Lawsuit Against MySpace Dismissed! Lawsuit by 14 Year Old Alleging Sexual Assault Against Pete Solis and MySpace Dead in the Water   2/16/2007 - 2,302 views, 3 Comments

The $30million lawsuit claimed that MySpace was negligent in not verifying the age of its users, and the lawyer suggested that “MySpace is like a daycare facility” that didn’t adequately take care of its customers.

The judge, who apparently has far more of a clue than the lawyers (or the girls’ parents) said that requiring MySpace, which is protected under the Communications Decency Act, to fully verify the age of each of its users “would of course stop MySpace’s business in its track.”

In addition, it came out during the course of the filing (probably in MySpace or Pete Solis’ response) that the girl had lied about her age. In fact, she lied about her age twice - once to MySpace, because she was only 13 and MySpace requires that you be at least 14, and once to the world (including Pete Solis) because her profile claimed that she was 18.

Unfortunately for Solis, if he did have relations with the girl, that won’t stop him from falling to a statutory rape rap. Due to the statutory nature of that crime, a reasonable mistaken belief as to the minor’s age, and even consent on the part of the other party, is no defense. In fact, there is no defense to statutory rape other than that either both parties were minors, or neither party was a minor.