MySpace Sued by Families Whose Daughters Were Sexually Assaulted

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 18, 2007 - 12:42pm.

Houston, Texas - Four families who allege their teenage daughters were sexually abused by adults they met on MySpace have sued the social networking site and its parent company, News Corporation.

Two Texas-based law firms representing the families, who come from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, filed the separate lawsuits in California state court on Wednesday. The victims include a 15-year-old girl from Pennsylvania; a 15-year-old Texas girl, two 14 and 15-year-old sisters from South Carolina; and a 14-year-old New York girl.

"Like state attorneys general throughout the nation, we believe that more must be done to ensure that social networking sites are made safer," said attorney Jason A. Itkin, of Arnold & Itkin LLP. "In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users."

All of the alleged sexual abusers have either been convicted, or are currently facing criminal charges in the accusers' home states.

A group of 33 state attorneys general is also considering legal action against MySpace, if the company does not implement age verification and up its age limit from 14 to 16 years old.

Published in DMW Daily, January 18, 2007

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A myspace blog said that

Submitted by myspaceparent (not verified) on January 18, 2007 - 5:58pm.

A myspace blog said that myspace phishing is on the rise. and that was something that got me really scared. my daughter and i are into myspace. I have lots of old-time friends I haven't talked to, and it's nice to get back to the time where we can discuss business and our families, but I'm worried about my daughter. she's only 16, and though we've advised her to be careful, still, it isn't an assurance that she'll never fall for sexual predators. Maybe I'll just have to block Myspace at home for a while, and inform the school to do it as well. I don't think raising the age limit settles the problem.