MySpace's Tom: The New Virtual Parent?

MySpace don't love the kids, they love the money from advertisements. Just kidding Tom, don't delete my account. I know Myspace loves all 140 million of us. I am just paraphrasing what a lawyer said on Wednesday: "MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children". Duh, isn't making money the primary concern for all corporations? Does anyone know of a corporation that puts anything and I mean anything above money? The lawyer made this statement after parents of four girls filed lawsuits against MySpace on Wednesday because the girls were sexually assaulted by adults they met on MySpace (these are not the only lawsuits of this nature that MySpace is facing). What the lawyer didn't mention was the fact that these girls were underage (and by underage I mean 14 and under which is the age that profiles are supposed to be private) and probably accepted these men as their friends on MySpace.

Now who is to blame here? The girls that probably lied about their age when signing up for MySpace (so they could have a public profile) or the men? Granted, no one should ever be assaulted, but people need to be responsible for their own actions. Apparently these girls posted pictures of themselves in their skivvies having pillow fights. Why should Tom, the founder of MySpace, be responsible for this? The rules on MySpace clearly state that pictures should not be of sexual nature. Tom employs multiple people to search for these types of profiles and shut them down- but are we being realistic when we expect them to be able to constantly monitor 140 million profiles?!?

Secondly, where are these girls parents? Where are they when they are having almost nude pillow fights? Where are they when they are posting pictures of the almost nude pillow fights, and lastly, where are they when these girls were chatting with the men? If these parents are too busy/selfish/carefree/not concerned about the welfare of their child, then they shouldn't have children in the first place. Young children need rules and supervision. Since when is it a corporation's place to come into a private home and monitor and protect the kids? Myspace has parameters set up and suggestions of who and what you should and should not do on MySpace. Isn't that fair warning? Just like cigarette boxes warn of cancer- people still do it- and it was their choice! Myspace warns of what not to do and warns of creepy users- but people still do it. Yes, these men should be punished for their actions. I am not in any way saying their actions are justified but would they have targeted these children if they didn't have half-nude pictures up/if their profile was private and the children ignored or reported them? Probably not. And these children need to be punished for not following the rules.

Tom and Myspace could implement some kind of age verification mechanism, i.e. a user must enter their credit card or license number when creating a profile. If you implement such a system, you run the risk of losing a lot of users as people are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy. You would also lose the majority of your younger users as most may not have a credit card or a driver's license. So there goes a lot of your users (more users equal more advertisement dollars). This is a business Tom is trying to run. Myspace is supposed to be fun for it's users. Please- lets just follow it's rules and suggestions- and if you are harassed, sue the person harassing you and leave Tom out of it.