MySpace Negligence Suit Dismissed
This is just round one, but its an important ruling, namely that the Communications Decency Act provides MySpace with some level of immunity in regards to online communications.
However, there was no decision as yet regarding MySpace’s lack of effort in providing age verification. I think that lawsuits that focus on age verification will have broad success. From Reuters here:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – News Corp.’s MySpace said on Wednesday a federal court dismissed a negligence lawsuit filed by the family of a teenage girl who was sexually assaulted by someone she met on the popular Internet social network.
In dismissing the suit, Judge Sparks said that as an “interactive service”, MySpace was protected from materials posted on its site by the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996. Sparks explained that the CDA is aimed at allowing Internet and other interactive services to continue to develop.
“To ensure that Web site operators and other interactive computer services would not be crippled by lawsuits arising out of third party communications, the Act provides interactive computer services with immunity,” Sparks’ ruling said.
Sparks noted also that the girl lied about her age, posing as an 18-year-old when she was only 13, and registered for an account. MySpace’s minimum age requirement is 14. The girl’s name was not divulged because of her age.
Adam Loewy, a partner in Austin-based law firm Barry & Loewy LLP, who represented the family, said they planned to appeal the dismissal of the negligence charge and to refile charges of fraud and misrepresentation in a different court “in the very near future”.
Family protection groups have criticized MySpace, saying the Rupert Murdoch-controlled company had failed to provide safeguards such as age verification rules to protect its large group of teen users.
The girl was lying about her age, so how if MySpace supposed to prevent that? Easy. No more free accounts. If every account holder was required to pay an annual fee with a credit card, there would be no more inappropriate underage use of the site. And the url of the personal profile should show up in the bill so even if a card is stolen and used to access the site, the credit card account holder would be notified of the usage and address of the myspace page.
