The massive on-line chat site MySpace has been sued by a 14 year old Texan girl and her mother for not providing adequate security measures for underage users after another MySpace user raped her after winning her confidence through their chat sessions. The plaintiffs want to claim $30 million as damages.
Pete Solis, 19, has been arrested for sexually assaulting a minor girl after taking her to watch 'Mission Impossible III' and a fast food dinner. He had told her during their chat sessions that he was part of a high school football team and they had e-mailed each other and spoken several times over the telephone. On the fatal day, she accompanied Solis after school for the flick and dinner, following which Solis took her to a South Austin TX Apartment Complex where he raped her.
The girl confided in her mother who notified the police. She identified Solis from a lineup of photographs, leading to his arrest. He later admitted having had sex with the girl – an act amounting to second degree felony which may result in up to 20 years of imprisonment.
Although the incident with the victim is tragic and unfortunate, there are debates regarding the degree of fault of the website in this issue. The plaintiffs have charged the website with complacency as it does not check the accuracy of the user profiles before allowing them access to chat-rooms. The attorneys accuse this second largest chat site after Yahoo! of taking no concern over security of its underage users since that would not give the site any financial benefits.
However, as Hemanshu Nigam, the firm's security chief points out, safety of internet practices is a shared responsibility involving companies, users and parents in the case of underage users. He reiterates that people should be discerning and “engage in smart web practices”. Added, it is an unclear issue whether any site is accountable for choices its users make and for how users engage with one another outside the virtual world.
This incident, among other things, points out the proactive participation required on the part of parents whose children access the web. Instead of restricting them (in which case the same thing would be transferred elsewhere), they need to consult parents and to be trained toward making safe choices.
