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What a piece of work is man.
hulk: You're right, Myspace is rather innocuous. If the entire situation played out online and culminated in verbal abuse or something of that nature, I could see your point. It's not inconceivable for parents to miss such interactions, although it would still be rather inattentive of them.
That's not the case. Their daughter left their home with a strange young man. Granted I don't have any children, let alone fourteen year olds, but I remember what it was like when I was fourteen myself and I can tell you what it will be like for mine should the day ever come. I did not under any circumstances leave the house without my parents A) knowing exactly where I was and B) having a contact number should they need it. Granted, this predated the widespread use of cell phones, but even if they were widely available I doubt I would've had one.
Let's face facts here: teenagers are stupid. Sound harsh? You're a teenager? Sorry, it's still true. Teenagers in general and young teenagers specifically have yet to learn important lessons regarding common sense. This is part of what leads to the maxim among those beyond the teenage years that they "think they're invincible;" it's very easy to recognize that it-won't-happen-to-me attitude in others.
That isn't to say that this phenomenon is specific to teenagers. Look at the morons who insist on riding their bikes without helmets. I think one of them ends up decorating the asphalt with his brains daily to hear the media tell it, yet there's still folks out there who won't bother with a brain bucket. So, no, it's not teenagers exclusively. However, it is a much more common phenomenon in teens than it is in the adult population.
That's exactly what was at work in this case. I'd be very surprised to hear that this girl wasn't aware of the idea of sexual predators using the internet - it's almost impossible to avoid. However, she assumed that the predators would prey on others. It could never possibly happen to her, right?
And it did.
So now mum is thinking that Myspace ought to foot the bill. Reality is, mum should've realized that her daughter, as a fourteen year old girl, is prone to do stupid things and should've kept a closer eye on her in the first place. But then, I suppose, there's no profit to be made in admitting one's own error.
Y'know, at first I thought I'd be watching this case closely, but I find myself feeling too jaded to care what the outcome is. The whole thing stinks of greed and selfishness and wrongness, from start to finish. I think the only party I wouldn't lay any guilt on is, ironically, the one being sued; Myspace is a purveyor of a commercial service and never, so far as I know, misrepresented that service as some sort of digital childcare. That mum mistook it for such really isn't their fault.
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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said
- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame
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