Teen, Mom sue MySpace.com for $30 million

[tagtastic]

I was gonna make a post on how stupid these girls must be to fall for this and put themselves in real danger.

Then I thought about the flipside. Let's say, in a parallel universe, you are a 14 year old boy who lusts after nearly everything (girls, women, inanimate objects, etc). There's a website, let's call it "YourSpace" - that is filled with thousands and thousands of hot young girls that want nothing more than to come to your house and get it on with you when your parents are gone (or meet you somewhere private, whatever). Now add-in the possibility that a non-trivial percentage of these "girls" are actually older men who upon meeting you in person will likely rape you, possibly even hurt or kill you. How long until you throw the dice?

Now I realize this isn't a direct correlation, and the motives of 14 yr old girls aren't the same as 14 yr old boys, to an extent; but it does provide a little explanation for how a girl can get herself in this kind of situation. Also I suspect many girls will plead ignorance to their parents if they get burned by a myspace 'hookup' because saying they were actually looking for action on myspace doesn't come off well to your parents - so in the media these cases get reported as if the child is 100% innocent (not to rag on victims of sexual assault here, but sexual predators don't teleport kids to meet them places or get their addresses through magic).

[kidcolin]

Tag,

That's the problem. Obviously chat rooms and MySpace is tempting to all these young kids. The problem is the PARENTS.

It's a different world now. I didn't grow up with this stuff (I'm young, but we never had internet), so I can't really say I wouldn't be a dumb 14 year old who got sucked in by some NAMBLA dude posing as a hot 17 year old chick or whatever. But I know DAMN sure that my parents would've had this [censored] on lockdown mighty quick. They wouldn't necessarily ban me from MySpace, but they'd drill it into me that the internet can be a scary place and to be very careful with what sort of information I share.

[tagtastic]

The thing that needs to be taught here is basically "street smarts" for the internet.

It has something to do with common sense, intelligence and social capabilities - the same way I can pick out a bad neighborhood in real life (or bad situations, etc) I can very easily determine which people and places on the internet are safe, and which are pretty shady. Unlike say, my parents, I can easily decide where to purchase things on the internet and how to determine how safe my information will be with those companies.

I'm not sure how to pass this kind of information on to say, kids of my own when the time comes. There are very few hard rules, determining the safety of something on the internet comes from a large variety of observations mostly based on experiences and logic. I can only compare it to social 'street smarts' in real life - innately knowing what kind of people or situations should be avoided.

I know alot of people who don't have these kind of instincts for situations both in real life and on the internet or wherever. These people often find themselves in tricky situations because of it; whether it be getting ripped off on the internet or messing with the wrong kind of people in a bar. I'm not sure what these people are lacking, if it's an intelligence issue or their upbringing, or simply lack of experience in a variety of situations (and the inability to apply prior knowledge to new situations). I just hope my kids have whatever 'it' is.

[Tron]

Good God

The man who assaulted the girl is considering filing a suit against MySpace... BECAUSE IT IS MYSPACE'S FAULT THAT HE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED A 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL

[FishNChips]

Tron:

this is a good guy for you to start your criminal defense career with.

~FishNChips

[Tron]

[ QUOTE ]
Tron:

this is a good guy for you to start your criminal defense career with.

~FishNChips

[/ QUOTE ]

I think his trial might be wrapped up before I pass the bar [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Also, I'm not so sure I'd like to get into the business of defending sexual predators