Texas court dismisses $30mn suit filed against MySpace

After months of legal battle, MySpace, confronting with an array of lawsuits accusing it of failing to protect underage users from sexual predators, finally on Wednesday scored its first major victory in a civil lawsuit when a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against the social networking Web site MySpace by parents of a teenage girl.

U.S. District Judge in Texas, Sam Sparks dismissed the charges of negligence, fraud and negligent misrepresentation, saying MySpace is protected under the Communications Decency Act and cannot be expected to verify the age of every user because that "would of course stop MySpace's business in its tracks."

The high profile suit was filed last year by the family of a 13-year-old Austin, Texas girl, who was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old boy she met through the popular social networking site.

According to court documents, Pete Solis, of Buda, lied in his MySpace profile about being a high school senior to gain girl’s trust and phone number. Similarly the Austin girl known as Julie Doe listed her age as 18 when she joined MySpace. In April last year, when she turned 14, the girl was contacted through the site by college student Solis who later took her out on a date and sexually assaulted her at a parking lot.

In their lawsuit the parents of the girl accused MySpace and its owner News Corp. of failing to protect the girl, who also lied about her age on the site, and other users from predators. The lawsuit also named Solis, who was arrested May 19 on a charge of sexual assault of a child, and whose criminal case has not yet gone to trial.

The family was seeking $30 million from the networking site, alleging the site didn't have enough safeguards to protect underage users. Children, who use the site, should be at least 14 years old.

But judge Sam Sparks threw out the charges of negligence, fraud and negligent misrepresentation, saying that MySpace cannot be held liable for content posted by users. "If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace," he wrote in a ruling dismissing the case.

In a statement, MySpace officials applauded the judge's decision that the company isn't responsible for "wrongdoing committed by individuals who visit our site."

After the favorable ruling, Myspace said in a statement, "We applaud the judge's decision to dismiss the plaintiffs' claims of negligence, fraud and misrepresentation against MySpace. This decision reaffirms that under federal law Internet sites like MySpace cannot be held liable for content posted by, or wrongdoing committed by, individuals who visit our site. We will continue to work to make our site even safer by creating new features and educating our users about online safety."

Meanwhile, Lawyer Adam J. Loewy, an attorney for the girl and her family said they were disappointed in the ruling and will file an appeal.

Several other similar cases, filed against the social networking site, are pending in US courts. One amongst them was filed on Jan. 18 on behalf of a 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl, who was lured to a meeting by a MySpace user, later kidnapped and sexually assaulted. According to a separate lawsuit, a 14-year-old New York girl was given drugs and alcohol and assaulted by a user and his friend, and two South Carolina sisters were raped by MySpace users.

MySpace, acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has become a common target of child protection advocates after the reports and lawsuits filed by other victims of predators.

Police and child safety organizations hold seminars about MySpace and similar Web sites, warning parents that child predators are at work at such sites, where very personal information is readily available.

MySpace attracts many under-age kids who share information about their lives by posting photos, blogs and videos.