myspace sued, but who's really at fault?

Jambrea · Post by **Jambrea** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:02 pm

sharkmansix wrote:
what I'm saying is place the blame on the... SEXUAL OFFENDER! You can conjure up all the reasons why the mother should've known every exact prognosticating detail, but ultimately, neither of them committed a crime.
Sure he's to blame I don't think anyone is saying he should walk.

The thing people are calling for is responsibility. The internet should be treated like a loaded gun in the house; and it's unfortunate that usually it is used as another tool to shut kids up.

How is Myspace to blame here. Would you blame a library for the books it contains even if some of that information is potentially dangerous?

The internet is a dangerous tool and if you don't have the personal responsibility to use it properly; maybe you should be using it.

I agree!

Oliver's Army · Post by **Oliver's Army** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:07 pm

pretty sh*tty?

like what, punching a 14 year old girl in the face?

like what, assuming and 14 year old girl is emotionally capable to make rational decisions regarding sex, or dating?

tell you what, take everything you say at 15, write it down and put in a an envelope. then take it out in 10 or 15 years and read it to yourself and discover that you dont know sh*t about yourself or the world at 15.

trust me, most everyone was ill-informed at 15, and we all thought we knew it all.

jesus, i sound like my forking dad.

quetty actually has a fairly decent head on his shoulders for a 15 year old, but rest assured in 10 or 15 years you too will be seeing the world in a completely different light than you do now.

WBOB · Post by **WBOB** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:14 pm

yup!

and just like you said

jesus, i sound like my f*#king dad.

...so will QWETTY in 15-20 years...

bassjones · Post by **bassjones** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:07 pm

Garr wrote:ditto the 'rents being in the know.

there is NOTHING wrong with having an active interest in your child's life. in fact, it should be mandatory. today parents too easily step away from ANY role of responsibilty. they expect children to raise themselves somehow.

man, i don't even want to get started on this. i can feel the anger welling inside. many of today's parents are absent from the lives of their children and then wonder why they don't grow up with any respect or any sense of the way to behave.

To probably misquote Bill Cosby, "I'm tired of seeing these mothers standing outside a courtroom crying when their son is sentenced to life in prison for killing someone. Where were you the first 18 years of his life?"

Mama Dragon · Post by **Mama Dragon** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 10:51 am

QWETTY wrote:while at the same time (in florida a couple yrs ago) a 15 yr old boy does a wrestling move on a kid and the kid dies... he goes to jail for life.. FOR LIFE!?!?!

what is too young?

He wasn't 15 at the time, he was 12, I think.

At 14 I was more than able to lie and sneak around to see guys that were too old for me.

"Too young" is situational, there are no absolutes.

While she did place herself in that situation, ultimately he made the choice to commit the crime and the blame is his.

Massage...Bored · Post by **Massage...Bored** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:06 pm

heaven's chimney wrote:
Man, my parents knew everything about where I was and what I was doing, because they asked me and I told them.
Without truly knowing, I feel pretty certain that you deceived your parents more than once throughout your 18 or so years under their care.

Oh, I did a couple of times, but it was for something like a secret T.P. mission on a school night where we hit 10 different girl's houses full force with about thirty dudes in tow. I didn't do it for sex/drugs/partying, I was told, "If I catch you drinking, smoking, or with any sort of drugs on your person while you are in this house, you will be kicked out." Hell, my pops got upset because I had caffeine pills I used for staying up for homework after my job. I had a pretty tame childhood, my friend.

sharkmansix · Post by **sharkmansix** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:05 pm

It's funny though the rumor about your dad was that he was a pot-head......

Massage...Bored · Post by **Massage...Bored** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:16 pm

sharkmansix wrote:It's funny though the rumor about your dad was that he was a pot-head......

Yeah, you idiots.

sharkmansix · Post by **sharkmansix** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:20 pm

They mythos was well established when I stepped foot into Bellmont! I just followed tradition!

deek · Post by **deek** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:21 pm

Realize, that when most of us (I guess I am talking about the mid-20s and up age range) were kids, we didn't have a medium like the internet. I mean, just think about it, if an older guy was trying to hook up with a young girl, without "seeing", you had what, the telephone?

We can't sit here and compare today's parenting to how we grew up, because the environment has completely changed...I agree, that parents today can't be expected to know their kid's whereabouts 24/7, even 10-15 years ago, that wasn't possible. The thing is, that when you were hanging around the "wrong crowd" or doing things that could get you hurt or in trouble, you normally had to physically be with these people...now, you could have a 40 year old willing to drive 3-4 hours to hook up with a minor, not randomly, but after having communicated with him/her...that kind of stuff just wasn't in existence in "our day".

Parent do have responsibility, but as SM6 mentioned, the internet can be a loaded gun in the house and more folks need to realize that!

On a lighter note, if myspace has any responsibility in this case, I am going to sue the phone company. Back when I was dating, I had plenty of misadvertised and potentially dangerous dates and I want to blame the service provider:)

Mama Dragon · Post by **Mama Dragon** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:45 pm

deek wrote:Realize, that when most of us (I guess I am talking about the mid-20s and up age range) were kids, we didn't have a medium like the internet. I mean, just think about it, if an older guy was trying to hook up with a young girl, without "seeing", you had what, the telephone?

Well, there were those Prodigy bulletin boards.

sharkmansix · Post by **sharkmansix** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 11:29 am

An interesting sidestory:

Man Robbed by Teen Girls, Thought He was Meeting MySpace Friend

A Jacksonville man says he was duped and robbed by two girls after attempting to meet with a woman he met on the internet.

The victim says he chatted online with a woman, known on her MySpace.com profile as “Natalia”, for two weeks before deciding to meet with her. He says her prfile showed sexy photos, and a blurb which said “just lookin’ for something fun”. That brief, friendly description was all he knew about her before they planned to meet.

"She sent me a message saying she thought she met me somewhere," says the victim.

They decided to meet at what she called her home at the Bentley Green Apartments.

“I went to [the apartment] and knocked on the door, and there was no answer. So I called her and said, ‘I'm here’ and there was no answer."

That is when two girls who were 14 and 15-years-old, approached him saying they knew Natalia, the girl he thought he'd be meeting. They also said they knew where he worked at what car he drove.

"This was not the girl that the picture was of on MySpace," the victim said.

Now sensing something was wrong, he was ready to take off, but was stopped by a shocking discovery.

"[One of the girls] took [a] gun out and put it to my head and told me to empty my pockets."

The girls didn't get much because the victim had forgotten his wallet. They let him go, unharmed, and he called police.

Police did a search of the area and found the two teens with another male suspect. They searched a purse and found two loaded handguns.

Myspace.com may have been developed for friends and music, but this victim had to find out the hard way that not everyone is logging on for the right reasons.

The so-called Natalia did tell the victim that she was 18, so he was shocked to learn he was actually talking to a 14-year-old. He says he has since removed personal information from his MySpace profile, like his salary and the kind of car that he drives.

Those teenagers are now charged with armed robbery and carrying a concealed firearm.

deek · Post by **deek** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 11:33 am

Heh...Prodigy...yep, you got me there:)

QWETTY · Post by **QWETTY** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:23 pm

like what, assuming and 14 year old girl is emotionally capable to make rational decisions regarding sex, or dating?

yes... they may be young but that doesn't mean they are stupid. I don't care how old you are, everyone knows right from wrong. She may not have known what COULD have happened (what did happen), but she did know that what she was doing was wrong. She knew that not telling her parents was wrong.

i odnt blam any of this on myspace, or the parents. All of this is on the man, but that doesn't mean this girl is not at fault. People need to THINK before they do, and this girl didn't. Do i feel sorry for her? yes. Do i think she will ever do this again? no. This was a learning experience, its just too bad she had to learn it like this. My friends and I would already know not to meet someone we met offline, either this girl was really really really immature... or had a mild case of down syndrom. (jk)

An interesting sidestory:

veryyy interesting. Again same blame here. yes the REAL blame is on the girls and the man they were with, but the man who got robbed is also an idiot for even attempting to meet an online 'friend'...

Myspace should not be a babysitter or the substitution for meeting REAL friends. ppl should rly learn to be social again.

Jambrea · Post by **Jambrea** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:30 pm

I think it goes with out saying that if you are going to meet someone you have talked with on line that you should do it in a group setting or public place. You should never agree to meet someone at their home or a private place! The internet is a good tool; it just needs to be used with a little common sense.