So, baby,...your space or mine?

Did you hear the latest---well maybe not thee latest but one of them---in shameless irresponsibility? The case: Family sues social networking phenomenon MySpace for its child's hurt emotions. The facts: Said child misrepresented herself, id est lied, in creating an online profile and interacted with another older teenager. The claimed drama: The older teenager is of the opposite sex and purportedly sexually assaulted the latch-key liar.

Here we have a blatant example of American parents being too shameless (and litigious) to take responsibility for their daughter's actions. The girl, identified as Julie Doe because she is a minor, was 13 when she created a bogus MySpace profile representing herself as eighteen years old, in clear violation of the web site's requirement that users be at least fourteen. One of the many "friends" she attracted was 19 year old Pete Solis. The Internet generation collects friends like telemarketers gather databases.

After several weeks of cutesy, moronic online drivel the two met in person---like folks did before chat rooms and text messaging---in May 2006 and this is where the girl, by then 14, claimed to have been "sexually assaulted". What exactly that entails, I do not know. The news reports don't elaborate.

The family's $30 million suit was thankfully dismissed by a federal judge in Austin, Texas in February 2007. Then the U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled in favor of MySpace, reasoning, "If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe it was her parents, not MySpace."

But the 'Does' won't take common sense for an answer. They are sure their daughter is a clean-minded little damsel and, more importantly, that they are great parents. Oh? Imagination need not come into play here---unless one is trying to side with the guilt-ridden progenitors.

Julie Doe lied and tried to hunt with the big dogs when she ought to have had her pup butt roped to the porch. Now her immature feelings (and, presumably, virtue) are violated and only redeemable by some thirty million dollars. Mr Solis, on the other hand, faces a felony punishable by twenty years!

Grow up.

That message goes to the parents.

To Julie Doe, read about the little boy who cried, "Wolf!"