MySpace is sued over child safety MySpace is being sued by the families of five teenage girls who it is claimed were sexually assaulted by men they met through the social networking website. The negligence and fraud suit against the popular site, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, was filed at a court in Los Angeles. It comes after a similar lawsuit was filed by the parents of a 14-year-old American girl last year. Last year, MySpace increased security measures to protect its younger users. 'Common sense' In April 2006, the website hired a former prosecutor in the US Justice Department's internet child exploitation unit, Hemanshu Nigam, as its chief security officer. "Ultimately, internet safety is a shared responsibility," said Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace safety officer. Can MySpace protect teens? It also made it impossible for users aged 18 and above to contact 14 and 15-year-old members, unless they knew the younger person's email address. The girls involved in the latest lawsuits were all aged between 14 - the minimum age for a MySpace account - and 15. "In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users," said Jason Itkin, a lawyer for one of the firms representing the families. However Mr Nigam said that "ultimately, internet safety is a shared 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 added. News Corporation's shares rose 1.7% in Thursday trading. It bought MySpace for $580m (£333m) in July 2005. Taken from The BBC.

 

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(last year)  #1 adn

Child safety seems to be becoming a problem absolutley everywhere these days :( only dead fish go with the flow...

(last year)  #2 mephiztopheles

hmmm troublesome things these days all around if at first you dont succeed, erase any trace that you tried

(last year)  #3 X-Master

Yeah, can not always trust people to do the right thing morally, or otherwise, all of the time. Of course there are just some sick poeple also. I wonder why the company didn't have enough foresight to think about such things before? It is human to err, to really screw up you need a computer!

(last year)  #4 Xenior

Welcome to America.

(last year)  #5 mulisha

You commonly see people lieing about there age on that website and with so many users its hard to really filter through and check them all.

(last year)  #6 Flex-

What a lame ass lawsuit, its not MySpase's fault, its the parents. You cant expect for them to aks for passport numbers and social securety numbers, if some one lies about their age, that in the online world, that is their age. Thouse parents are fags that are trying to get free cash! Sup?

(last year)  #7 X-Master

Got that right #4. It is human to err, to really screw up you need a computer!

(last year)  #8 Elfofelune

I AGREE WITH FLEX! I_AM_THE_IMBA_WITHIN_U!

(last year)  #9 Dectilon

It's as if people think the personal information they give out on the internet is somehow different from other forums. It's not some company's fault that the information got up there. They have never lied about who can view the information. Parents have to control these things themselves. It's their responsibility. On the other hand, anything that hurts Fox is just fiiiine by me : P Suprise and Terror!