Whose fault is it that 13-year-old �Julie Doe� lied about her age, met a guy on MySpace.com and was allegedly sexually assaulted by him in a Texas parking lot?
Not MySpace, declared a federal judge in a decision handed down last Valentine�s Day. The ruling appears to be the first time a federal court has extended to social networking websites the same, broad free-speech protections granted to Internet service providers under the Communications Decency Act signed into law in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton.
The ruling could prove pivotal, coming at a time when children�s rights advocates, lawmakers and state attorneys general are leaning on the massively popular News Corporation-owned site to do more to protect its users from online predation.
�A lot of people are angry about what kids are doing and what�s happening on the Internet,� said Parry Aftab, a leading Internet child safety expert in agreeing with Judge Sam Spark�s ruling. �That�s fine. But it�s not MySpace�s role to raise your child.�
Authorities in Travis County, TX, charged a 19-year-old man with sexual assault last summer in connection with the Julie Doe case. The girl�s parents subsequently sued Rupert Murdoch�s News Corp. for $30 million dollars. They alleged that MySpace didn�t do enough to protect its members. At least four similar cases are pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.
�If anyone had at duty to protect Julie Doe,� wrote the judge in his ruling dismissing the case, �it was her parents, not MySpace.�
Sparks, of U.S. District Court in Austin, TX, further stated that MySpace could not be held liable for the actions of its users any more than Yahoo, Inc. was responsible for what people write on its message boards.
The judge also said that MySpace should not be punished for the failure of its voluntary safety measures. If it were, Internet firms would stop taking such steps to protect its users.
News Corp. acquired MySpace in July 2005. Since then the website has worked to counter its public image has a haven for unsavory characters. At one time, child safety advocates touted MySpace �as murder capital of the Internet� because some 14 sexual predator assaults and murders have been linked to people meeting on the popular site prior to meeting in real life.
MySpace has gone so far as to hire a former federal prosecutor as chief safety officer, run public service announcements on its website and on TV warning children of the dangers of developing online relationships with strangers, and its instituted an early software design giving parents a modicum of control.
