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New MySpace Security Measures May Be Too LateLawsuits, Legal Challenges Against Murdoch Site Mount |
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By Truman Lewis January 18, 2007
In the latest lawsuit, four families claim their underage daughters were solicited online and sexually abused by adult MySpace users. The families -- from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina -- have filed separate suits in Los Angeles Superior Court, their attorneys said. "In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users," said one of the attorneys, Jason A. Itkin, of Arnold & Itkin, LLP. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has organized a coalition of 33 states pressing for better security on the popular site, was also skeptical. "MySpace's 'Zephyr' software is a shortsighted and ineffective response to a towering danger to kids. Children can easily evade the software's purported protections by creating profiles from computers outside the home. This software does noting to stop predators or protect kids from inappropriate material," Blumenthal said. "Predators will continue to prey on children using MySpace until the web site and its parent company implement real age verification. I and my fellow attorneys general will continue to demand that MySpace institute age verification, safeguarding kids against explicit sexual material and adults seeking sex. MySpace needs to stop making excuses and introduce age verification, as well as increase its minimum age to 16," Blumenthal added. "Age verification for users 18 and older using publicly available data is easy and effective. MySpace can confirm the ages of younger users by requiring information from a parent or guardian," he said. Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns the Fox television network, bought MySpace in 2005 for $650 million. It has long promised to upgrade security but so far has done little to protect the children it lures to the site. "Blaming the families of abuse victims who were solicited online, as some have done, is a cynical excuse that ignores the fact that social networking sites can lead to heinous abuse by Internet predators. It is now clear that MySpace recognizes that serious security problems exist," said attorney Adam J. Loewy, of Barry & Loewy LLP, The lawyers said the plaintiffs include a 15-year-old girl from Texas who was lured to a meeting, drugged and assaulted in 2006 by an adult MySpace user, who is currently serving a 10-year sentence in Texas after pleading guilty to sexual assault. The new security tool is codenamed "Zephyr" and it will alert parents to the username, age and location that their child lists on their personal MySpace pages, MySpace said. There's no word when the safeguards will be in place. The tool doesn't let Mom or Dad see everything, for fear kids would ditch the service entirely and hook up with one of the many other competing sites. Thus, parents will not be able to see their kids' password-protected profiles or any communications they have with friends. The key to Zephyr's effectiveness is that it will enable parents to determine whether their child is being truthful about his or her age. "Many of our safety features are built around age and it's important that people honestly reflect their accurate age while on our site," said Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer. Legal TroublesMySpace is racing to catch up to a mounting number of lawsuits by private individuals and actions by state attorneys general. The plaintiffs in the Los Angeles lawsuits include:
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