Great reply Kim. While online-communication is useful and important, things like Playboy's "Women of MySpace" should be of great concern to parents. I recently read about an 8 year-old student who asked to use her computer to use email. Later, the 'supervising adult' went to the computer and the girl had left some IM window open where she had been engaged in a sexual conversation posing as an 18-year old girl. We need people to step up and be responsible for their actions. We need parents to be more concerned with preparing their children for the world than pursuing legislation or litigation that absolves them of responsibility. I respect that my parents made a decision and enforced it. There wasn't a lot of drama, it wasn't a big deal...they just said no and that was that. Parents need to stop trying to be their kids friends and start parenting.

I feel MANY parents don't have a clue what their kids to. Kids run wild......aren't supervised and then the parents cry when something happens. Parents need to be vigilent and responsible. I feel sorry for the child who was hurt but where were her MOM AND DAD when the girl was busy putting her personal contact information on the website???? Pat

GREAT BLOG Kenneth. I totally agree with you. Parents ARE NOT being parents. I'm tired of parents whining. My sister and I were NOT AllOWED to be unsupervised when we were little. My mother especially made sure WHERE we were going and who we were with. Of course we didn't have the computer/internet when I was a kid in the 60's. If we did.....I KNOW MY MOM WOULD NOT HAVE ALLOWED ME TO SPEND HOURS UNSUPERVISED ON THE COMPUTER. They watched tv with us....didn't allow us to make the decisions that the parents should be making. 30 MILLION??? That is a travesty. I hope the lawsuit gets thrown out of court. Pat

This sad story reminds me of that obese person who tried to sue that fast food restaurant for serving food high in calories, (as if "Ronald" had actually shoved those last 5 or 6 Big Mac's down his throat) And then the one of the person burned by hot coffee. And of course all those who have attempted to defraud high profile restaurants by dropping all sorts of things into their meals, some even resorting to amputating a finger to try and get claim money... While I am not claiming the above story represents a fraudulent claim, I do believe it follows some of the above examples I mentioned in that they are trying to deflect the responsibility and place blame on the "deep pockets" of Myspace. The statement that Myspace knew there were sexual predators online and should pay the girl only makes sense if you believe that because there are sexual predators on the streets, (and you've allowed your 14 year old girl to wander those streets unsupervised) that the City is responsible for her rape because they knew and didn't do anything about the dangers. In this case it all comes down to responsibility, but not of the City, or of the Website, but that of the PARENT! No excuse for it..and I hope the judge throws this one out on it's "merits" I do feel somewhat sorry for the girl. She's being used yet again. What lessons those people are teaching her!

Hi, Ken I've got to agree with the majority of the responders here. I'll go even further. A fourteen-year-old is old enough to know (with proper parenting) that even a high-school senior is too old to be a date or even a friend. Three years is a lot of difference at that age. Whenever my four would start a friendship with a person that much older, my first question was, why would someone like that want to hang around with a young kid like you? I can't imagine an innocent answer outside a supervised setting such as sports. As for claiming that someone else is responsible for one's own stupidity, it's amazing not only what people will do for money, but what the courts will allow them to get away with. The latest Reader's Digest has a story about a man who was awarded $1.4 million after losing his legs to a New York City subway train. Of course, he was drunk at the time, walking along a nonpublic catwalk, and tried to outrun the train rather than escape by squeezing against the wall like his drunk friends did. Then there was the guy who backed into his own parked car while driving a city dump truck and sued the city!. And the one about the owners of a plane that crashed after clipping a landscaping vehicle that was traveling along a public road. The owners of the plane sued the landscaping company under the state's no-fault law, and won. Amazing. I'd like to be on one of the juries... Cheri