From Netfamily
A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a Texas family's $30 million sexual-assault case against MySpace. The court ruled that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 "bars such lawsuits against Web-based services like MySpace," the Associated Press reports <http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ivBsvDUeL16-pNrwm3NHJjfDC1_AD90N15E81>. The case was dismissed by a federal court in Austin last year (see this item <http://www.netfamilynews.org/nl070216.html#6>). The girl had created a profile on MySpace when she was below the site's minimum age of 14 but characterized herself as 18 and - after meeting a 19-year-old man who apparently got her phone number by claiming he was a high school football player - said she was assaulted by him after she went out on a date with him in 2006 (my original item on this was "Teen sues MySpace" <http://www.netfamilynews.org/nl060623.html#3>).
Monday, 26 May 2008
1. Indictment in Megan Meier case
From netfamily
Lori Drew, the mother who allegedly helped create a fictitious MySpace profile that led to 13-year-old Megan Meier's suicide has been indicted. She has been "charged with conspiracy and fraudulently gaining access to someone else's computer" by a federal grand jury. Drew and some of Megan's peers had set up the profile of a fictitious 16-year-old boy and, through it, developed a relationship between the "boy" and Megan, who her family said had been treated for attention deficit disorder and depression. The profile's creators carried on the "relationship" for months, then faked the "boy's" breakup with Megan, leading to her suicide. Investigators in Missouri, where all this occurred, couldn't find a state law to apply to the case. Later, "federal prosecutors in Los Angeles launched a grand jury investigation ... to determine whether Ms. Drew or others defrauded Beverly Hills-based MySpace by providing false information to the site," the Associated Press reports<http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-cyberbully_16nat.ART.State.Edition1.46035f5.html>, describing an unprecedented way of applying the law ("both Megan and MySpace are named as victims in the case, US Attorney Thomas O'Brien" told the AP).
This is a case and an approach to watch going forward, because in effect it adds "teeth" to social-networking sites' terms of service, which both parents and teens need to be aware of and which sites need to enforce. [Earlier coverage: "Extreme cyberbullying: US case comes to light" <http://www.netfamilynews.org/2007/11/extreme-cyberbullying-us-case-comes-to.html> and "Missouri cyberbullying: Case not closed" <http://www.netfamilynews.org/2008/01/missouri-cyberbullying-case-not-closed.html>.]
Lori Drew, the mother who allegedly helped create a fictitious MySpace profile that led to 13-year-old Megan Meier's suicide has been indicted. She has been "charged with conspiracy and fraudulently gaining access to someone else's computer" by a federal grand jury. Drew and some of Megan's peers had set up the profile of a fictitious 16-year-old boy and, through it, developed a relationship between the "boy" and Megan, who her family said had been treated for attention deficit disorder and depression. The profile's creators carried on the "relationship" for months, then faked the "boy's" breakup with Megan, leading to her suicide. Investigators in Missouri, where all this occurred, couldn't find a state law to apply to the case. Later, "federal prosecutors in Los Angeles launched a grand jury investigation ... to determine whether Ms. Drew or others defrauded Beverly Hills-based MySpace by providing false information to the site," the Associated Press reports<http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-cyberbully_16nat.ART.State.Edition1.46035f5.html>, describing an unprecedented way of applying the law ("both Megan and MySpace are named as victims in the case, US Attorney Thomas O'Brien" told the AP).
This is a case and an approach to watch going forward, because in effect it adds "teeth" to social-networking sites' terms of service, which both parents and teens need to be aware of and which sites need to enforce. [Earlier coverage: "Extreme cyberbullying: US case comes to light" <http://www.netfamilynews.org/2007/11/extreme-cyberbullying-us-case-comes-to.html> and "Missouri cyberbullying: Case not closed" <http://www.netfamilynews.org/2008/01/missouri-cyberbullying-case-not-closed.html>.]
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