News Corp and MySpace sued by sex case families

FOUR FAMILIES whose underage daughters were sexually abused by adults they met on MySpace have sued the site and its owner News Corp.

The law firms, Barry & Loewy of Austin, Texas, and Arnold & Itkin of Houston, said the families from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina have filed separate suits in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

They claim that MySpace was negligent, reckless, fraudulent and misrepresented itself.

One of the plaintiffs is a 15-year-old girl from Texas who was lured to a meeting, drugged and assaulted in 2006 by an adult MySpace user. The man is currently serving a 10-year sentence in Texas after pleading guilty to sexual assault.

A spokeslaywer said that MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security to increase the safety of their underage users. Of course the families are after millions of dollars each.

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in a statement that MySpace was an industry leader on Internet safety. He pointed out that the site does a fair bit to try and get parents involved in a meaningful dialogue with their kids and to take some responsibility for them.

More here. µ