MySpace immune from strict product liability in connection with assault cases

MySpace Inc. is immune from strict product liability if an adult sexually assaults a minor in a meeting arranged through the Internet social networking site, a California appellate court has ruled.
The court ruled Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act (CDA) protects MySpace from product liability claims after female minors met with adult males they found on the site and were subsequently assaulted.
The cases of each of the four minors in question were grouped together in one action, Doe v. MySpace Inc. The appellants sued MySpace for negligence, gross negligence and strict product liability, arguing that their claims rested on “MySpace’s failure to institute reasonable measures to prevent older users from directly searching out, finding, and or communicating with minors.”
Immunity under s. 230 of the CDA requires proof of three elements, the court ruled:
•    MySpace must be an interactive services provider;
•    MySpace must not be an information content provider with respect to the disputed activity; and
•    MySpace cannot be held liable for information originating with a third-party user of its service.
The court found that parties harmed by publication of user-generated content do have recourse through suing the third-party users that generated the content. But the CDA does not allow aggrieved parties to sue the interactive service that enabled the third-party user to publish the content online.
Also, the court noted, the CDA grants immunity if the Web site is found to be exercising its function as a publisher.
“The real question…is whether [the] appellants seek to hold MySpace liable for failing to exercise a publisher’s traditional editorial functions, namely deciding whether to publish certain material or not,” the court said. “Because they do, section 230 immunizes MySpace from liability.”