From an article on OhGizmo!, a discussion has started about the recent lawsuit started by 4 families against MySpace after their daughters were sexually abused by adults:

“In our view, MySpace waited entirely too long to attempt to institute meaningful security measures that effectively increase the safety of their underage users,” said Jason A. Itkin, an Arnold & Itkin lawyer.

The families are seeking monetary damages “in the millions of dollars,” Itkin said.

“Hopefully these lawsuits can spur MySpace into action and prevent this from happening to another child somewhere,” he said.

Don’t you have to love America, home of the ambulance chasing attorneys who will sue anyone for anything?  How about we sue the parents for not monitoring what their kids were doing on the internet or for not properly supervising them when they weren’t in school?

If you have children and you are truly concerned about what they are seeing and doing on the internet, crack down on their usage a bit more.  Put the computer in a communal part of your house, such as a living room or kitchen, or the den.  Password protect the computer and log it off after a certain time during the night and during the day when you the parent are not home but the child may be due to a school holiday or sickness. Consider installing software like Net Nanny to monitor your child’s online behaviors.  Above and beyond all that, talk to them, inform them of the dangers, let them know not to talk to strangers, have access to their email and other social network sites so you can keep up on them.  It may violate some of the trust that a child thinks they deserve, in the long run it will make everything a lot better.

Some resources on keeping kids safe on the internet:

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