ARG.

[chibi_trillian]

This pisses me off.

No, I'm not happy that your kids got sexually assaulted by creeps they met on MySpace. No, I'm not saying it's right or condoning online sexual predation in any manner. No, I'm not defending MySpace--personally, I hate the goddamn site. All I'm saying, Parents With Lawyers, is: WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?

That's right, I asked it. Where the fuck were you guys when your FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD was meeting with some random guy she met online completely unsupervised? Where were you when your fifteen-year-old daughter was sending these creeps her picture and address and phone number and school? Where were you? When did you give your kids the "Internet Safety" talk? My parents gave me one in 1997 when I was fourteen and what it covers hasn't really changed substantially since. You want to know what "web filter" my parents used? They put the computer in the living room with the monitor pointed so they could see it if they randomly walked by. And they randomly walked by A LOT.

Last June, the mother of a 14-year-old who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old user sued MySpace and News Corp., seeking $30 million in damages. That lawsuit, filed in a Texas state court, claims the 19-year-old lied about being a senior in high school to gain her trust and phone number.

So it would have been okay for your daughter to meet with him alone if he actually was eighteen? O_o

Camwhoring's an active phenomenon, mom and dad. Your daughter (or son) may be sending strangers pictures of her (or his) body in exchange for items, paid account time, perks, money, or just some attention. It takes effort, planning, unsupervised time, an unsupervised computer, an unsupervised camera, and there are several steps along the way during which your sprog could decide that maybe responding to "TITS OR GTFO" with "TITS!" is a bad idea. Your kids are the ones who made that choice. And you made the choice not to supervise them, to let the internet be your babysitter because it's someone else's responsibility to make sure your kids don't do dumb things that could get them hurt. Not yours. The only responsibility you have is to sue someone afterwards. After all, there's no way to say "I love you" like hiring a lawyer and hitting a company for everything they've got.

I hope these cases get thrown out of court. I really do. They won't, though. They'll go to court, the parents will win, and MySpace will turn into an eighteen-and-over site with age verification. And your fourteen-year-old will find somewhere else to go play with matches, and it'll happen all over again.

Comments

[brian-kun.livejournal.com]

Preach it Sister. Can I get an Amen?!!

[scribblemoose]

Just... yes. Exactly. *applauds*

[jadeprince.livejournal.com]

EVERYTIME some stupid parent freaks out about movies or the internet or video games or anything of that nature, I have to wonder, "And where the fuck were -you- when your 12 year old bought and played Grand Theft Auto? Where were you when your 9 year old was surfing porn sites? Where the FUCK is parental responsibility?? Same goes for sex education in my opinion. Parents these days are WAY too comfortable with letting society raise their kids and then bitching when things go wrong. *GAG*

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

These are the same parents who pull the "BUT I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WAS IN IT/IT WAS ABOUT/THEY WERE DOING!" card about games, movies, and the internet. Except that thyey've been given every damn opportunity to find out. Take video games: you pissed and moaned for a games rating system, and the ESRB complied. You don't use it--all you do is hand your kid money so they'll quit whining. Ohsnaps, your kids took your credit card and bought The Suffering? We'll put age locks on the games in the sales computer now so a carded adult has to buy the game. You bought the game and found out later it was violent? Well, shit, Wondermom, what did you THINK a game called "Grand Theft Auto" was about? I know it and Gran Turismo start with the same two letters and both involve cars, but you'd think the hookers, guns, and big ol' "RATED M FOR MATURE 17+" on the front would have given you a clue. ARG.

A big old slice of WORD pie on the sex ed thing. Especially given that most schools won't teach anything but abstinence-only so they can get federal funding--in other words, kids are learning about sex from their equally poorly educated friends. Coca-Cola's not a contraceptive, you can get knocked up your first time, and love won't protect you from AIDS. I know it's an uncomfortable conversation, but it needs to be had, especially with the number of STDs slinging around that either have no treatment or are becoming resistant to conventional ones.

[jadeprince.livejournal.com]

Why is it that parents want to put the least amount of effort into actually raising the kid, but the most amount into suing the products and people who take over where they left off? Grow the fuck up.

And don't EVEN get me started on abstinance-only sex ed. Because not knowing about condoms is SO gonna keep kids from having sex. DUH! *groans* I hate stupid lazy people.

[2metaldog.livejournal.com]

As a parent, I have to say, you deserve the heartache you're going through (the parents, not the child). If you actually gave a damn, you'd be watching your kid and what they did and asking questions.

The Boy is 17 going on 18 yet we still ask him what he's up to. We've had "The Talk" about sex with him several times (no matter how embarrassing for both of us). I've even told him that I will buy the condoms for him if he's out of cash or too shy.

The compy has always been in a public place in the house. There is various porn on it (Hubby's and mine) and he's free to look at whatever he wants but he's also had the talk about never giving out information under any circumstances over the net.

Come on people, it isn't that hard or take that much time to prep your kid for the big, bad world.

[wendytigges.livejournal.com]

God, why do retared people always blame others for their own failure?! And why the hell do they always try to sue companies asses off for no reason at all?!

Way to go parents!

[nekovampyre.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Let's reward a family that cares more about making money then the child's trauma with $30 million. That's a great idea!

Although in all fairness, a few years ago when I was a 14 year old discovering slashfics and hardcore yaoi for the first time, I did everything possible (and still do) to prevent anyone else in the house reading/seeing/finding/guessing at the stuff I look at.

Despite that, I still had parental blocks on my sites (although they were crap and let me onto adultfanfiction.net) and got the 'Don't ever meet up with that 33 year old American man you talk to every day' talk frequently.

So ignorance can't be used as an excuse. Even if they don't know, it doesn't make them less responsible.

[chibi-trillian.livejournal.com]

XD I did read slashfics on that computer. I just got really good at paging rapidly and frequently through open windows and reading the fics a paragraph or two at a time, plus I stayed away from the really hardcore stuff in case my parents wandered up and read over my shoulder/inquired as to what I'd been reading...which they did from time to time. >>;

[noodle6680.livejournal.com]

Arguments like this wind me up so much.

It's CLEARLY not MySpace's fault, it's the kid's fault and the parent's fault.

RAWR. And I don't like MySpace either though I still have one.

Only an idiot would send pictures/addresses/etc. to complete strangers.

[(Anonymous)]

I created a myspace to communicate with friends who had myspaces... if you ever come across a 91 year old man who has a job picking noses and looks like a kiwi, that would be me. =)

[geekchic07.livejournal.com]

I see this entirely too much, especially at work. I teach high school English and twice a year we have a huge assembly about "internet safety!" where people spouting random statistics and figures tell my students how horrid a place like "the MySpace" (direct quote, no less) can be. I don't knock their sentiments, educating the children directly, but they should be holding this even for the parents. I see their faces when these random strangers preach the dangers of a site they all obsess with. They don't care and unless someone they respect and trust, like a parent or even a watchful older sibling, speak with them it won't do any good.

You are so right in saying parents need to take an active role in monitoring their children on the internet. Be in the room, ask what they are doing, LEARN how to use a computer and show your child you're no fool. My parents had a home office where the computer was but I was never allowed to have the door closed and many times, my mom just sat with me and watched me play or chat so she knew what was going down. I didn't have internet freedom until I was 16 or so, and by then I knew enough. I understand that these parents are angry and hurt and want internet justice but they really should understand that they played a bigger role in neglecting to better watch their own children.

[kaizoku-shinobi.livejournal.com]

These people are the kind where I don't know whether to punch, or give pity to because of their utter stupidity. They're just like the people who sue fast food restaurants cause it made them "fat". Hello! It's fast food, so it's not good obviously. Same with internet safety, you'd never see kids giving their pictures to strangers in real life but for some idiotic reason, the internet's okay.
The parents also piss me off. Not only are they un-supervising their "pride and joy", they tend to not care about them if something bad happens to them. Like if this happens, they'd be like, "Why did you do this?!" when in reality, they never gave any advice or info for these kind of things so an uninformed child ends up in these situations. They also tend to care more about whether the kid swears than if they're being careful on the internet. Ugh, the world's a sad place when we have to deal with idiots everyday.

Sorry for the long comment.

[fieryredqueen.livejournal.com]

every now and then there's a kid smart enough to circumvent parental supervision, but if every parent was like your parents and actually paid some attention to what their sprog (i like that word!) did, that sort of thing would be so rare as to be a negligible statistic. ignorance is no excuse for something like that.

[ptps.livejournal.com]

urgh. I can sympathize of sorts. The newspapers here have been running things about "someone said something about this on his or her blog" and then the site racks up millions of hits and the next day the person who wrote the stuff is fined/sent to jail/etc for the mere act of voicing his/her thoughts. And lots of other stupid stuff that the newspapers -have- to publicize on front page full spread some stupid insignificant thing that gets turned into a huge matter.

But yeah about the court cases. How the hell is the company that runs the website responsible, honestly, its the parents own damn fault, and the kids as well. I think youtube almost got sued because someone captured some celebrity having sex on the beach with her boyfriend and posted it up? and she threatened to sue the site for that like wtf. Both hers and the person who captured and posted the video, I guess, but not the site's fault? ...orz.

...I mean yes, amen.

[kumani.livejournal.com]

(I hope you don't mind that I added you as a friend)


I agree 110% with you. I hate hearing about stupid parents suing MySpace or Youtube or whatever because they that can't seem to grasp the idea of online supervision. I also hate MySpace and refuse to get one for many reasons but I feel bad they have to put up with all this crap because kids act dumb and their parents don't want the blame.