are four law suits(states) rather than one class action.Maybe the mentality is if one flies then a possible precedent for others may follow?? I don't think there is enough info in the article to say the suit has "no merit".It will all soon unfold - Be very interesting
As to Merit of a case;
Look at what a few smokers did to the tobacco companies.This is after the surgeon general had a warning on every pack! It had merit
Look at what hundreds of vehicle owners have won over the years in cases against vehicle manufactures for some pretty shakey product liability claims.You could go on and on with some of these cases.
Remember This - A good law firm can sell Ice to the Eskimos.
What I really think is that someday - somewhere - somebody(s) is going to take some of these "questionable" web sites to the cleaners.
RE: Should websites be held liable for their member's crimes?
i think the website has some duty to exercise reasonable care in the policing of its website.
malls were the town squares of the 20th century. the internet and websites like myspace are the malls of the 21st century. myspace makes money off kids who congregate there. they should exercise some minimal level of care to fulfill these obligations to their users.
i'm not saying i know what that is-this is virgin territory and we'll have to figure it out as we go. by analogy, i don't think anyone here disagrees that if a crazed wacko is walking around a mall with a knife in one hand and his p*$##@ in the other (apologies to Clint), and mall employees were aware of it, those employees would have a duty to do something for the safety of their patrons. if that is the case, what would the cyber equivelent of that be as it applies to sites like myspace?
RE: Should websites be held liable for their member's crimes?
Quote:
i think the website has some duty to exercise reasonable care in the policing of its website.
Mall security didn't arrest perverts and keep them away from children--the police did. The cops are the authorities, and when it comes to law enforcement,it's theirprerogative. The mall security drives around and makes sure people's cars aren't being broken into, like network security at MySpace.
Not to mention that parents need to take personal responsibility for their children, whether in the mall or on the Internet. Ignorancewas never an excuse, and it's downright pathetic in this day and age.
Should websites be held liable for their member's crimes?
