PC Upgrades on Byte-Size Budgets -- Savings Experiment
Stay-At-Home Mom Fights New Credit Card Rule
MySpace has once again been hit with lawsuits today. MySpace's parent company, News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) is being sued by four different families that claim that their underage daughters were the victims of sexual abuse by people that they met on the popular social networking site.As Jonathan Berr wrote yesterday, MySpace has been attempting to battle online predators, but many think that these attempts are weak at best.
As more and more families have underage children that are online the question obviously becomes who is ultimately responsible for the safety of these children? Is it the parents job or the internet sites job? I feel that the responsibility should fall on both, but as everyone who is online knows, there is no way that parents can be completely aware of what activities their children are taking part in while surfing the net.
So how can internet sites be more careful in protecting children on their sites? That is a tough question to answer, but one which all the social networking sites need to start working on together to accomplish. In today's round of lawsuits the ages of the girls that were victimized included three 15 year old and two 14 year old girls. That is a scary thing for parents to consider.
One thing is for sure, until MySpace is able to come up with some more creative ways to fight predators we should not be surprised to hear of more people being victimized and more lawsuits coming out against the company.
Goldman Earnings Sink After Buffett Dividend
Johnson & Johnson's Income Falls 23%
Burberry Shares Leap on Sales Update
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-18-2007 @ 2:41PM
Scott M. Gray said...
As a parent of 3, now 22, 21 and 18, being in the computer industry since 1987, using them since 1984, I find articles like this interesting. Parents suing an online company, because they have failed their Young/Teenage Children is a cop-out. My kids have been online since approx 1996-1999 and all of had a computer or computer teachings from their "Hippie-Father" since they were young. My 18 year old can run rings around me when it comes to online. I allowed them computer usage, I am clearly smart enough to know what the World Wide Web has to offer. To consider suing a company for what I have allowed my Children access too and did not control, is incredjulous in my mind. Parents, stand up and be the parent and not look for teachers and baby-sitters be your Childs teaching tool. It starts with ensuring with your best abilities to sit down at Dinner, as much as possible. What is taught, talked about, discussed at the dinner table will go, has for us, my wife and I, a long way. Lawsuits..in this case equals - Parents that have given up on just that : "PARENTING"
1-18-2007 @ 2:13PM
jeff said...
We aren't given a lot of particulars to assess these lawsuits from. Anyone who is awake knows most teenagers experiment with sex, period. That includes pushing limits, teasing, and actual sex. My guess is that these parents aren't in touch with what their children are up to. It's just a guess, and it doesn't apply to all parents. But from what I see of parents and children daily, a significant number of parents aren't up to the task of parenting.
1-19-2007 @ 1:40AM
Harley said...
Well how bout we stop blaming myspace and BLAME THE IDIOT PARENTS WHO DONT PAY ATTENTION TO THERE KIDS! k thats all i have to say
1-19-2007 @ 1:53AM
Teresa said...
I think that these people filing lawsuits against myspace is beyond idiotic. It is not myspace's responsibility to keep their underaged children off of sites they're not authorized to be on. I am a myspace user myself, and often see children 10-15 on myspace, in the chatrooms. When asked where their parents are or if they know that they're in there, they simply state that their parents don't care. DON'T CARE?? My child would NOT be in a chatroom. There are ways to put blocks on computers to not allow children to these sites. They blame myspace for their bad parenting skills. My little sister, who is 16, uses myspace. She's never been raped, never even met someone from the internet. And why is that? My parents watch her. They know where she is and what she does. Anyone that blames a website for their idiocy and horrific parenting skills should not BE a parent. If they want to go after someone they should go after the sex offenders themselves.
1-20-2007 @ 1:04AM
tracy said...
I agree that it is the parents responsiblity to watch over children and not the actual website. I also think that some parents dont give a rats @*)$ what the kids do and then in turn everyone else has to pay for their mistake, But what if one parent dosent know what is going on and a Step parent lets them do this? Where is common since in this mess?