You knew this was coming ... MySpace.com is being sued for $30 million by a 14-year-old Texas girl who says she was sexually assaulted by someone she met via the site—and by her mother. They claim MySpace was negligent for not verifying ages of users and for failing to prevent strangers from contacting users under 16. The defendants are MySpace, parent News Corp. and Pete Solis, the 19-year-old accused of sexually assaulting the teen. The girl’s lawyer said the damages requested reflect 1 percent of the site’s estimated worth.
MySpace has been targeted lately by some state attorneys general and others who say the site isn’t doing enough to protect users.
Update: MySpace is scheduled to announce a slew of new safety/security features Wednesday, including heigtened measures for the 14-15 year old set, new options for privacy and age-approporiate as placement. Anyone over 18 who wants to contact members under 16 will need to know first and last names or the email address in order to connect. The changes follow the hiring of former federal proscutor Hemanshu Nigam as chief security officer.