MySpace Sued By 4 Families Of Abused Children
Posted by arvind s grover Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:04:09 GMT
Four families with young daughters who were abused, molested or raped by someone they met on MySpace have filed suits against News Corporation (who owns MySpace). These are tragic examples of the real dangers that online communication tools can facilitate. Having had hours of discussions with parents, students, administrators and colleagues about the dangers of social networking sites, these stories make the dangers startlingly real.
Trying to think about this in a balanced way, I wonder how fair it is to hold MySpace responsible for these young women meeting these awful men. Yes, they used MySpace. But didn’t they also use computers, web browsers, phones, cars, the subway, public places like restaurants, parks and more to meet? Are they all to blame? Is this the same as overweight people suing McDonald’s? It is very difficult to understand who is at fault here. Who is liable? In the end does it actually matter, these girls have already suffered, and there is no recovery. On a forum on Slashdot someone suggested the parents be charged with negligence. Is there really anyone to blame other than the criminals?
Most often I tell families that the dangers are real. They must deal with that. It is however much more rare than one might realize. The overwhelming majority of perpetrators of sexual violence against children are victims’ parents. Read this great article highlighting the data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It’s also important to note that 79% of reported online abuse occurred at home.
The conclusion of the article really summed it up well,The question is, “Are we going to take a “zero risk” approach to using technology and the tools of the Web?”We don’t take a “zero risk” approach with our sports programs where the chance of injury, paralysis, and, in rare cases, death, is always present. We don’t take that approach with field trips where students travel to museums and historical sites in locations where they might be touched by crime. We don’t take that approach with recess on our playgrounds, or transporting our kids to and from school.
We can never eliminate all risk; but there are ways to maximize our students’ safety while using these incredibly powerful tools. Each tool needs to be analyzed individually to ascertain its benefits and the specific risks it might present. From there, thoughtful people can find solutions to the student safety issues that may arise.
As educational leaders we need to be safety conscious. We need to be prudent, reasonable; but we won’t live in fear and we won’t act from fear.
It is by opening doors, not closing them that we create new possibilities for our children and new futures for ourselves.
Would love to hear your thoughts, and how your school or home is responding to the sensational media coverage.
p.s. In other conspiracy theories, doesn’t network television have a vested interest in having parents be afraid of the Internet? It keeps the kids watching TV instead of YouTube when the parents take away the computer. I know that one is way out there, but had to toss it in the mix.
Technorati Tags: article, MySpace, net generation, news, NYCIST, online, parents, safety, social networking, students
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I just read about this on /. and couldn’t believe it. Count me in the “personal responsibility” bandwagon.
There’s plenty to criticize about this lawsuit, but I chose to focus in on just one in my blog: the attorney’s contention that social networking sites such as MySpace are “no different” than a daycare center. Say what?
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/10574
I hope that this law suit gets thrown out. Futile hope probably. Parents need to get educated about computers and monitor what their kids doing on line.
My now teenage niece has been busted at least twice by my Sis (niece’s step-mom). Once when she was 8 or 9, she gave out her address on a registration form. She was caught before she hit enter, and lost computer privileges for a short period of time. Short because she didn’t realize the form was being sent over the internet, she was loading a new game. It did reinforce the rules. Later she was caught on My Space. Her privileges were revoked for a much longer time, and the My Space page deleted.
A co-worker of mine was whining about how was she suppose to protect her kids, if they knew more about computers than she did. Learn – you’re a teacher – education is your business. I don’t understand why someone would have technology they can’t control in their house. My parents controlled the TV, cable, and VCR long before the V chip.
When Mom suspected sis and I were sneaking out of bed to watch cable late at night, she made an appointment to have the cable removed, and disconnected it from the TV herself. Dad suspected sleepwalking (runs in his family), and caught me rearranging the kitchen in my sleep. So the cable stayed. So did the message about who was in charge.
Kimberly and Paul, thanks for the great comments. There is some really bizarre reactions coming from parents, legal groups and others. I just don’t understand why folks don’t even discuss personal responsibility. We are doing our best to educate parents in our schools about this. We never suggest that they should rely on MySpace, Facebook or any other third party. The only people you can trust is yourselves.
Nonetheless will be interesting to watch the progress on this.
Child abuse in this nation will one day be treated as a petti crime. Why? It is so rampant in every state and the judges are shameful in their punishment towards these people. Many are given probation and some receive no punishment.
The courts look at what is taking place in other areas, such as abortion. More than 6000+ daily are slaughtered in the killing chambers of this nation. The courts then deduce that we really do not care that much about children.
Then we have the argument about what is lawful. Under the law of God, we never have His, permission to kill an unborn baby.
This horrific procedure needs to be shown to the american public for what it is, MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE ! No one likes too hear about judgements from God, but judgement is already underway and the severity will increase with every passing day. He will not turn His head & look the other way in this matter. Children are His, most precious gift to any nation. In His love, Joseph Taylor
Wow, I didn’t think this would turn into an abortion debate. I think the real issue at hand has to do with the safety of kids who are online. I am not even going to discuss the unborn here, but thanks for reading Joseph.