The tabloid mentality

MSNBC.com has just published an article titled, MySpace sued over alleged assault. Let's get this straight now. A 14-year old girl (and her parents) are suing MySpace over an alleged assault. The claim is that MySpace should have done something to prevent it.

What seems to have escaped them is:

1. The assault is alleged... i.e. there hasn't been a decision over whether or not there was actually an assault to sue over.
2. Most importantly, the girl gave her phone number, address, etc. to the alleged assaulter. He didn't cleverly stalk her, she invited him over.
   

Now, I'm not going to defend sexual assault, no matter who did it or what the victim might have done beforehand. If indeed an assault took place, the guy needs to take a nice long vacation courtesy of the state.

However... what the fuck was MySpace supposed to do to stop her from inviting a predator in? How 'bout maybe her litigation-happy parents taking a bit of responsibility?

You know what happens when folks in the kink (i.e. BDSM) community meet online and decide to have a live meet?

1. They exchange actual ID. (Real names, addresses, etc.)
2. They meet for the first time in a public place.
3. Even then they arrange one or more "safe call(s)". This is a pre-arranged call to someone who knows who the other person is, where he or she lives, etc. and has set up a couple code phrases so they know whether or not the caller is ok.
4. If and when they meet someplace more private the safe calls are even more important.

So. If this was some sort of innocent meeting, why didn't the girl arrange it at the local burger stand? Or maybe right there at home with her parents there?

So now they're running the guy's name through the muck (yes, he may be guilty, but how 'bout a trial first?) and they're going after MySpace for $30 million.

If there was an assault, I'm thinking that the parents need to be arrested as accomplices. If they haven't taken the time, energy and responsibility to set guidelines for their 14 year old daughter they were as good as hand in glove with any assault that might have taken place.

But "slam MySpace" is a recent game amongst the fourth estate. Screw the facts, publish scare headlines wherever possible. Keep pumping up the volume so that maybe Congress (who, goodness knows, have nothing important to occupy them) can step in with another intrusive, rights-mangling piece of feel-good but totally ineffective legislation.

And boy, wouldn't it be nice to turn your lack of caring and responsibility into a 30 mil paycheck?