Supreme Court Ruling - MySpace Assault Case

2008-11-24 16:03:03 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Law, News)

In a case filed against popular social networking site, MySpace, the Supreme Court has decided to uphold the ruling of a lower court that decided to dismiss the case.

WiredPRNews.com — As reported by Reuters, the high court upheld the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that the website was protected against the lawsuit brought by the mother of a teenage sexual assault victim, who had met her attacker on MySpace, by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The mother of the teenage girl claimed that MySpace fails to prevent sexual predators from contacting children despite knowing of their widespread existence on the site. Her daughter was 13 when she was contacted online by the 19 year-old who sexually assaulted her after meeting her in person. As noted in the Reuters report, the plaintiff in the case viewed the court’s interpretation of the section of the law as too broad and providing certain websites with complete immunity from legal suits involving the actions of their users.