Parents Need to Step Up!

On page 119 of Rottenburg there is an article titled “Myspace Not Responsible for Predators.” In this the author, Kevin Alexander, talks about how Myspace should not be responsible for those people that choose to lie about their age and use the website for ulterior motives. It starts out by talking about how a 14-year-old girl met a guy on the social network and began talking to him thinking they were the same age. Not long after, the man convinced the girl to go on a date with him and after a movie and dinner, he supposedly raped her. The parents decided to sue Myspace saying that its privacy settings were not nearly as good as they should have been and should have prevented this event. They also claimed that Myspace was only in it to make money and do not care about the people that use it. Myspace is a business and is not going to be able to stop every single bad event from happening on its site. They cannot control who is making an account for the wrong reasons or stop them until they have been informed that something had happened. If you look at the article, there are a few flawed parts on the girls side. No, I am not saying that its all the girls fault that she met a pervert, or that the pedophile is not to blame, but I'm saying there should have been a little more parental supervision. Had the mother had any interest in what her daughter was doing on the computer or monitored it in any way this event could have been avoided all together. Also, the mother failed in letting her fourteen-year-old daughter just up and go on a date with a random guy that she met online. Yet the mother decides to complain and place all the blame solely on the social network. Really? Lets not take any blame for not watching what your fourteen-year-old daughter is doing on the computer. I do not believe this is something that Myspace should be blamed for the carelessness of parents. No, the pedophile was not in the right to do what he did, but at some point the parents have to step up and accept the responsibility.