MySpace survives day in court

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Social networking giant MySpace was granted an early victory and perhaps some breathing room in one of a host of lawsuits and legal pressure being brought to bear. In Austin, TX this week, a judge dismissed a suit seeking $30 million from MySpace over the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year old girl by a 19-year old man. The suit charged that MySpace offered inadequate age verification measures, both allowing the girl to register before MySpace's permitted age of 14, and allowing the man to misrepresent himself as a younger student.

The federal judge in the case disagreed, saying that the US Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996 early after the emergence of the public Internet, offers legal protection for MySpace against these types of outside events. The logistics and inconvenience of fully reliable age verification "would of course stop MySpace's business in its tracks," Judge Sam Sparks declared. Among other provisions, the CDA attempts to exclude Web providers and other information intermediaries from actions involving content supplied by members.

MySpace is currently facing other lawsuits over related claims by others and a number of state governments are putting heavy pressure on MySpace to step up its age verification efforts. The plaintiffs in this case, the girl's family, have vowed to appeal. The ruling in this matter has no bearing on the original sex assault case. The alleged perpetrator's criminal court date has not yet taken place.

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