MySpace not responsible for your children
By Greg Pivarnik
The Daily Campus
Four families from four separate states filed lawsuits against News Corp., the parent company of MySpace, because their underage daughters were sexually assaulted by people they met on the social-networking site. Though it may seem like a novel way for the parents to make some extra cash, MySpace is not responsible for the actions of its users. At some point individuals in this country have to start carrying some of the burden for their actions. These include parents, and yes, teenagers as well.
Apparently, litigiousness has replaced quality parenting as the way to raise the youth of this country. Parents often pass the buck when their children make poor choices. Whether they get arrested for possession of drugs, don't get playing time on a sports team or get poor grades in the school, the children are never to blame. Instead, parents blame society, coaches, teachers and other social influences, instead of properly disciplining and raising the children themselves. This is not meant to demean the horrific abuses that these girls suffered. Many of them are too young to maturely deal with a sexual relationship, and many were not seeking one in the first place. Rape and sexual assault is uncalled for and can be psychologically traumatizing for many years. Unfortunately, many adults use social sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Xanga, to lure unsuspecting minors into potentially-harmful situations.
Claiming ignorance and attempting to pass the responsibility onto MySpace is not a legitimate excuse to file a lawsuit. Responsible parents have to become familiar with the Internet and its benefits and dangers.
Well said Mr. Pivarnik, very well said.

MySpace sued by families of sexually abused teens
Four families have sued the popular social-networking site MySpace and its owner, News Corp., after their teenage daughters were solicited online and sexually abused by adults they met on the site, lawyers for the families said Thursday.
The families would be seeking "probably in the millions of dollars... enough to........
Enough to what? Make themselves feel better because they couldn't watch their own kids on the Internet? Maybe enough to hire a babysitter?

Girl's parents sue MySpace, call for increased safety controls
In court papers she is listed as Julie Doe III — one of thousands of Houston-area teenagers who have created personal profiles at MySpace.com.
But instead of finding new online friends, a lawsuit filed this week against the Web site alleges, the 15-year-old met an adult predator who drugged and raped her.
The girl's attorneys and mother hope the lawsuit, also filed on behalf of four girls with similar experiences from other states, will change the way media giant News Corp. operates its popular Web site. Experts, though, question whether the courts can fix what has become a systemic problem in the Internet age: online sexual predators.
One question:
If the girl met the predator on a playground, would the parents sue the playground? Parents need to accept the responsibility of being a parent and know what their children are doing on the Internet.

Sex raps for T.O. man
A 24-year-old Toronto man was arrested in Ottawa early yesterday and charged with a string of sex offences after allegedly carrying on a three-month Internet relationship with a 13-year-old girl and meeting her in Ottawa.
"He came to Ottawa to meet her and they met up at a location. As a result, some activities (occurred)," Det. Rohan King of the Ottawa police's sexual assault and child abuse unit said of the accused man.
The investigation began Friday night after the girl's concerned parents contacted police. Although it was reported the pair were found at a motel, King would not confirm where the arrest was made.
Can you imagine - a 13-year-old girl having an "Internet relationship" for 3-months with nobody knowing anything about it? Who is watching this young girl?

Man accused of having sex with girl
A Dearborn man was arraigned Tuesday on charges he had sex with a township girl he met in an Internet chat room.
Police Chief Chuck Melki said the victim, 14, met Seklawi in a chat room in mid-December. In late December he came to her house about 1 p.m. and the two had sex in the girl's basement, Melki said.
Melki said it's imperative parents monitor their children on computers.

Teens move from MySpace to no-rules sites
“Popular Web sites like YouTube and MySpace have hired the equivalent of school hallway monitors to police what visitors to their sites can see and do by cracking down on piracy and depictions of nudity and violence.
“So where do the young thrill-seekers go? Find out if you dare!
It falls to parents to handle the problem — though many are not technologically capable enough, and many others simply don’t care. Supervision and good filtering are key here, but I won’t be holding my breath.

Sex with girl nets 45-year sentence
Evans, 39, of Camden was ordered to serve 45 years in prison yesterday for his trysts with a 14-year-old Stafford girl he'd met on the Internet.
Court records show that Evans told police that he met the girl in a Yahoo chat room while using instant messaging.
He said he first went to see her while she was staying at her mother's home in Prince George's County, Md.
He said the mother was sleeping when the girl let him in. Evans claimed that they only talked that night, but the girl later told police that a sex act took place.
The last encounter between Evans and the girl occurred at her father's home in Stafford on Valentine's Day 2005.
Another one down, and another one that could have been stopped long before it got as far as it did......

Sex slave net paedo jailed
An Internet pervert who forced a sobbing 11-year-old girl to strip and perform sex acts on her webcam was jailed indefinitely yesterday.
Ben West, 21, contacted the girl via an internet chat room. He threatened to destroy her computer with viruses if she did not do what he asked.
When told her age, he replied: “Nice, I like them young.”
Yes they do like them young - speaking of young, what is an 11-year-old girl doing unsupervised on the Internet with a webcam........

Former teacher sentenced for assault
Former Baraboo High School music teacher Jeffrey Roy was sentenced to serve two-and-a-half years in prison Wednesday for having sex with a 14-year-old rural Montello boy.
Roy admitted to having sex with the boy at his Montello home after the two met in an adult chat room on the Internet. They then began conversing on a person-to-person Internet-based communications service, according to the criminal complaint.
One down - how many more to go.......

Officials say teen coerced into exposing herself with Web cam
A New York man faces federal charges after police said he threatened a young teenage girl from Ohio and coerced her into using a Web camera to take explicit images that he later posted on the online social network Myspace.com.
Brown met the 13-year-old girl in an online chat room for cheerleaders, according to court documents.
Police said he pursued her with sexually explicit instant messages and threatened to harm her and her family if she didn't expose herself via the Web cam.
The girl complied and didn't tell her parents until after she found the images on Myspace.com. Brown opened an account on the social networking site in the teenager's name and posted an image of the girl exposing herself and included her name and address, according to court documents.
This is a little scary. He threatened her family. Wouldn't you want to know if you were being threatened? A monitoring program would have let you know instantly and stopped this whole mess before it even started.......